• City Council President Daniel Davis is proposing two appointments to the newly created Public Service Grant Council. Davis’ picks are former City Council Member Gwen Yates and Ron Mallett, who chairs the City’s Taxation, Revenue & Utilization of Expenditures (TRUE) Commission. The City Council has to appoint three members to the Public Service Grant Council, which will be responsible for distributing grants and City funds to nonprofits and other service groups.
• Speaking of Davis, the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce will honor him, the rest of Council and their staff members during a June 10 luncheon at the Hyatt.
• At Thursday’s meeting of the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission, Executive Director Ron Barton took a moment to recognize JEDC Chair Bob Rhodes for his recent selection as the 2008 Financial News & Daily Record “Lawyer of the Year.” Barton took the lighthearted approach and included in his congratulatory remarks, “Our chairman, Lawyer of the Universe – Lawyer of the Decade – no, it’s Lawyer of the Year.”
• Barton also gave an update on the Main Street sidewalk improvement project. It will be completed slightly later than first anticipated because an unknown subterranean issue was uncovered during the project. It was discovered that originally, the basement of the building at the southwest corner of Main and Adams streets extended about eight feet into the right-of-way directly under the sidewalk. Years later, the basement was walled off directly under the east side of the building. When crews began removing the old sidewalk, they quickly discovered a void that left the area underneath structurally unsupported. Barton said with the additional construction the project will be finished by the end of June.
• According to Riverkeeper Neil Armingeon, residents along Arlington River and Pottsburg Creek found two manatees “split wide open” Sunday and Monday, possibly due to two boats seen racing at high speeds those same days. Residents are apparently signing a petition to bring to a future Waterways Commission meeting asking for posted manatee zones along the water between the Beach Boulevard and University Boulevard bridges and for at least one on-call marine patrol officer available at all times.
• The St. Johns River Water Management District’s much publicized, and often criticized, two-year study into the effects of water withdrawals on the St. Johns River is now included on the District’s Web site at www.sjrwmd.com/surfacewaterwithdrawals. The District had already performed numerous studies, officials said, that concluded 260 million gallons of water a day could be safely withdrawn from the St. Johns and Ocklawaha rivers. The new study is supposed to account for scenarios such as sea level rise, the removal of millions of gallons of treated sewage from the river’s lower basin and projects to deepen the river’s navigation channel.
• Leadership Jacksonville will formally introduce its 2009 class May 21 during a reception at The Gallery at WJCT. The reception is from 5:30-7:30 p.m.
• The Jacksonville Symphony Chorus is looking for some new voices, especially large, operatic voices for next season’s production of Puccini’s “Turandot.” It’s no small commitment because the all-volunteer chorus rehearses at least one night a week for months before a new program debuts. Auditions by appointment are May 17 at Jacksonville University.
• Downtown Vision will host representatives from JTA May 28 to talk about Downtown transit issues. The meeting’s at 9 a.m. in the training room of the Ed Ball Building. The JTA folks will talk about a revised trolley system, proposed bus shelters, a revised Bus Rapid Transit route, a proposed streetcar system, water-borne transportation and the proposed Jacksonville Transportation Center slated for the area around the Osborn Center.
• Reviving a time-honored business tradition: Beginning May 19, Twisted Martini at the Landing will open for lunch each day at 11 a.m. The top-sellers from the tapas selection will be on the menu plus some new items including a gourmet mushroom sandwich and crab cakes. “We’re bringing back the three Martini lunch,” said Marketing Director Steve Anderson.
• The first phase of the Nocatee Parkway officially opened Tuesday. The four-lane highway now provides the beach communities of Ponte Vedra and Jacksonville Beach with a hurricane evacuation route to U.S. 1 so motorists can more easily access I-95. The second phase of the parkway is currently under construction and is scheduled to be complete in 2010.
“The difficult we do immediately. The impossible takes a little longer.”
– Motto of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during World War II