• Our Port Authority is on pace to set another record for the amount of cargo shipped through Jacksonville. The projection is 8.6 million tons, about 1.5 million tons over last year and 21 percent increase over the past five years.
• When Jax Federal Credit Union moves into its new location across the lobby at One Independent Square, the office at the lobby’s southwest corner won’t be vacant long. First Coast Security is closing its Southpoint office and moving Downtown into the former credit union location. FCS has the security services contract for the building and they’re moving the operation Downtown to be easier to find staff and recruits.
• You may have noticed more seating has been added to the area around Hemming Plaza. Four new picnic tables have been placed outside of the building that houses Inside Golf, Subway and other restaurants on West Monroe Street.
• Theatre Jacksonville in San Marco is offering acting classes for both children and adults this fall. The three children’s classes are for ages 7-16 and the two adult classes are open to students age 16 and up. For more information on the different classes call 396-4425.
• Tuesday’s City Note about local college athletes doing well in the classroom should have referred to the student-athletes at the University of North Florida, not UF.
• Volunteer Jacksonville announced a new program called “Pets are Worth Saving” to raise money to provide various types of safety equipment to be used on animals of all shapes and sizes. Volunteer Jacksonville is looking for donations to help provide three different sized oxygen masks on every emergency rescue vehicle in the areas that serve the First Coast. The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department is working with Volunteer Jacksonville on this program to ensure their personnel is trained to use the equipment.
• The Riverwalk view of the T-U headquarters wasn’t supposed to exist. Riverwalk planners originally agreed to construct walls along the riverside path. “The Florida Times-Union was very concerned that pedestrians would get a bad impression of the paper because of the trucks,” said Melody Bishop, Riverwalk architect. But when construction of the walls was held off, Bishop said the newspaper let Riverwalk planners provide some landscaping instead. The reasoning? Most adults were more concerned with the river view than the T-U parking lot, and little kids thought the trucks were cool.
• Actually, kids like to watch a lot of non-aquatic action on the Riverwalk. Bishop said families often stake out a spot near the train tracks or bridges so kids can wave as drivers pass by.
• “You’ve got a trashy city.” That’s from Mack Bissette, chief executive officer of SRG Homes & Neighborhoods on Jacksonville’s litter problem after Tuesday’s Affordable Housing Task Force meeting at City Hall. Bissette, whose company was based in Atlanta and now has offices in Jacksonville, compared the two cities and said Jacksonville needs more frequent trash pick-ups. He said the trash problem sends some developers and potential home buyers running to other locations.
• Monday is Retired Employees of the Consolidated City of Jacksonville Day, at least in 1999 it was. Former Mayor John Delaney signed a proclamation May 5, 1999 declaring it so, but it’s not on the City books for this year, however the Retired Employees Association sent out their newsletter in July congratulating members.
• The Jacksonville Economic Development Commission will meet Thursday at 9 a.m. in the City Hall Annex. The big agenda item is the new Landing deal.