• Peter Rummel, CEO of the Nicklaus Company, is recruiting Mayor John Peyton to be a member of the Steering Committee for the Urban Land Institute Reality Check effort in North Florida. The idea is to create a long range (through 2060) planning view for seven counties. “Your main job will be to provide advice if we need it. This is not like AA where you have to go to meetings,” Rummel wrote in a e-mail to Peyton.
• New beach business: Beaches Design Center recently opened its location at 3200 Third St. The business was formerly known as Designs of the Interior located at St. Johns Town Center and is owned by Kim-Dodson-Prescott and Bill Prescott, who is also senior vice president of stadium operations and chief financial officer for the Jaguars.
• Speaking of the beach, talk is heating up again that Publix is looking to move from its Atlantic Beach location to Neptune Beach in the space that was supposed to include a new Wal-Mart. For several months, Publix was leasing the space adjacent to its Atlantic Beach store and talk was there was an expansion in the works. However, those two stores are now for lease and a Neptune Beach official has heard Publix is talking about leasing the former Food Lion space, demolishing the building and starting from scratch.
• The North Florida Transportation Organization lost a board member with the indictment and suspension of St. Johns County Commissioner Chair Tom Manuel but the spot won’t go unfilled. According to an official of the independent regional transportation planning agency of several Northeast Florida counties, St. Johns County Commissioner Cyndi Stevenson will take his place for now.
• St. Johns Riverkeeper has launched a new campaign with the hope that people will form a greater connection with their river. The new “My St. Johns River” education and awareness campaign includes an interactive Web site, www.mystjohnsriver.com, where people can virtually explore, view photos, thumb through guidebooks and share experiences with others about the St. Johns River.
• Retired attorney Steven Yablonski has been selected as chair of the First District Court of Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission. Yablonski is the immediate past vice president of the commission and was appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush in 2002. George Levesque of Tallahassee was appointed vice chair of the commission. The commission is accepting applications for a seat vacated by Judge Ricky Polston who was appointed to the Florida Supreme Court. Applications are due by noon on Nov. 7.
• Zoltar the fortune teller has moved into The Jacksonville Landing. The arcade amusement looks like it is right out of the Tom Hanks movie “Big,” and it is located on the first floor at the Landing. Customers get a ticket that provides a fortune, a list of birth stones and flowers and lucky numbers all for a dollar.
• Those who volunteer for the Fourth Judicial Circuit’s Guardian Ad Litem’s program will be honored at the organization’s annul volunteer appreciation banquet. It’s Oct. 29 at 6 p.m. at the Garden Club of Jacksonville on Riverside Avenue.