• This week’s jury pool produced some interesting characters. One showed up with flip-flops, another brought a cooler and another showed up with a “How to Get a Job For Dummies” book.
• Word is May 16 is the big day for Base Realignment and Closure news and it could get interesting around here. Apparently, the USS Kennedy will stay at Mayport for a couple years while that base is converted into nuclear capable and NAS Jacksonville appears safe, as well. It’s the Naval Air Depot, the Navy’s aircraft repair base at NAS, that may be in trouble.
• The Police and Fire Pension Fund has issued a Request for Proposals in an effort to find a property management group to oversee the Bisbee, Marble Bank and Florida Life Buildings once they are refurbished. The Fund, which acquired the buildings late last year, said they look forward to finding a suitable third party within a few months.
• Hurricane season is still a bit away but City Council member Sharon Copeland hopes JEA will update their current policies sooner rather than later so so that homeowners who use wells as their sole potable water source are given special consideration when power is restored after a storm. “This should then result in the customer being flagged as having a greater need,” Copeland wrote in a letter to JEA CEO Jim Dickinson. “They should be put on a priority list.”
• Former NBC News President Michael Gartner will be the speaker at Florida Coastal School of Law’s commencement on May 14 at the UNF Arena.
• Not sure if they have ever squared off, but Council members Reggie Fullwood and Daniel Davis both have chess sets in their offices.
• There’s a Hard Hat Tour of the new main library on May 26 at 6 p.m. A reception at JMOMA will follow.
• The Chamber’s next Business After Hours is set for May 25 and it’s at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens. Guest speakers include Mayor John Peyton, Zoo Executive Director Dennis Pate, Zoo board chairman John Hayt and Ed Burr, CEO of LandMar and incoming Chamber president. All those that attend will get to feed the giraffes at their new exhibit.
• Congratulations to Nelson Cuba, the Fraternal Order of Police president received the president’s law enforcement award for community service from the League of United Latin American Citizens. Cuba will receive the award in late June at LULAC’s 76th national convention in Little Rock, Ark.
• Michael Payne, the former executive administrator for the City’s Office of Faith and Community Based Partnerships, left the City job after six months to be closer to his family in West Palm, according to the mayor’s office.
LATE SCORES
National League
Washington 5
Los Angeles 2
Southern League
Montgomery 2
Jacksonville 1