John Foley, the General Manager of Seaboard, called me this afternoon to inform me that garbage pickup for the South Ponte Vedra area will be moved to Mondays starting May 25th, 2009. They will mail a letter to the impacted residents and also place information on their front door to alert them to this change. Recycling and yard trash pickups remain on Wednesday. This change impacts properties from 3rd Street (the castle and the way to Cap's) north.

This is a welcomed change and one that Friends of A1A championed. The residents on A1A in S. Ponte Vedra have complained for years about trash blowing on A1A Scenic and Historic Coastal Byway as garbage pick up has been on Thursday. As there are many vacation rentals in the area, many didn't put their trash out until Saturday or Sunday when they were leaving and the trash would sit out for days. An active letter writing campaign by the residents was beneficial to this requested change.

We thank John Foley and Seaboard for their willingness to work with the residents and listen to their concerns to make this happen.

It seems everywhere you look in the Vilano and North Beach areas utility crews are working. A couple of weeks ago I noticed Powercon digging trenches along the west side of A1A around Villages of Vilano north to about 15th St. They said they are laying conduit to bury the overhead electrical lines. I have not gotten this information verified by FPL, however. Powercon did not know when the actually burial of the lines would occur, but the conduit is in place.  They were contracted for 6000 ft. along A1A. They are not doing the east side due to safety issues of being able to have their equipment off A1A while doing the work.

AND... the big news:  The poles are coming down in the Vilano Beach Town Center as I type this. This has been happening this past week and will continue. It shouldn't be long now. The Vilano Beach Town Center is looking good.

UPDATE- we've got a small snag to removing the poles---AT&T. Hopefully AT&T will get going soon and we can get the poles removed.

The grand opening of the streetscape will be in mid September. We'll know more in July as to the actual date. Stay tuned for more info or call me at 904-823-0027 or e-mail me at Barbara@BarbaraJenness.com