• Gate Concrete Products Co. notified the state on Monday that it could potentially lay off up to 115 manufacturing jobs between mid- and late May at its Zoo Parkway operation. So far this year, five Duval County employers subject to notifying the state of cuts reported plans to lay off 352 employees. That’s higher the the past two years. Duval employers reported plans to cut 185 jobs through mid-March 2008 and 230 in that time frame 2009. Area economists expect job growth to pick up this year.
• The Cummer Museum Ball & Auction is on hiatus this year. Marketing Manager Amy Chamberlin at the Cummer said the event committee decided to bypass the ball and auction this spring to focus on the museum’s 50th anniversary celebration next year. The 2011 celebrations begin in January with the opening of the refurbished Tudor Room and an exhibit of works that were the foundation of Ninah Cummer’s collection. The museum will celebrate its golden anniversary with a gala in November 2011. This year would have been the 33rd annual ball.
• Acosta Sales and Marketing Co. President and CEO Robert Hill Jr. is the new chair of the Baptist Health Board of Directors. Joe Louis Barrow Jr., CEO of The First Tee and executive vice president of the World Golf Foundation, has been named vice chair.
• Thursday, the Children’s Home Society of Florida Buckner Division will hold its annual awards ceremony. “Child Advocate of the Year” is Mrs. Arthur W. Avent, who has served 25 years on the board of directors for the Buckner Division. She is currently a CHS honorary board member, a Founder’s Society member and part of the CHS Foundation. The “Public Official of the Year” is State Sen. Tony Hill, who works with “One Church One Child,” an organization that recruits adoptive families to care for foster children. Lender Processing Services is the “Corporate Citizen of the Year.”