Gov. Rick Scott during the Cabinet meeting Tuesday recognized Nat Glover with the “Great Floridian” award for dedication to higher education and the city of Jacksonville.
Glover, president of Edward Waters College, is a former sheriff and served with the office for more than 40 years. He was the first African-American sheriff in Jacksonville in more than 100 years.
Glover also has provided $250,000 to create a scholarship fund for low-income students in Jacksonville.
“Nat is committed to making sure Florida students have an opportunity to achieve their dreams,” said Scott in a news release.
The award is given to those who have made significant contributions to the progress and welfare of Florida.
Poll shows mixed results for pension, support for HRO
Mayor Lenny Curry’s plan for a half-cent sales tax extension to pay down pension debt received mixed reaction in a recent University of North Florida poll.
Conducted by the school’s Public Opinion Research Lab, 380 Duval County residents comprising Democrats, Republicans and independents shared their thoughts.
Of the Democrats, 33 percent supported the idea, while 25 percent opposed and 42 percent didn’t know or had no answer.
Republicans were more favorable at 42 percent in support and 20 percent opposed, while those who didn’t know or had no answer came in at 38 percent.
As for independents, 36 percent supported, 25 percent opposed and 39 percent didn’t know or had no answer.
“Curry has some work to do in order to convince voters that the sales tax extension is the right thing to do to try and solve our pension problems,” said Michael Binder, UNF public opinion research lab faculty director, in a news release. “There is an opportunity for him; 40 percent of the sample didn’t have an opinion about the upcoming pension ballot measure.”
In addition, the respondents were asked about support for an expanded Human Rights Ordinance to include anti-discrimination protection for sexual orientation, gender identity and expression.
Democrats supported it at a 71 percent clip, with 20 percent opposed and 8 percent undecided or not having an opinion.
Republicans were much closer — 48 percent favored, 42 percent were against and 10 percent didn’t answer or had no opinion.
Independents also strongly favored expansion, with 69 percent in support, 21 in opposition and 10 percent undecided.
Timuquana Country Club to host USGA event
Timuquana Country Club has been selected by the U.S. Golf Association to host the 2019 Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship scheduled April 27-May 1, 2019.
The women’s event is open to two-player teams of female amateurs with an individual handicap that doesn’t exceed 14.4. There are no age restrictions and partners are not required to be from the same club, state or country.
The course hosted the 2002 U.S. Senior Amateur and also has hosted other Southern and Florida state amateur events.
Other Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championships take place this month in Florida, South Carolina in 2017 and California in 2018.
Glover, Wiles join Mayor Lenny Curry as leaders of 'Yes for Jacksonville' campaign
The “Yes for Jacksonville” political committee launched this year to promote passing Jacksonville’s upcoming half-cent sales tax extension has a couple of well-known leaders joining Mayor Lenny Curry.
Nat Glover, former sheriff and current Edward Waters College president, and Susie Wiles, a longtime veteran in politics, are joining Curry as co-chairs of the campaign.
Additional members of the team will join the effort to sell voters on the Aug. 30 ballot initiative to extend the tax to pay down the city’s more than $2.8 billion in unfunded pension liabilities.
The committee raised $225,000 in April, its first reporting month.
Armsdale Park-n-Ride to be complete in October
The Jacksonville Transportation Authority last week had a celebration to showcase progress that’s been made at the Armsdale Park-n-Ride facility in North Jacksonville.
The facility at 3191 Armsdale Road is adjacent to Interstate 295.
When it’s completed in October, it will serve the First Coast Flyer’s “Green Line” that has limited-stop service to Downtown.
The facility costs $3.4 million and has parking for 189 vehicles. It includes bike racks and an indoor customer waiting and service area.
Additionally, the Armsdale lot is a possible economic development tool for “Project Rex,” the unnamed company believed to be Amazon.com Inc. that will create at least 1,500 jobs near the site.
The next segment of the five-part First Coast Flyer system is an 11.1-mile Southeast Corridor scheduled to launch in December. It will have seven stations.
When complete, the system will cover 57 miles and be the largest system of its kind in the Southeast.
Colliers International consolidates with Northeast Florida acquisition
Commercial real estate services firm Colliers International Group Inc. last week acquired Colliers International Northeast Florida.
The local firm has 45 employees who provide sales, leasing brokerage, capital markets and other services.
The international group also recently acquired Colliers Central Florida and with the Northeast Florida deal, it consolidates the Florida market, said Joseph Harbert, Colliers International president.
Robert Selton, Colliers Northeast Florida CEO, said in a news release the group had been a member of the international organization for years and would be able to fully integrate operations with the deal.
“The future has never been brighter for our company and people,” he said.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Study says career starts, student loan debt not best locally
It’s graduation season for high schools and colleges, meaning there will be an influx of people looking to join the workforce.
As for Jacksonville being a destination to start a career, WalletHub says the city doesn’t rank among the best. In a recent study, the personal-finance website places the city at No. 113 of 150 most populated U.S. cities.
Results were based on two criteria.
“Professional opportunities” reflected the availability of entry-level jobs, median starting salary, annual job-growth rate and unemployment rates among other factors. Jacksonville was No. 109 there.
“Quality of life” was the other component, based on factors like median annual income, percentage of population ages 25-34 and housing affordability. Jacksonville fared only slightly better in this category, reaching No. 105.
The top cities in the country to start a career were Salt Lake City, Denver and Austin, Texas. Bringing up the rear were Detroit, Fresno, Calif., and Moreno Valley, Calif.
The organization put out another study showing cities with the most and least student debt.
Jacksonville was in the 75th percentile of graduates being overleveraged, having an average of $30,713 in student-loan debt compared to median incomes of adults ages 25-44 being $48,258.
Palatka was among the worst — it was in the 99th percentile with debt of $28,426 compared to median income of $19,130.