Daily Record Financial News &
Thursday, December 24, 2015
Vol. 103, No. 029 • One Section
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Downtown’s future getting brighter City has $750,000 planned for lighting over next two years
By David Chapman Staff Writer The first part of 2016 could end up being a little brighter. Atop Mayor Lenny Curry’s capital improvement plan is $480,000 for Downtown street and lighting improvements. How and where projects should be implemented won’t be known until a $70,000 study is completed by mid-March, said Curry spokeswoman Marsha Oliver.
But, the focus of it will be what specific areas of Downtown need lighting for safety, she said. The remaining $410,000 will be used for the projects themselves. Another $270,000 is slated for fiscal 2016-17. The funding comes from the ongoing annual city infrastructure plan, not the Downtown Investment Authority. However, improved lighting Downtown was one of the many redevelopment pieces that went into the authority’s business
investment development strategy approved last year. Better lighting can improve access to and from the St. Johns River along the streetscape. It can better connect the core and surrounding neighborhoods. And yes, it improves the level of safety both real and perceived. “It does change the way people see it,” said Jim Bailey, DIA board chair and publisher of the Daily Record. “It’s a lot more than just changing a bulb.” Aundra Wallace, the author-
ity’s CEO, will work with the city’s Public Works department on the study. One of his goals is to have a well-lit walking path from Downtown’s core to The Elbow District, the growing nightlife area along Ocean and Bay streets. Take a walk or ride on Adams Street toward the courthouse to see “stark differences,” Wallace said — it’s where LED lights have been installed. “There’s very different illumination … they give off a very safe Lighting continued on Page A-2
Wallace
JU well on way to raise $120M
Photo by Kevin Hogencamp
By Max Marbut Staff Writer
Joe Passkiewicz writes about servant leadership in his blog, “Leading by Serving: Leadership is for Everyone.”
Leading by connecting
LandSouth executive talks about ‘issues of the heart’ Kathy Passkiewicz said she wasn’t surprised a few years ago when her construction company executive-husband, Joe, started blogging about servant leadership. Joe Passkiewicz’s blog, “Leading by Serving: Leadership is for Everyone,” has more than 1,400 followers. “He loves doing the blog because he talks about leading by serving — and that really is what our life is,” Kathy said. She just doesn’t know how her husband finds the time. Along with his career as senior vice president of development for LandSouth Construction, Joe often helps lead mission trips abroad with his wife. The parents of two adult children also provide and serve meals to low-income
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By Kevin Hogencamp Contributing Writer
We are all leaders. We lead households. We lead families. We lead teams. We lead groups at work. If you have influence on just one person other than yourself, you are a leader. Joe Passkiewicz, LandSouth executive
people every Saturday morning in Downtown Jacksonville with fellow church members and participate in other faithbased charitable endeavors. Joe also works out at the gym every day, maintains an immaculate garden and is superbly talented in the kitchen. “But that’s Joe,” Kathy said. “He always finds a way and the time to do great things.”
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And to help others. On a Costa Rican mission trip this summer that wasn’t supposed to include any construction projects, he and two others turned a dire emergency into a blessing by putting a new roof on a poor elderly couple’s house. “I’m married to a man who is not an ordinary man, by any means,” Kathy said. LandSouth continued on Page A-3
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The most ambitious fundraising effort in the history of Jacksonville University has raised $100 million of its $120 million goal. The nine-figure mark for “ASPIRE: JU 2016” was reached with a $2.5 million donation from the Bisk Family Foundation, the largest single investment in online learning at the university. The gift will establish the Nathan M. Bisk Center for Online Learning. Nathan Bisk is founder and chairman of Bisk Education, a Tampa-based company that works with colleges to develop online undergraduate, graduate and professional certificate programs. The center will focus on enhancing the educational relationship between JU’s Brooks Rehabilitation College of Healthcare Sciences and its Davis College of Business. ASPIRE is the third capital campaign at JU since 1986, when $16 million was raised through the “Golden Campaign.” It was followed in 1998 by “Beyond Excellence,” which Cost raised $60 million. University President Tim Cost said ASPIRE is on track to achieve the $120 million goal. “We are very pleased with the progress so far,” Cost said. “I’m very gratified that our hard work on behalf of students, faculty and staff and the community is receiving support.” Another success in the ASPIRE campaign came last year when the state approved $12 million for the school’s Entrepreneurism, Policy, Innovation and Commerce program. It is the largest state funding in the 81-year history of the university. Working with industry experts, students and professors are using the program to
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