Jacksonville, Florida | featured news

Dear Call Box: For months, I’ve driven by a large banner on the side of a building saying “Future Home of St. Francis Animal Hospital.” The building is on Atlantic Boulevard in St. Nicholas. Can you tell me when the hospital is moving in?
B.G., Southside
 
Dear B.G.: The future has arrived. St. Francis opened Aug. 1 in its new facility at 2727 Atlantic Blvd. The word “future” has been blacked out on the easily accessible signs and doubtless, the banner will change.

Erron Markese Coleman, 25, has pled not guilty to three charges, including murder in the second degree of Daniel Rowe behind the Blind Rabbit in Riverside last year.
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Marian Kiler Hall was born in 1913.
She remembers President Calvin Coolidge and all his successors, World Wars I and II and the Great Depression. Throughout her long life — across four states, marrying and raising six children, working in jobs ranging from typist to civilian employee at a naval base after her husband left the family — she has stuck with one political party.
“I’ve always been a Republican,” she said.

Technology in Jacksonville will be at the center of a conference Wednesday that organizers say could be a pivotal event for the local industry.
Over 750 people have already registered for the Tech Coast Conference Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Prime Osborn Convention Center downtown. There are 18 speakers set to address the tech industry participants with over 40 industry companies with vendor booths and 14 sponsors are lined up to support the event that is designed to serve as a forum for technology-related issues on the First Coast.

A large housing development for Nassau County is getting closer to actualization as a general contractor was selected to build the complex that will include about 3,000 homes.
Development firm WG Pitts of Jacksonville will provide the master plan for the Three Rivers mixed-use development, a news release said Thursday. The complex is set to be built on about 1,600 acres of land just west of Interstate 95 in Yulee.
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A barbecue sauce manufacturing plant that received about $590,000 in city support to buy and renovate a Commonwealth Avenue building has yet to show it created a single job, but that isn’t stopping the family behind the business from opening a Jerome Brown BBQ restaurant at that same location.
Jerome Brown BBQ Westside is to have its grand opening Friday at 5638 Commonwealth Ave. with an all-you-can eat lunch special.

A 55-year-old Jacksonville man is a top prize winner in the $5,000,000 Monopoly Florida Edition scratch-off game, the Florida Lottery announced Thursday.
Beasley Chester King bought his $20 ticket from Tara Market at 3133 Spring Park Road in Jacksonville. He chose to receive his winnings as a one-time, lump-sum payment of $770,000, the Lottery said.
The new $20 scratch-off game launched on July 5 and features six top prizes of $5 million and 20 prizes of $1 million.

If you called the District 7 School Board race a battle of educators versus businesspeople, you’d would be far off the mark.
Four of the six candidates seeking the Southside and Mandarin-area seat are professional educators or longtime school workers and volunteers. On the other hand, the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce recently endorsed non-education candidate Greg Tison, who has 30 years’ business experience but little in-school time.

Gov. Rick Scott signed an executive order approving an investigation into complaints that the senior division chief for the State Attorney’s Office’s made false and malicious statements about Nassau County tax collector candidate Carlos Slay and attempted to harm the Republican’s election campaign.
Scott signed the order Aug. 2, appointing 7th Judicial Circuit State Attorney R.J. Larizza’s office to handle “the investigation, prosecution and all matters related to Stephen Siegel,” the chief for the Nassau branch of the 4th Circuit State Attorney’s Office.

Jacksonville City Council members learned Thursday that Mayor Lenny Curry’s proposed budget will take $4.6 million from a pool of money that’s required to be spent on downtown redevelopment, an initiative that’s seen intermittent progress in recent years but has failed to gain long-term momentum.
Council members must now decide whether to waive that requirement — and take money derived from taxes on downtown property that city law says must be spent toward economic development in the area — or uphold it, which would create a large hole in the budget.