Daily Record FINANCIAL NEWS &
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2016
Vol. 103, No. 260 • oNe SectioN
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Curry wants Hemming Park back Administration says nonprofit’s efforts ‘not working’ after two years
By David Chapman Staff Writer Mayor Lenny Curry wants to end the Friends of Hemming Park experiment. Just over two years after the nonprofit began to manage Downtown’s iconic “front door to City Hall” park, Curry wants it back under city control. The surprising news was delivered Thursday afternoon by Sam
Mousa, Curry’s chief administrative officer, to a special City Council committee that’s spent the summer reviewing all-things Hemming Park. The group was formed to review the Friends’ contract and determine the park’s future. Friends has managed the cityowned asset since Sept. 1, 2014, after securing a contract worth more than $1 million, but required continued city funding to operate
after the first 18 months. An audit this summer drew scrutiny over how the group spent some of the initial money. The mayor in his budget provided $250,000 to the group for a six-month period while the special council committee continued its work to determine the park’s future. Curry, though, has made his decision on what that should be. “The mayor wants to take over
the park,” Mousa told the group. Mousa said the mayor believes he can improve, program, clean up and possibly come back to council with capital improvement dollars. Curry’s vision will be formalized over the next four to six months, Mousa said, and could include a variety of options. It could be a passive park or include significant renovations. One possibility could be taking down the
Scam alert: Criminals calling JEA customers
laurel oaks that are at their end of life. Mousa said taking the park back wouldn’t come before the six months Curry funded. The news came as a surprise to Friends leadership and some council members who sat around the table. “You have put us in a very precarious position,” said Bill Prescott, the Friends interim CEO HEMMING CONTINUED ON PAGE A-2
Commercial accounts are the current targets
JEA
Public
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Sydney and Rhett Natto walk at the site of the family’s new home in St. Augustine.
A home for Rhett to grow up in
Lennar Homes, builders community band together to help injured Marine’s family By Marilyn Young, Editor
“Not my husband, he was a fighter and he could overcome anything. Hell, he was a Recon Marine.”
— Sydney Natto, when told her husband, Chris, would most likely be paralyzed after a parachute training accident
Special to the Daily Record
Here’s what to do if someone calls you and says they are with JEA and your past-due bill must be paid immediately to avoid disconnection. Then they instruct you to purchase a prepaid debit card for the transaction and call them back to give them the card and PIN numbers. Don’t do it. That’s a scam that’s in a “flare-up” targeting business customers in Northeast Florida, said Deb Beaver, JEA director of business development for commercial accounts. Nine months ago, JEA joined a group of about 80 utilities working together to make their customers aware of scams and to track national trends in utility-related consumer fraud. “We are sharing our databases,” Beaver said. Next week, JEA and the other members of the coalition across North America are mobilizing “Utilities United Against Scams,” a public awareness camBeaver paign to safeguard their customers from criminals who impersonate utility company representatives. The coalition has designated the third Wednesday in November “Utilities United Against Scams Day” and a resolution is pending in the U.S. House of Representatives to codify it as an annual national observance, Beaver said. Utility collection fraud has been going on across the U.S. for a few years and JEA has been independently tracking scam reports from customers. In the past two years, about 1,000 scam calls have been reported locally. That probably doesn’t represent the true extent of the problem, since many people who are contacted don’t think about reporting it, Beaver said. The current increase in activity has led to about 10 customers per day calling JEA to report a fraudulent collection attempt
Photo by Fran Ruchalski
By Max Marbut Staff Writer
Chris Natto visits the home during construction.
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****** Those were among the words Matt Devereaux read in Sydney Natto’s “40 Feet and Higher” essay several months after Chris Natto was injured. Devereaux, Lennar Homes’ division president for North Florida, had been looking for a family to help. Someone to benefit
PubliShed
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from the company’s Focused Acts of Caring effort, which gives back to the community and not necessarily just with money. “It’s about doing the right thing,” he said. “Helping people who need help.” Devereaux had asked Justin Brown, executive director of Builders Care, to help find the right family. Months later, Brown called him and briefly described why the Nattos might be that family. Chris, of St. Augustine, was a Recon Marine and proud to be one. He and his wife, Sydney, have a son, Rhett, who turns 2 in December. While training in February for a future NATTO CONTINUED ON PAGE A-4
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