Daily Record Financial News &
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
Vol. 105, No. 063 • One Section
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
JAX CHAMBER 2018 SMALL BUSINESS LEADER OR THE YEAR
Keep hiring, keep growing Mike Zaffaroni, owner of Liberty Landcape Supply, shares how he expanded his business’s revenue 800 percent since he bought the company in 2007.
Photo by Karen Brune Mathis
Former CSX CEO and U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow. He spoke Tuesday at the World Affairs Council of Jacksonville luncheon.
Snow has his own definition for Trump Former CSX CEO calls the president “pro-business populist.” By Mark Basch Contributing Writer John Snow has been away from CSX Corp. for a long time, having left his post as CEO of the Jacksonville-based railroad company in 2003 to become U.S. Treasury Secretary. However, Snow can’t help but notice from afar that CSX is going through tumultuous times as new management overhauls its operations. “I hope it turns out well,” Snow said Tuesday during a luncheon talk to the World Affairs Council of Jacksonville. “We have to always change and applaud change,” he said. Snow also has been away from the White House for a long time, having left his Cabinet position in 2006. But again, he recognizes the mammoth changes taking place in government under President Donald Trump. “He is the ultimate anti-establishment figure,” Snow said. “He’s really not a Republican. He’s not a Democrat,” he said. “He’s awfully hard to classify except he’s one hell of a showman.” The best classification Snow can come up with is to call Trump
Special to the Daily Record
JAX Chamber 2018 Small Business Leader or the Year Mike Zaffaroni is the owner of Liberty Landscape Supply in North Jacksonville.
By Karen Brune Mathis Editor
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AX Chamber 2018 Small Business Leader or the Year Mike Zaffaroni, owner of Liberty Landscape Supply in North Jacksonville, shared advice Tuesday with the award’s contenders and the event attendees. “Keep hiring and keep growing,” Zaffaroni, 38, said after he was named the overall winner. He was among 11 Northeast Florida business leaders selected as small business leaders of the year among the chamber’s councils and the Beaches and Entrepreneurial Growth divisions.
Zaffaroni, representing the North Council, operates two locations — in Fernandina Beach and at 13385 N. Main St. Liberty Landscape Supply sells landscape materials to homeowners and contractors at the two locations and online. He bought the business, formerly Fernandina Mulch & Stone, in 2007. His business card promotes plants, mulch, stone, sand, rock, pine straw, trees and more. A chamber news release said the business has expanded from offering 20 items to carrying more than 1,800 items in its inventory. “It’s a lot of hard work,” Zaffaroni told more than 200 event attendees at the
Schultz Center for Teaching and Leadership near St. Nicholas. “I would do it no differently.” Zaffaroni started with two employees and said he hired his 31st employee Monday. He told small business owners “to be proud of the opportunities” they provide for their employees. The chamber release said Zaffaroni entered the first “Small Business Breakthrough Powered by Web.com” in 2015. That competition was created by the Jacksonville Jaguars and Jacksonvillebased Web.com, which provides online and web development services to small Zaffaroni
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D.R. Horton takes next step at former Baymeadows Golf Course Homebuilder applies to water management district for 88 singlefamily homes on old driving range. Public
By Andrew Warfield Associate Editor The redevelopment of the former Baymeadows Golf Club has taken another step forward as D.R. Horton Homes, owner of the 113 acres formerly occupied
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by the long-defunct golf course, has provided documentation to the St. Johns River Water Management District. Horton plans to build 88 singlefamily homes on 26.67 acres that were once the driving range and a golf hole between Baymeadows
Circle West and Baymeadows Circle East. In addition, it plans to build 200 townhomes on 21.85 acres on former parallel fairways off Baymeadows Circle East just north of Baymeadows Road. The national homebuilder’s
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recent application pertains to the single-family component. The site plan shows Pine Terrace at the Meadows as 88 lots on a street that connects the two Baymeadows circles. Most of the lots back baymeadows continued on
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consecutive business days