• Monday morning’s Mayor’s budget address marked the first time the 2007-2011 Council had convened as a group in the chamber. When Council President Daniel Davis called for Council members to record their presence at the proceeding he said, “It’s the yellow button for you new guys.”
• Also at Monday’s budget address, former Council member Warren Alvarez was spotted in the audience. “I was happy to be sitting in the back of the room for this one,” he remarked.
• Today at the Laura Street Gallery, Emily Lisska, executive director of the Jacksonville Historical Society, will be giving half-hour history lessons on Jacksonville from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. On Thursday Neil Armingeon, St. Johns Riverkeeper; Julia Canipelli, of Julia’s Digs Landscaping & Lawn Maintenance; and a representative from Jacksonville Sister Cities will all be speaking between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. For more information, visit www.laurastreetgallery.com.
• U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown has weighed in on Jacksonville’s budget woes. In a letter to Mayor John Peyton, Brown expressed her frustration at the proposed cuts that will affect service organizations and public safety. “How ironic that we tout the city’s quality of life, livability and safety, then usher in an era of drastic and draconian cuts in programs and services,” wrote Brown.
• Rome Perfume Shop at the Landing is for sale. The owners are asking $24,000 for the 380 square-foot shop.
• Sunday, several from the Jacksonville Fire & Rescue Department are heading to Camp Amigo, a burn camp for children 6-18 years old. Camp Amigo is in the Panhandle area, in Cape San Blas and operated by firefighters from Jacksonville and Tallahassee. This is the fifth year a contingent from Jacksonville will participate in the camp and they are taking 38 boxes of water each with 25-30 bottles of water.
• The Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville will show “Akeelah and the Bee” at 7 p.m. Wednesday as a part of its Summer Cinema.
• The Early Learning Coalition (ELC) of Duval County and the Jacksonville Public Library are registering children for the voluntary pre-kindergarten program from Aug. 6-20 as a part of its effort to reach out to parents of pre-school age children in Duval County. Parents may sign-up their children who are at least 4 years old at any ELC offices in Duval County or at five specific branch libraries. For more information on enrollment or on the five participating branch libraries, visit www.elcofduval.org.
“Our domestic problems are for the most part economic. We have our enormous debt to pay, and we are paying it. We have the high cost of government to diminish, and we are diminishing it. We have a heavy burden of taxation to reduce, and we are reducing it. But while remarkable progress has been made in these directions, the work is yet far from accomplished.”
– Calvin Coolidge’s message to Congress at the beginning of the second session of the Sixty-eighth Congress (Dec. 3, 1924).