• If you saw a City worker cleaning out the fountain in Hemming Plaza closest to the Main Library Tuesday there was a pretty good reason for it. Seems someone over the weekend dumped the better part of a box of laundry detergent into the fountain.
• There are a handful of new home and garden shops in Jacksonville Beach. Casa Bella Village is in the former location of Second Hand Rose, just a block south of Beach Boulevard. The owners are hosting an open house Thursday from 4-7 p.m.
• City Council member Kevin Hyde will formally thank Regions Bank, Wachovia and EverBank Thursday for their financial support of the local foreclosure problem. The banks combined to raise $35,000 and Hyde and members of his Foreclosure Task Force will honor them during a press conference at the Ed Ball Building.
• Speaking of Hyde, he has called a meeting of the Courthouse Oversight Committee to discuss undocumented workers on the site of the new County Courthouse. The meeting is at 4 p.m. in Committee Room B in the Council offices.
• Mayor John Peyton got nice notes from University of Florida President Bernie Machen and University of Georgia President Michael Adams. Adams said he’s looking forward to the “post-Tebow era.” Machen said he was pleased with the “reduction of underage drinking” during this year’s Florida-Georgia game.
• Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School will make its Jacksonville debut at The Sinclair, a Downtown nightspot, tonight from 7:30-10:30. The first of its kind for Jacksonville, Dr. Sketchy events are hosted in cities throughout the U.S. and Europe and are widely attended by a variety of people. Founded by a 22-year-old former art school model, Molly Crabapple, Dr. Sketchy’s combines burlesque and art with some of the most unusual models, drawing contests and comedy skits ever created. Admission is $5 for artists and $7 for voyeurs.
• Foul weather definitely had an effect on attendance for Saturday’s Downtown Historic Church Tour. According to numbers from Downtown Vision, Inc. about 400 people bought tickets this year compared to 1,200 in 2008. One addition this year that proved to be a hit was the slide lecture by local historian and author Wayne Wood that explained the stories behind the churches’ architecture and heritages. It was presented at Snyder Memorial before the tour began and according to reports, it was standing room only in the former Methodist church at the corner of Laura and Monroe streets.
• Adorned with solar panels and holding a lamp that shines in the dark, one of the large sculptured turtles from the “Turtle Trails” fundraising campaign of the Child Guidance Center will have a new home. Mary Tappouni, founder of Breaking Ground Contracting, told members of Meninak Monday that her company will donate the piece to Springfield.
• Attorney Heather Byrer has joined the firm of Boyd & Jenerette. She was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2001 and will be practicing in the areas of worker’s compensation and employment law.