• An apparent misunderstanding literally left at least one area business high and dry last week. JEA scheduled and advertised a water outage on Hendricks Ave. but the popular Mexican restaurant, La Nopalera, didn’t get the message. The restaurant, which was in the middle of planning some Cinco De Mayo festivities, starting panicking after their taps went dry, but luckily water was restored about 30 minutes later.
• Tina Markowitz of Coldwell Banker Walter Williams Realty won a $34,000 Mercedes in a contest sponsored by OakLeaf Plantation developers. Markowitz won in a drawing that let realtors place one of their business cards in a box for every prospect they brought to the Westside residential development.
• One more football game is on our local schedule: Bethune-Cookman will play South Carolina State at Alltel Stadium on Sept. 17.
• The Chamber’s Military Appreciation Luncheon is June 23 and the speaker will be Adm. John B. Nathman, the commander of the U.S. Fleet Forces.
• Chamber Government Affairs staffer Amy Tuck Whitman says she didn’t take this week off to recover from the legislature. She’s been in Washington on a lobbying trip.
• Congratulations to Annette Hastings. She was voted in Tuesday night as the new executive director of the Duval County Tourist Development Council.
• The Florida Theatre box office was closed for a few hours Tuesday afternoon while a reception was held to honor a departing employee. Saundra Floyd, a longtime director of rental operations at the theater, retires after several years on the job and, in addition to throwing her the party, her co-workers arranged to have the marquee outside flash messages to commend her on a job well done.
• The chambers at City Hall will be abuzz with activity Friday but it will have nothing to do with the Shipyards, the proposed Fuller Warren Bridge pier or the Better Jacksonville Plan. City Council member Sharon Copeland will be hosting some third and fourth grade students from Don Brewer Elementary School, who will be holding a mock Council meeting that afternoon. Making appearances at the meeting will be various Council members, Randy White from the Fire and Rescue Department and Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland.
• Jim McCollum, chair of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Government Affairs Committee, couldn’t help but crack a joke while listening to Sheriff John Rutherford explain how Tasers work. Just as Rutherford started to expound on the weapon’s capabilities, McCollum interrupted saying that he felt like he was on television program “Law and Order: CSI.”
LATE SCORES
Southern League
Montgomery 8
Jacksonville 2