• Michael Herzberg, a longtime employee of the City’s Planning and Development Department, resigned Tuesday afternoon, catching several City Council members by surprise. Herzberg made it official during a meeting that afternoon with Mayor John Peyton.
• Anyone looking for some insight into the Florida Gators upcoming football season might want to give Jacksonville Legal Aid consumer law attorney Lynn Drysdale a call. Drysdale and her mother were among 600 women who participated last weekend in the Gators’ annual football camp for women. Drysdale shuttled through offensive and defensive drills, hit the weight room and broke down game tape all under the watchful eye of Gators coaches including Head Coach Urban Meyer. The camp reached its high point when Drysdale charged out of the locker room onto the field as the P.A. system blared “Here come the Gators.”
• Duval County Property Appraiser Jim Overton was elected to serve as Treasurer on the Executive Board of the Florida Association of Property Appraisers (FAPA) at their Post-Legislative Conference in Palm Coast last week.
• City Council member Richard Clark introduced legislation at Tuesday evening’s Council meeting that would appoint former Clerk of the Court Henry Cook to the Council on Elder Affairs. Barring complications, the bill should pass by early August.
• Work to convert one block of Laura Street near the new Main Library for two-way traffic has been delayed by at least a month. Originally planned for completion by early July, the project stalled after it became clear that the required signage and street poles had been placed on back order.
• City Hall was evacuated late Monday afternoon after a mysterious package was left on the first floor. Employees were told to exit at about 5 p.m. though no one was hurt and the package was later found to be harmless.
• Frustrations over the proposed homeless shelter in Springfield have reached the Florida Department of State. Louise DeSpain, president of Springfield Preservation and Restoration Council, originally wrote a letter to Gov. Jeb Bush in an effort to have the former Job Corps Building added to the National Registry. He forwarded it to Secretary of State Glenda Hood to review the issue further. A staffer in Hood’s office concluded that converting the building into a shelter would have an adverse effect on the neighborhood and that any plans to convert it would have to be reviewed by the State.
• The mayor’s citizen advisory group for downtown’s urban core is backing a plan to use Hogans Creek as the centerpiece for a downtown park. The Citizens Planning Advisory Committee has met with Mayor John Peyton about the idea and spoke to the Downtown Development Authority Wednesday. The plan has a long way to go though. Just the environmental clean up on Hogans Creek is expected to cost around $5 million.
• The Downtown Development Authority is seeking a little more input into the selection process for the developer of the Haydon Burns Library. A city committee of representatives from the Office of the General Counsel, the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission and the city’s purchasing department will interview the three finalists to develop the property July 8. At DDA board member Roland Udenze’s request, DDA members will be able to submit questions for those interviews. “A member of the OGC or purchasing might not have some of the same concerns for the project as a member of the DDA,” explained DDA vice chairman David Auchter.
LATE SCORES
National League
Colorado 6
Houston 5
San Diego 8
Los Angeles Dodgers 3
San Francisco 11
Arizona 3
American League
Oakland 8
Seattle 1
Southern League
Jacksonville 13
Huntsville 8