• East Bay Street, or at least its sidewalk, is starting to resemble the entertainment corridor the City has for years envisioned. Mark’s, a Bay Street bar, is setting out furniture on the walk to create an outdoor happy hour lounge. And next door bar TSI now has a sort of drive-thru window serving the sidewalk. Word is that the bars are drawing decent crowds on weekends, with lines extending down the sidewalk on occasion.
• The Meninak Club will award $25,000 worth of scholarships to five area high school kids at its meeting Monday. The students are from Fletcher, Raines, Stanton, Paxon and Nease high schools.
• JEDC Executive Director Ron Barton told Jacksonville architect Taylor Hardwick that reports of the Hardwick-designed Friendship Fountains demise have been greatly exaggerated. Barton said the City is looking to update the Southbank fountains and surrounding park, not tear them down. Barton is setting up a meeting with Hardwick and City Parks Director John Culbreth to discuss plans for the park. You might recall that the City and Hardwick have tangled before over development plans for the Haydon Burns library, which Hardwick considers his masterpiece design.
• At tonight’s Lincoln Day Dinner at the Hyatt guest speaker Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, will be given a key to the city by Mayor John Peyton.
• Clarification. In a City Note Wednesday about the proposed Wal-Mart in Neptune Beach we said about 250 letters and e-mails have been sent to NB City Hall about the project. According to Neptune Beach Council member Harriet Pruett, 10-12 of them are in favor of the store.
• Council member Daniel Davis laid out a pretty convincing argument in response to a citizen’s complaint about City money helping pay to build a gym at First Timothy Baptist Church. Complaints have centered around the City’s possible interference in the private marketplace and possible church-and-state-separation issues. But Davis explained his support for the gym as follows: “Children in these poor neighborhoods don’t care if they are playing basketball in a gym on City property or on private property. They are just glad to be in a good environment... A good thing is happening in their community. I’d vote for it again.”
• CSX CEO Michael Ward is playing golf today. No big deal except he’s at Augusta National, home of The Masters.
• City Council President Kevin Hyde has been asked by the mayor’s office to identify seven positions within the legislative branch that can be eliminated. The cuts are another facet of the mayor’s office’s overall plan to reduce costs.
• No, it’s not the latest idea to help cover the $30 million shortfall in the City budget. The art sale yesterday and today at City Hall is a fundraiser for the United Way. Joe Banks with Books Are Fun, a division of Reader’s Digest, is selling framed art and prints in a room off the rotunda. Banks said there are 400 similar shows nationwide each year and the Reader’s Digest also has divisions that sell books, jewelry and bath and beauty products with a portion of the proceeds benefiting charities.
• Today’s Farmers Market at Hemming Plaza will have an Earth Day theme. You can also drop off used cell phones to benefit the American Legion’s Soldiers 4 Soldiers program. The phones are recycled in an environmentally-correct way and the proceeds from selling the components are used to provide soldiers overseas with calling cards.
• Speaking of the Farmer’s Market, there will be a special Farmer’s Market Tuesday at the Landing. Expect to see some of the vendors who participate on Fridays at Hemming Plaza.
• Commissioners on the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission didn’t like the mayor’s plan to take away from the JEDC the Northwest Jacksonville Economic Development Trust Fund and its accompanying small business incentive programs. But they got some good news from the mayor’s office as well. The City plans to create similar incentive programs for use across the county. The only thing these “mirror programs” are lacking? Money. The City doesn’t have funding to pay for them.
• How does JEDC commission member Charlie Appleby compare his style to fellow commissioner Bob Rhodes? Rhodes’ ideas are typically “more considered and measured,” said Appleby. “While I go with more of a shock-and-awe approach.”
• Author James Patterson — “Kiss the Girls,” “The 5th Horseman” and “Big Bad Wolf” among many others — will be the keynote speaker at this year’s Celebrate the Authors Evening May 12 at the Main Library. The event is sponsored by the Jacksonville Public Library Foundation and supports the PLF’s Much Ado About Books program.