Daily Record Financial News &
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Vol. 103, No. 238 • Two Sections
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Unmet JEA deadline angers council About 25,000 customers still without power: storm damage $25M-$100M to city
Company would expand Northwest warehouse by 300,000 square feet By Karen Brune Mathis Managing Editor Global logistics giant United Parcel Service Inc. wants to expand its Northwest Jacksonville regional package distribution center by almost 300,000 square feet, boosting the warehouse to nearly 800,000 square feet. The company seeks an administrative deviation to the city’s zoning code to increase parking and reduce landscape requirements to accommodate the expansion at its 105-acre property at 4420 Imeson Road in Westside Industrial Park. It also wants to increase the maximum number of off-street parking spaces from 954 to 1,681. The additional 727 spaces will accommodate employee parking. In the zoning application, UPS said the project will be undergoing proposed site expansion to accommodate current and future shipping demands. UPS said the project will continue to provide positive and long-term benefits to the surrounding area and the community and will assist “in continuing to maintain economic stability to the Northwest part of Jacksonville where unemployment is higher than in any portions of the city.” UPS now operates a 532,000-square-foot, multilevel package distribution center in the Westside business park, which is owned by Georgia-based Stone Mountain Industrial Park Inc. It is west of Interstate 295 and north of Pritchard Road. The project closely mirrors Project Mountain, an unidentified Northwest Jacksonville global logistics solutions company that is evaluating a $196 million expansion and facilities upgrade. It seeks a $4.3 million Recapture Enhanced Value grant from the city. That deal calls for the company to create 10 full-time jobs by the end of 2020 at an average wage of more than $50,000. The UPS
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Photo by David Chapman
UPS may expand package center
Special to the Daily Record
Power outages to more than 60 percent of JEA customers led to a dedicated, aggressive effort to restore service. The dedication of the workers was praised Tuesday by City Council members. The performance of JEA management was not. The utility issued a notice Sunday saying power would be restored to all customers by 11:59 p.m. Monday, a deadline that
wasn’t met and ended up backfiring on JEA. As of Tuesday evening, about 30,000 customers still were without power, leading council members to question the selfimposed deadline. About 25,000 remained without power Wednesday morning. “You overpromised and under delivered,” council member Matt Schellenberg told JEA CEO Paul McElroy during a wideranging update on the impacts Hurricane Matthew had to the city. Schellenberg represents Mandarin, one of the harder-hit areas due to downed trees. He spent time with JEA workers and saw
firsthand the damage the storm caused. When the JEA deadline wasn’t met, Schellenberg said he was on the receiving end of many calls, text messages and emails asking for answers. McElroy said the devastation to the city’s tree canopies caused slowdowns that weren’t anticipated when the deadline was announced. “We blew it,” he told council members. Other members shared Schellenberg’s disappointment, with council Vice President John Crescimbeni going a step further and asking JEA for a full report on the how
and why of the deadline. Like Schellenberg, Crescimbeni said he was surprised the utility set the deadline after seeing how bad some parts of the city were hit. Mayor Lenny Curry asked people via Twitter on Tuesday to email him if they were still without power because he wanted to ask JEA why. “The issue is we have tired, hot, thirsty, hungry folks without power that made decisions based on deadlines and they deserve answers,” he tweeted late Tuesday. Council continued on Page A-4
Darren Dailey has been the artistic and executive director of the Jacksonville Children’s Chorus for the past decade.
Teaching the next generation Dailey celebrating 10 years of leading the Jacksonville Children’s Chorus
The chorus performed a 9/11 Peace Concert last month at St. John's Cathedral.
Photo by David Chapman
By David Chapman Staff Writer
The Children’s Chorus building at 225 E. Duval St. received a makeover in October 2014. Now, it’s adorned with photos of chorus children.
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By David Chapman Staff Writer When children come to audition for Darren Dailey, the songbook is about as simple as it gets. “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” is often the song of choice for the Jacksonville Children’s Chorus artistic and executive director. “It’s not an ‘American Idol’ audition,” said Dailey, now in his 10th year at the vocally infused nonprofit. He asks a few questions, too, which make as much of a difference as whether the pitch is right or the rhythm is there. Do you love to sing? (Dailey said you’d be surprised how many kids say “no.”) Do you sing in the shower? While brushing your teeth? All around the house, nonstop all
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the time? Those are the children Dailey wants to teach. The ones excited about singing, no matter how shy or outgoing they are. In many ways, the kids he wants in the chorus are somewhat reflections of him at that age. Dailey’s dream is, and always has been, to build a world-class children’s choir and leave a legacy. Jacksonville has long been known as a river city. He believes it’s on its way to becoming a wellknown “singing city,” too.
Finding an early love
Dailey, 49, grew up in New Jersey and, like many teenagers, would occasionally skip school. Workspace
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consecutive weekdays