• Look for City Council member Glorious Johnson to introduce a new bill in January dealing with the City’s assistant management improvement officers (AMIOs). She met recently with Council Vice President Jack Webb and Council member John Crescimbeni to discuss the matter. Johnson says when she was elected to Council in 2005, there were 96 AMIOs on the payroll; today there are over 200. Expect her bill to refine the requirements of the job and possibly even require they be posted like other City positions.
• The crew at the Landing will begin putting together the Christmas tree in the Courtyard Tuesday. It will be lit for the first time this year Nov. 27 and the thousands of lights will put on a new show this year, said Landing General Manager Janice Lowe.
• The next quarterly meeting of the Tourist Development Council is Nov. 19. Council President Richard Clark serves as chair of the TDC.
• It looks like the City is planning to eliminate residential solid waste alley collection due to budget issues. That trash will have to be placed at the curb effective Dec. 1. The Riverside-Avondale neighborhood is the largest left with alley collection. About 738 properties will be affected.
• According to his schedule, Mayor John Peyton is in New York City today as part of a World Cup Soccer presentation. Jacksonville is one of several cities vying to be a host city for the next time the U.S. hosts the cup, which could happen as early as 2018. He’ll be back in town Wednesday for Veteran’s Day festivities.
• State Sen. John Thrasher is the guest speaker at the Beaches Chamber luncheon Thursday. It’s at noon at the TPC Clubhouse.
• Inside the Bank of America building there are now Purell hand sanitizer dispensers for anyone to use who’s coming or going.
• Council member Bill Bishop is sponsoring legislation on the state level that would name portions of a couple local roads after a couple of Jacksonville’s best-known elected officials. One bill would rename a portion of State Road 116 as James E. “Jim” King Jr. Parkway and a portion of I-295/State Road 9A as Hans G. Tanzler Jr. Interstate.