• Brenda Carey, chair of the Seminole County Board of County Commissioners, has scheduled a stakeholder meeting to discuss her county’s plans to draw an average of 5.5 million gallons of water a day from the St. Johns River. The meeting is set for 11 a.m. March 6 at the Seminole County Government Building in Sanford. In a letter to University of North Florida President and former Mayor John Delaney, who also chairs the St. Johns River Alliance, Carey says she wants to engage the entire region. “Before we consider litigation, we owe it to our citizens to work together on a viable solution,” the letter states. The Yankee Lake consumptive use permit is the first of many proposed projects to siphon water from the river, an option the St. Johns River Managment District says can be safe up to 255 million gallons a day. The District board is scheduled to vote on the permit March 11.
• JTA has been chosen by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to administer the Job Access and Reverse Commute (JAR) and New Freedom programs, which strive to improve access to employment for low-income individuals and to transport residents of urbanized areas to suburban employment opportunities. JTA will be responsible for ensuring $1.3 million in funds are distributed on an equitable basis and that the program objectives are met. Projects to be funded will be competitively selected through an application process by the Northeast Florida Mobility Coalition.
• Mayor John Peyton will host the quarterly meeting of the Mayor’s Older Buddies program with a celebration at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Metropolitan Park. The meeting includes a special presentation on City services. Lunch will be served, and reservations are required. Peyton holds these quarterly meetings featuring topics pertinent to seniors, including the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan, volunteering, literacy and scams and fraud. More than 600 seniors typically participate. For more information or for reservations, call 630-7392.
• Wednesday’s ArtWalk will have a distinctive river theme. In addition to free guided boat tours leaving from the Landing and provided by St. Johns Riverkeeper, a 30-foot mixed media creation that’s the product of six months of work by students at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts will be on display. ArtWalk runs from 5-8 p.m. and incorporates more than 30 Downtown venues.
• Comedian/actor Bill Cosby will be in town April 12 as the featured entertainment at a benefit hosted by Florida Community College at Jacksonville President Steve Wallace, the Florida Community College District Board of Directors and the Foundation Board of Directors. The event is at the Times-Union Center and tickets are $120.
“A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman.”
— Edmund Burke, Irish philosopher and statesman.