Daily Record Financial News &
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Vol. 103, No. 74 • One Section
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
House OK brings momentary joy Pension plan still needs Senate approval
Photo by Jason Roth
By David Chapman Staff Writer
Mayor Lenny Curry starts to high-five JAX Chamber President Daniel Davis immediately after the House overwhelmingly approved a bill Wednesday to extend a Jacksonville half-cent sales tax to help pay down the city’s $2.7 billion pension liabilities.
Barber academy relocating Downtown
City Council Vice President Lori Boyer didn’t know what to expect when she arrived in Tallahassee. Along with Mayor Lenny Curry, a dozen other council members and a host of Jacksonville business leaders visited the capital Wednesday as a unified front for a final House vote on a key pension measure. Boyer felt encouraged by what she heard heading in — the House votes were there to extend
The home’s timbers were constructed from virgin heart pine. The tight rings are so full of sap they provided a natural repellent against insects which destroy wood.
a half-cent sales tax to pay down the city’s $2.7 billion in pension liabilities. But she didn’t know for sure. After about two hours of waiting, it was Jacksonville’s turn. The atmosphere changed, Boyer said. People snapped up and were on the edge of their seats as they listened to House members voice their support. Then state Rep. John Tobia, R-Melbourne, stood up. And the mood changed. He rattled off the reasons he would vote against the Jacksonville plan. It authorized a new
tax. It set up the Jacksonville pension plan to be in better shape than the already sound Florida Retirement System. And he was critical of some of the city’s expenditures, having reviewed the budget and found line items for things like One Spark and the Jacksonville Armada. Local leaders were a little surprised. Council President Greg Anderson said he and several of his trip mates wanted to head to the floor to explain how careful JacksonPension continued on Page A-3
The house whisperer Timber-frame craftsman rediscovers bygone era in Old Cracker House
Chris Dickens is bringing some style Downtown. Dickens intends to relocate his barber trade school from Jacksonville’s Westside to Downtown and open it as FCB Academy to add more programs. “I wanted to move Downtown because the area is growing and there’s a lot more opportunity Downtown,” Dickens said. Dickens intends to open the FCB Academy at 625 Julia St., which is near First Baptist Church Jacksonville and also close to restaurants and other amenities that students, instructors and staff can use. Phoenix Industries of Jacksonville Inc., led by Dickens, paid $550,000 for the 8,071-square-foot building in a sale executed Friday and recorded Monday with the Duval County Clerk of Court. Compass Bank made a $515,700 mortgage to Phoenix Industries, whose president is Dickens, on Friday. Dickens said the 1,100-square-foot school along Timuquana Road would be phased out upon the move to the larger Downtown site. The academy is adding cosmetology and esthetics and expanding into women’s styling and skin care. Currently, the school has 17 students. The Downtown building has space for at least three classrooms, office space, break rooms and other uses, which Dickens said will allow the academy to accommodate 90 to 100 students among three programs. It also will offer a walk-in clinic so students can train hands-on with customers under the supervision of instructors. Dickens now operates at 5617 Timuquana Road, Suite C, where the First Coast Barber Academy offers courses and programs as well as a clinic. Mathis
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Robert White is a general contractor who specializes in historic restorations of wooden buildings. “You have something extremely rare,” he told the Beaches Area Historical Society after examining the 1873 Oesterreicher homestead. The siding was hand-split from logs, something that was unusual for that time period.
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Photos by Carole Hawkins
By Carole Hawkins, Staff Writer The ramshackle building looks like a hunter’s shack, one of its final uses in recent years. But Robert White caresses the worn plank siding of the 1873 Oesterreicher homestead as if reunited with an old friend. The boards were hand-split from logs, he said. The builder used only an adz and a few other hand tools in their making. It’s something extremely rare. He’s worked on others from the 1880s where the wood was machine-made. “This is probably the only building in Florida that’s like this,” said White. “If there’s another one, I’ve never heard of or seen it.” The Beaches Area Historical Society has hired him to repair the house. White restores the kind of old wooden buildings that most people would tear down. After 25 years in Northeast Florida, he’s built up a portfolio of salvaged 19th century barns, farmhouses and schoolhouses. He has a couple of skills in common with the builders in whose footsteps he follows. When necessary, he hand-hews wood beams. It’s something he says very few people do anymore. And at 65, he’s “getting pretty old” to keep doing it. Most days White is a general contractor. The restoration part of his business came from a hobby that “got out of control.” It continues to fascinate him. “Each of the buildings I restore tell a story and I try to uncover that story,” he said. The Oesterreicher house was built on land that’s been absorbed by Nocatee. The historical society raised funds and moved the house in May to the Beaches Museum and History Park in Jacksonville Beach to save it from the bulldozers. The homestead is what’s called a Cracker House, a one-room wood-framed house the early Florida settlers could build in a hurry. The simple style was defined by a Cracker House continued on Page A-2
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