• Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio isn’t the only one answering questions about the team’s lopsided loss to New England last Saturday. Ch. 4 sports anchor Sam Kouvaris was grilled on the subject when he stepped into the San Marco Subway Tuesday night. Kouvaris dismissed rationalizations (injuries, weather) offered by employees and customers and instead offered his own insight — the team didn’t play very well.
• LandMar met its first deadline on its development of the Shipyards site. As required by its development agreement for the East Bay Street parcel, LandMar provided the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission with preliminary design work before the end of 2005. JEDC Executive Director Ron Barton said the Shipyards’ first signs of life should be evident in 2006 as the development’s first phase starts to come out of the ground.
• Like father, like son. Ronnie Roberts has taken over the cooking chores at his late father’s favorite charity, a “Western” to benefit the Vision Is Priceless Council. His dad was Tax Collector Lynwood Roberts; Ronnie works at Miller Electric.
• The City has several shows on the cable public access channels and one is going away: “Jacksonville On The Move” with Carolyn Broughton. She’ll still be in the City’s Neighborhoods Department, but only as an administrator rather than being a TV hostess, too.
• TV coverage of The Players Championship will resemble the Masters when the new network contracts start in 2007. The Players will shift to the second week in May and the TV coverage will have a limited amount of commercials, just like the famed Masters in Augusta.
• Jacksonville Fire and Rescue is preparing to update its TriData report, which will help guide the department hiring, training and the location of its stations. The original report was completed in 2001 and was planned for updates at five-year intervals. The update will cost $89,050.
• City Council members Lake Ray and Suzanne Jenkins will be the speakers at next Friday’s First Coast Tiger Bay Club meeting at the University Club. Lunch is served at 11:30 and the program gets underway at noon. Jenkins and Ray will address the transportation needs of Jacksonville.
• A recent decision by the National Association of Credit Unions will make it easier for Jax Federal Credit Union to attract customers. The credit union has been approved for a charter meaning about 1.2 million people in the five-county Northeast Florida area are now eligible to join.
• BB&T Corporation is planning a major expansion in the Jacksonville area over the next 4-5 years and will kick off that expansion when they hold the grand opening a new financial center on Roosevelt Boulevard near NAS next Friday. It’ll be a pre-Super Bowl party from 3-6 p.m. The bank plans to open 19 new branches in the Jacksonville area, creating 120 new jobs in the process.
• The Society for Creative Anarchronism will present Blood, Sweat and Steel at the Jacksonville Public Library from 1-5 p.m. Saturday in the New Main Library teen room. Visitors will be treated to a medieval fighting demonstration. Call 630-0673 for more information.
• Speaking of the Main Library, something neat to look at while you are standing in the customer service line. Five flat-screen TVs behind the counter depict — in time-lapse fashion — the construction the library.
• One more. Yes, the fountain on the second floor has been jumped in to. A few kids and they were quickly escorted out by security.
• Bob Rhodes is a man of many titles: of counsel with Foley & Lardner, former managing director of the Downtown Development Authority, current JEDC commissioner. Now you can add one more. JEDC Chairman Ceree Harden dubbed Rhodes the “father of 380,” referring to the chapter of Florida land management law that has recently helped guide City policy on the Southbank. Rhodes authored the statute in 1972. JEDC commissioner David Auchter jokingly suggested “grandfather of 380,” and later Harden contemplated a hipper tag: “brother of 380.”
• Speaking of the DDA, its dissolution temporarily left the City without an appeal forum for Design Review Committee decisions. The JEDC will now fill the appellate role. Developers wanting to challenge DRC rulings have 14 days to appeal to the JEDC. If still not satisfied, they have 14 days to appeal to the City Council.