MONDAY July 22, 2019
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Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
Northside JEA landmarks Daily Record imploded in seconds JACKSONVILLE
DIA to fill 3 positions rounding out Boyer’s staff
The new Downtown Investment Authority JACKSONVILLE CEO will post job openings.
Daily Record Daily Record
BY MIKE MENDENHALL STAFF WRITER
JACKSONVILLE
Photos by Dede Smith
In seconds, a 640-foot-tall stack and two steam generating boilers were imploded Friday morning at the St. Johns River Power Park in North Jacksonville.
The demolition was the third implosion in the public utility’s decommissioning of the St. Johns River Power Park. BY SCOTT SAILER STAFF WRITER
J
EA imploded a 640-foot-tall stack and two steam generating boilers at 8 a.m. Friday at the St. Johns River Power Park in North Jacksonville. It was the third implosion as part of decommissioning the outdated power park built in the 1980s. In June 2018, two 464-foot-tall concrete cooling towers
were brought down. In April, four selective catalytic reactors were destroyed. The boilers converted energy from coal to heat water for steam by burning about 250 tons of coal every hour. The stack dispersed and diluted gases from the combustion. To prepare for the implosion, Buffalobased Total Wrecking & Environmental LLC, the demolition general contractor, and implosion engineer and explosives subcontractor Controlled Demolition Inc. drilled 890 holes in the stack. About 925 pounds of gelatin dynamite, 7,000 linear feet of detonation cord and 1,000 detonators were used for the implosion. The power park is scheduled for decommissioning by the end of June 2020. JEA CEO and Managing Director Aaron Zahn
previously said plans for the 2,000-acre site are undetermined, but that the utility likely will keep some of the property for a generating station and for ash disposal. The St. Johns River Power Park started producing electricity in March 1987. The plant, co-owned by JEA and Florida Power & Light Co., was shut down Jan. 5, 2018. JEA said closing the plant, which consumed 4.5 million tons of coal a year, reduced its carbon footprint by 30 percent. Total Wrecking & Environmental was awarded a $14.5 million contract to demolish the cooling towers and other structures at the power park and remediate the site. SSAILER@JAXDAILYRECORD.COM (904) 356-2466
The Downtown Investment Authority is staffing up. In June, the DIA announced it will fill the position of redevelopment coordinator to replace longtime city employee Jim Klement, who retired in May. It will advertise soon for two vacant positions that have gone unfilled for nearly nine months. The DIA administrative staff has been operating with three people since Klement’s retirement — CEO Lori Boyer, Operations Manager G uy Pa ro l a and Executive Administrative Assistant Karen Underwood. In addition to the redevelopment coor- Boyer dinator, DIA is posting jobs for a communications coordinator and a director of Downtown real estate development. The authority oversees development standards in Downtown’s Northbank and Southbank Community Redevelopment Areas. It also implements and monitors compliance of city-backed economic development incentives and compliance with design standards in the CRAs and it markets Downtown Jacksonville. Boyer, who joined DIA on July 1 after serving two terms on City Council, said the three positions were in former CEO Aundra Wallace’s 2018-19 budget and approved by the DIA board SEE DIA, PAGE 2
Skinner Bros. Realty expanding at Wildlight Jacksonville-based Skinner Bros. Realty is adding a second multitenant retail complex in summer 2020 at Village Center in Wildlight at Interstate 95 and Florida A1A in Nassau County. The 10,400-square-foot mixed-use building will include an outdoor courtyard and covered dining area that serves as a public leisure space and link between the buildings.
VOLUME 106, NO. 173 • ONE SECTION