• No one wants to talk about it, but the rumor’s hot about the Hyatt chain getting involved with a hotel here. The prime candidate is the Adam’s Mark and mum’s the word there.
• How was your weekend? Probably not as good as the one person who hit the Tri-Super bet at the dog track worth over $69,000 on Sunday.
• A busload of Kansas tourists visited Garden Week at the Cummer and one nice lady inquired if that was the Atlantic Ocean out there. No, m’am, just a river.
• Downtown Development Authority Chairman Bob Rhodes has joined the law firm of Foley and Lardner. After recently turning down a job offer from the mayor’s office, Rhodes will work in land use and corporate law for the firm. Rhodes was formerly employed as corporate counsel at St. Joe.
• Of all the people who helped put together the City’s pending deal with LandMar to develop The Shipyards, JEDC Commissioner Charles Appleby merited special recognition from Commission Chairman Ceree Harden. Why? Because Appleby was the only one working for free. He volunteered his time to help the mayor’s office with negotiations.
• In case you weren’t paying attention during Saturday’s Gate River Run, some City Hall faces were going the 9.3 mile distance. City Council members Kevin Hyde, Jerry Holland, Daniel Davis and Lake Ray were there. Kevin Holzendorf,
a policy director in the Mayor’s Office, also made the trek.
• The jazz festival will go across the river this year as one of the venues will be Friendship Foundation. There also will be performances at Metro Park and the Ritz.
• One of our baseball traditions is underway as Suns’ General Manager Peter Bragan is making the rounds of local elementary schools to read the famed “Casey at the Bat” poem and challenge the kids to read books. Those who succeed get invited to a Suns’ game. This is Pedro’s 16th year in the schools.
• Andy Johnson is without a radio talk show after his last station was sold and the new owners wouldn’t make a deal, but he says he’ll be back soon. But his footwork won’t be fancy — he broke two bones in a fall while going out to get the morning newspaper on a recent Sunday.
• Springtime brings charity golf tournaments and dinners, which means merchants are getting asked for silent auction donations. One San Marco store reported that five requests were made in one day last week.
• Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings was in town again last week for the opening of the Jacksonville Women’s Business Center (see page 7.) That makes three trips to Jacksonville in the past two weeks for Jennings. “If she spends any more time here, we will start charging her taxes,” quipped Mayor Peyton, who was also at the grand opening event.
• New operators at the city’s golf course took over this weekend. The PGA Tour is out, Billy Casper Golf is in at the Golf Club of Jacksonville on the westside.