• Shotsie Main, one of the staffers in the Jacksonville Bar Association office, celebrated her 10th anniversary there last week.
• The Phantom returns next year. The FCCJ Artist Series is bring back “Phantom of the Opera” next summer for a three-week run. We hear “The Lion King” is on the 2006-07 schedule, too.
• Farewell, Adam’s Mark. The flower-like logos were removed from the hotel exterior over the weekend.
• The Jacksonville Rugby Football Club is one step closer to a national title after a 38-13 victory against Triad RFC in Greensboro this weekend. Jacksonville will be heading to Danville, Va. in two weeks for the semifinal and final rounds of the USA Rugby South tournament. If successful in Virginia, the team will travel to Omaha, Neb. for the national tournament.
• The JEDC is still at least a month away from approving its new development incentive policies but Council member Mia Jones already wants changes. She said the current draft is unfair to poor neighborhoods because it doesn’t allow projects that get infrastructure grants to get development incentives also. Developers in distressed neighborhoods are the most likely to seek infrastructure grants, she reasons.
• The JEDC has made one change to City incentives; it switched their name. They’re not called “development incentives” any more, now they’re called “public investment.”
• The VyStar Credit Union opens its downtown center on the 28th. They’ll cut the ribbon on Forsyth between Hogan and Laura about 10 a.m.
• The sneak preview of the Symphony Showhouse will be April 29 in the newly-designed rooms at VillaRiva, the giant condo building next to St. Vincent’s. The chairs include Bob and Carol Shircliff, who we hear are among those who will move into the building when it’s ready later this year.
• Congratulations to Carol Owens in the City’s Legislative Services division. She’s been recommended for the Assistant Chief of Legislative Services position. Owens joined the City five years ago after a career in the Navy that took her to Kuwait to participate in the Gulf War, Greece and London.
• Attendance was a little lighter than usual at the local leg of the nationwide Torch Run. Every year, law enforcement agencies from across the country run a relay of sorts, passing a torch from community to community to raise money for the Special Olympics. Apparently the Friday morning start conflicted with some law enforcement meetings and an FBI golf tournament.
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