• Regardless who wins the May 15 City Council elections, this year will tie the mark for the most turnover on Council with 10 new members. Eight current Council members are term-limited, Reggie Fullwood resigned to run for the State Legislature and Sharon Copeland chose not to seek re-election. The last time there was this much turnover? Eight years ago, the first year term limits went into effect.
• In early November the Paso Fine Horse Association is holding its 2007 Mundial Event in Jacksonville and so many are coming the Jacksonville & the Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau is looking to Orange Park for help with hotel rooms. According to Katie Kurycki of the CVB, 4,222 rooms have been reserved in Jacksonville and another 1,970 in Clay County.
• The Jacksonville branch of H&R Block Mortgage Corporation is shutting its doors. The closure takes effect July 2 and 63 employees — 44 of them loan officers — will be out of a job.
• The last of the City agencies bound for the Ed Ball Building has moved in. Those vacating the Annex for the Ed Ball Building include: building inspection division/building code enforcement, zoning/zoning code enforcement, concurrency, development management group, the fire marshal’s office of the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department, the Tax Collector’s satellite office and the addressing section of the planning and development department.
• State Rep. Stan Jordan has asked Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos to give some thought to allowing eastbound traffic on the Mathews Bridge from 4-7 p.m. “The current plan leaves much to be desired,” said Jordan, whose district includes most of Arlington.
• Greenscape of Jacksonville’s Annual meeting and luncheon is May 18 at The Marriott Hotel at Southpoint. Registration begins at 11:30 a.m. and lunch is served at noon. Some highlights include the Tree Giveaway and keynote speaker Bob Chabot, director of Horticulture and Facilities at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens. Tickets must be purchased in advance. For more information call 398-5757.
• City Council member Art Graham decided last Thursday to put his money where his mouth is. At the 2nd Annual Beaches Broadway Bash for the Boys & Girls Club of Northeast Florida, Graham announced that if $25,000 was raised at the event, he would match it. The event itself raised $20,000 through ticket sales and another $20,000 came in through pledges after Graham’s announcement. According to Andrea Siracusa with the Boys & Girls Club, Graham hasn’t made the donation yet, as the method of payment is still being determined, but will shortly. The funds will benefit the club’s Renovation Project.
“A humane and generous concern for every individual, his health and his fulfillment, will do more to soothe the savage heart than the fear of state-inflicted death, which chiefly serves to remind us how close we remain to the jungle.”
– Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General