• Kernan Boulevard is getting two new traffic signals by the end of the year and the $580,000 project marks the official beginning of the widening of the much-traveled road. JEA will start burying utilities this summer and the $58.5 million Better Jacksonville Plan-funded project is scheduled to be completed in mid-2009.
• The big expansion project at The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens won’t be publicly unveiled until December, but the museum is holding a VIP-only “Sneak Peek Hard Hat Party” Aug. 4. The expansion will include 16,000 square feet of new space and partygoers will get a glimpse of the gallery’s premier exhibit, “Temples and Tombs: Egyptian Treasures from the British Museum.”
• In Tuesday’s paper we told you how much money candidates for local office had in their campaign coffers. We should have also told you that information is detailed on the Supervisor of Elections’ Web site at www.coj.net/Departments/Supervisor+of+Elections.
• When the Main Library requested cafe proposals from the public last year, they received just two bids. Steve Hicks, bid-winner and owner of the planned Shelby’s Coffee Shoppe, said he thinks there may be several reasons for the limited response. “I think a lot of people were number crunchers and they didn’t take everything into consideration,” he said. Hicks added that some people are deterred by the homeless population near the Downtown Library. “But I’ve been Downtown a lot lately, and I do not see that as a problem,” he said. “We have more of a problem with that at the beach.” The original Shelby’s is in Neptune Beach.
• Women can get a little pampering at the Speaking of Women’s Health 2006 conference Aug. 19 at the Hyatt. The event will have speakers, breakout sessions about healthy lifestyles and a pampering gift bag. Keynote speakers include Becky Singleton, CEO of Urban Fitness Connection Inc., who also created the fitness video, “Just Like You,” and Christine Cashen, award-winning international speaker who will discuss how humor can improve health. Tickets can be purchased through TV-7.
• Smells like a bus – or a French fry? The Jacksonville Transportation Authority is considering a plan to use a bio-diesel mixture of 50 percent petroleum-based fuel and 50 percent soy-based fuel. Spokesman Mike Miller said that the current buses could start using the mixture immediately without any modifications. He also said that the JTA is considering a fleet of hybrid (fuel and electric) buses but it may be a while before that happens. Hybrids cost $800,000 each compared to $300,000 each for diesel-powered vehicles.