• The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens welcomes the St. Johns River City Band on Independence Day. The band plays 7-10 p.m. July 4. While the museum, along Riverside Avenue, will be closed during normal business hours that day, it will open at 6 p.m. for the Garden Concert, offering jazz, swing and patriotic music along with a view of the City of Jacksonville fireworks. For information, visit www.cummer.org.
• As summer heats up and vacationers consider travel plans, Jacksonville gas prices continue to fall from the past month. They dropped to $3.486 a gallon today, but are still 85 cents a gallon higher than a year ago. Jacksonvillegasprices.com reported today that the average price of a gallon of unleaded fell a penny from Wednesday, 6 cents from a week ago and 26 cents over the month. But it’s up from $2.64 a year ago. Still, the Jacksonville prices are running more than a dime below the national level.
• Jacksonville ranked among the 20 weakest-performing metropolitan areas in the Brookings Institution’s MetroMonitor tracking of the economic recession and recovery. The report tracked data for the nation’s 100 largest metro areas. Jacksonville’s employment fell 9.1 percent from its peak in the second quarter of 2007, housing prices fell 37.6 percent from their peak in the last quarter of 2006 and the gross metropolitan product dropped 3.9 percent of its peak, also the fourth quarter of 2006.
• Single-family homes sales as well as prices are down in Jacksonville from a year ago, reports the Florida Realtors. Sales of existing single-family homes by Realtors fell 5 percent to 1,240 in May from 1,303 in May 2010, while the median sales price dropped 7 percent to $135,100 from $145,000. Statewide, single-family Realtor sales rose 3 percent and the price dropped 5 percent.
• Existing condo sales rose 10 percent in the Jacksonville area and prices remained steady over the year. Realtors in metro Jacksonville sold 228 condos in May, up from 208 in May 2010, and the median price remained just about even, $79,400 this year and $79,500 last year. Statewide, Realtor condo sales rose 17 percent and the median sales price rose 2 percent.
• Gov. Rick Scott reappointed Benjamin Smith, qualifying agent for Marco Electrical Contractors Inc. in Jacksonville, to the state Electrical Contractors Licensing Board. His term began Tuesday and ends Oct. 31, 2013.