• Bus service to the airport starts Tuesday with four stops Downtown and several coming back at Airport Road hotels. There will be 11 buses daily and the Jacksonville Transportation Authority says they see success despite the failure of a similar project nine years ago. “The growth of the city makes it viable,” says the JTA’s Steve Arrington.
• The recent Food Fight fundraiser pulled in over $47,000 for Lutheran Social Services’ Food Bank.
• Good news at the dog track. The virus which hit the greyhounds is subsiding and they’re slowly getting back to a full schedule of races over on McDuff Avenue.
• Pathologist Brett Cantrell is the new chief of staff at St. Vincent’s.
• The local builders apparently outbuilt everyone else in last week’s Habitat International Blitz Build. They think they were No. 1 nationally with 22 builders putting up 30 homes.
• When Donna Hicken received the proceeds from the Association of Legal Administrators’ “Sidebar Savorings” cookbook for her foundation Tuesday, she inquired about its content: “But can lawyers cook?” An ALA member replied, “Haven’t you read the book?” Hicken confirmed that she was, indeed, kidding: Her father was a lawyer, she said – and “a great cook.”
• The cookbook is over an inch thick, too – and Hicken noticed. “Well, I always knew you were verbose,” she said. “But those are lengthy recipes.”
• Hicken gave ALA an update on her foundation, too. She said they’ve raised over a million dollars over the past three years.
• Gerald J. Pollack will be the symphony’s new chairman and starts his two-year term on July 1, leading into the 2006-07 season. Pollack recently retired from Rayonier.
• Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles Bronson is hosting a conference to discuss alternative energy programs in Orlando Aug. 31 - Sept. 1. Researchers, industry reps and policy makers will discuss the production, distribution and use of fuels like ethanol and biodiesel in Florida. “The time for discussing the need for alternative energies is over,” Bronson said. “Now we must take steps to bring the ideas to fruition.” Several companies have already announced plans to build ethanol plants in the state, according to a press release.
• Looking for biodiesel right now? Jacksonville doesn’t have a retail biodiesel fueling site yet, according to www.biodiesel.org. The Web site lists 10 stations in Florida, and the closest one to Jacksonville is Freedom Fuels, Inc. in Gainesville. The Florida city with the most stations? How about Perry, Fla. – with a population of 6,847 according to the 2000 Census – which has four biodiesel sites.
• St. Johns County is facing an operation deficit in the next few years if changes aren’t made to its budget. At a fiscal impact analysis workshop Wednesday Commissioner Ben Rich said the county is “one 9/11 away from being back in the hole again.”
• Cathy Brown, the executive director of the St. Johns County Council of Aging, offered an anecdotal sentiment at the fiscal meeting in St. Augustine Wednesday. In regards to the influx of people moving into Florida, she said her grandfather once said the best way to handle the Florida “mess,” was to outlaw air conditioners and mosquito control.
The new Downtown This Week is out and the cover story is about The Carling. The magazine is free and available all over Downtown.