• The next Art Walk is Aug. 2 and the Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art needs a lot of volunteers: three bartenders, three to sell drink tickets, two greeters, one to sell film tickets and one to take them up.
• BellSouth state boss Marshall Criser III is in town to look over the kingfish tournament, which his company sponsors. The Miami-based Criser also got in a bit of redfish angling with phone company pals.
• Reminder: the Chamber’s Downtown Council meets Friday morning at TV-7, not at the River City Brewing Company.
• Departing emergency preparedness chief Chip Patterson has asked Mayor John Peyton to sign a non-City employment request. According to the request, Patterson would like to go to work for his new employer — J.B. Coxwell Contracting, Inc. – before leaving the City. Patterson, who will be the Director of Disaster Services for Coxwell, has indicated he’d work for Coxwell nights, weekends or during personal leave time.
• Speaking of Peyton, he has appointed Kelley Boree as the new deputy director for the Department of Parks, Recreation, Entertainment and Conservation. After approval by City Council, Boree will report to parks director John Culbreth. Boree, who joined the City in February 2003 as a recreational planner, will make $97,000 annually.
• J. M. Salon De Arte pulled a Baltimore Colts recently. A truck pulled up to the back door and moved out of the salon in the Plaza at Berkman Marina in the middle of the night two weeks ago. According to some of the neighbors, everything appeared to be normal on Saturday, but by Monday morning all the people and equipment were gone. The hair salon and day spa opened in July, 2005. The Colts, you’ll remember, moved from Baltimore to Indianapolis in a similar fashion.
• Another Berkman note: GQ’s Cafe and Wine Bar has plans to remove one of the front windows and replace it with French doors. A cobblestone walkway is also in the works that would allow diners to get into the restaurant from Bay Street and some outdoor tables with umbrellas.
• The new Lowe’s on Philips Highway will hold its grand opening ceremony Aug. 9 but there won’t be a ribbon-cutting. In Lowe’s tradition, store manager Angela Woerman will hold a “board-cutting” instead.
• The Investiture ceremony for new County Court Judge Kevin Blazs is set for Aug. 10 at 4 p.m. in courtroom 4 of the County Courthouse.
• First Bank of Jacksonville has opened a loan production office in Gainesville. Laura Fuller will run the commercial loan office for First Bank which specializes in real estate.
• Historic footsteps in Jacksonville. Today, Americans celebrate the 27th anniversary of astronaut Neil Armstrong’s first step on the moon, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” There is evidence of some historic footsteps at the old Florida National Bank (aka the Marble Bank Building) at the corner of Laura and Forsyth streets. While you can’t enter the structure since it is a designated construction zone, if you step onto the threshold on Forsyth, you can feel the depression in the marble caused by millions of passing shoes since the building opened in 1902.
• Spring cleaning in July. It’s not uncommon to see trucks parked in front of the Florida Theatre to load in a show, but this week there has been a big trash container parked there. They are cleaning out some storage areas and throwing away some old stage rigging and other junk, some of which has been warehoused in the building for more than 10 years.
• Ricky Webb, Rudy Webb, Craig Ross and Darren Mace won a free golf game at the Golf Club at South Hampton recently, and helped raise $58,000 for the Women and Children’s Center of Jacksonville. The team, from R. L. Webb Stucco, played in Trinity Rescue Mission’s inaugural golf tournament.
• Scott Wood, owner of C. W. Wood Plumbing Contractors and 2006 chair of the Northeast Florida Builders Association Apprentice Plumbing Committee recently received a mentorship award for his work with State Attorney Harry Shorstein’s Inside/Outside program which calls on volunteers from the community to meet with juvenile offenders and build relationships that benefit the participants and ultimately the community.
• The names of this year’s inductees into the Georgia-Florida Hall of Fame were announced Wednesday and all four come from the offensive side of the ball. Florida wide receivers Ike Hilliard and Lee McGriff are in and they’ll be joined by Georgia running backs Willie McClendon and Rodney Hampton. The Hall of Fame induction luncheon is set for Oct. 27 at Alltel Stadium, the day before the annual Georgia-Florida game.
• TV-30/47 General Manager Susan Adams Loyd is leaving the station in August. She’ll return to her hometown of Minneapolis where she’ll be the vice-president and general manager of CBS owned-and-operated affiliate WCCO. Loyd has been with the local station since January of 2000.