San Marco’s very own Tanner Burt, a rising fifth grader at Hendricks Avenue Elementary School, placed second in the AT&T Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament. Tanner ventured out on Tuesday morning with his dad, uncle, brother and cousins for a day of fishing. Within 15 minutes of baiting his hook, Tanner caught a Kingfish that appeared contender worthy. It Was!! Tanner’s 32.25 pound Kingfish won second place in the Junior Angler Tournament. Leslie Burt, Tanner’s mom said, “I just got them packed and out the door, and I was getting ready to enjoy a day to myself when I was summoned to Sister’s Creek Park.” Although Tanner has experience as a fisherman, this was his first tournament. When asked about his experience, Tanner responded with a huge grin, “The tournament was awesome!! It was great fishing with my uncle, dad, brother and cousins. I was so lucky to have caught the second place fish—I hope we can do this again next year!!”

The Jr. Angler Tournament was established in 1991 to promote participation of young fishermen under the age of 16 years. This sporting event encourages conservation of marine life and helps to raise awareness for the protection of our natural resources. The tournament is an annual event that raises money for Jacksonville Marine Charities, a nonprofit organization that supports marine science research, preservation, and education.

This was the 29th year for the AT&T Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament which took place July 20-25, 2009 at Sisters Creek Park. The event is a long-standing tradition for residents of the Jacksonville area and attracts approximately 30,000 spectators.

by Dale Tedder
Psalm 1:2 – But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

Nothingness is that which sleeping rocks dream of. That, or something close to it, was purported to have been said by Jonathan Edwards a couple hundred years ago. I believe he was right on the money. We can’t imagine absolute nothingness, even for a nanosecond. Our minds are always turned on…always in gear. In other words, we’re always meditating on something. We’re thinking creatures after all, and therefore, our minds are always turned on – even when we’re sleeping.

Because this is true, some good questions to ask yourself are: “What do I think about when I’m not being intentional in my thought-life?” – Or – “Where do my thoughts wander when I’m sitting at a traffic light? Or when I’m climbing into bed? Or when I’m taking a walk early in the morning?”

Meditation can help us think God’s thoughts after him. Or, as Brother Lawrence put it, meditation can enable us to practice God’s presence all throughout the day. Meditation is a good and biblical concept. It is therefore a shame that many Christians think of it purely in terms of eastern mysticism and its American cousin, the “new age movement.” To be sure, there are numerous wrong ways to practice meditation. But there are godly ways to understand and practice it as well.

One of the first things we must understand about meditation, biblically understood, is that it is the process of filling your mind with God’s Word and it’s perspective on life, not emptying your mind. Donald Whitney points out that the Bible speaks of four areas that believers are called to meditate upon…

The first is on God’s Word. The Psalms are saturated in references to the blessed person delighting in the law, precepts, decrees, word, statutes, ways, and commands of God and meditating on them. Read Psalm 119 and you will immediately get the idea.

The second object of our meditation is God’s creation. Psalm 143:5 declares,

I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done.

The third proper focus of meditation is God’s providence. Scripture points out God’s mighty deeds throughout history and directs his children to reflect upon them.

The last area of meditation is God himself. Psalm 63:6 tells us that King David meditated on God himself during the night watches. Whitney sums this up by saying…

“These four, however, could be condensed to only two categories: meditation on the content of Scripture and meditation on the perspective of Scripture. In other words, meditation can focus either on the words of the Bible itself or on another subject from a biblical point of view. I refer to one as ‘meditation on Scripture’ and to the other as ‘mediation on life from a scriptural perspective.’” (Donald Whitney, Simplify Your Spiritual Life, p. 64)

Life is too short for followers of Christ to be asleep at the wheel of our thought-life. There are too many things in the world competing for our mental loyalty. As a former mentor of mine once put it, “the world will define you by default; the word will define you by discipline.” Meditating on God’s word takes effort and intentionality.

Don’t be afraid of meditation. It has been in the biblical lexicon for a few thousand years. It can be a wonderful means of grace to draw us closer to our Lord…to help us know him more clearly, love him more dearly, and follow him more nearly.

Stand Firm,
Dale

I saw an unusual happy hour sign this week that made me wonder what time is happy hour anyway. It seems like every establishment has a different time associated with happy hour and different drink specials. I decided to look into a few of the local happy hour favorites to see if there is any sort of consensus about what time happy hour is.

High Tide Burrito Co. – this is the place that started my quest. The happy hour at High Tide Burrito Co. is from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. AND 9:00 – 10:00 p.m. So at High Tide Burrito Co. you can pick your happy hour or enjoy two happy hours per day. Happy hour at High Tide Burrito Co. means $2 beers.

AIX – the happy hour at AIX lasts from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. AIX by far has the largest variety of drinks on special. Draft beers are 2 for 1, house wines are $6 per glass, margheritas for $6, sky vodkas with tonic for $3.95 and a variety of martini specials.

European Street – this is by far the happiest place in San Marco with a happy hour from 2:00 – 7:00 p.m. everyday. Their happy hour includes 2 for 1 drafts, $1 off wines by the glass and $2 off every bottle of wine.

So after all this research, I am still not sure what time happy hour is. But I do know that I can find a happy hour at almost anytime.

It’s two months away that leaves plenty of time to dust off your running shoes and sign-up for the Children’s Way 5K. This annual race benefits the Ronald McDonald House of Jacksonville. The 5K (only 3.1 miles) winds through San Marco, beginning at Children’s Way, down San Marco Boulevard to River Oaks Road and back up River Road to Children’s Way. You can run it or walk it and once you complete the race, you can enjoy a family fun day with face painting, arts and crafts and food! The race is part of the Jacksonville Grand Prix Series, which represents the 16 best running courses in Jacksonville. All racers will be timed with ChampionChip Timing System. You can register online or at First Place Sports conveniently located in San Marco Square. Not only is it a good cause, you can tell everyone you have been in a Grand Prix.

Dear Neighbors,

Welcome to summer in San Marco!  As your City Council representative, I’d like to update you on a few things our office has been working on in the past several months.

We, along with the City’s Public Works Department and RAM Professional group, hosted a community meeting in May to discuss the 90% plans of the San Marco Boulevard Streetscape Project. The designers and engineers listened and worked with local residents and merchants, including the San Marco Preservation Society, over the past few years to create a plan that has addressed concerns, logistics and aesthetics for the area.  The work will be done in eight, two-block segments from Naldo Avenue to Gary Street and should begin in January, 2010, just after the 2009 Holiday season. It’s projected to take about two years.  The finished product will boast two traffic circles (round-abouts), one at Landon and one at Naldo, historic light poles, underground utility wires, pedestrian-friendly eight-foot wide sidewalks and lots of great landscaping.  One more meeting is planned to give the community a chance to meet the contractor and discuss traffic flow and time-frames before the projected construction start date. You can go to http://www.ramprofessionalgroup.com to see meeting minutes, maps and details on this project, or to leave comments for our engineers.

Greenscape Celebration Park at Lasalle Street will be our newest pocket park in the neighborhood. Construction has started and we expect it to be complete by September. Along with Greenscape of Jacksonville and our Parks Department, we will be hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony at that time and look forward to celebrating with everyone. Also, at its completion, funds will be released to place benches and trash cans at Jim Rink Park, the first San Marco “Pocket Park” on the river, a block to the north at Cedar Street.

A request from the San Marco Preservation Society came in several months ago to install dog waste clean-up stations in five local parks.  We were able to fund the purchase and (forthcoming) installation of “Dogi Potis” for Greenridge, Fletcher, Landon, Largo, and Brown L. Whatley Parks. The additions of these Dogi Potis will assist our dog-walkers to clean up after their pets, creating a healthier, cleaner environment for all. This request was a follow-up to the successful installation and use of two Dogi Poti Stations that were placed in River Oaks Park in 2008.

I will be meeting soon with local residents and members of the San Marco Preservation Society to discuss the possibility of creating a landscaped walking path within FEC Park, located at 1620 Marco Place. The tentative, preliminary (and contingent upon funding) plans consist of a six-foot wide sidewalk winding through the back area of the park, connecting River Oaks Rd. to Marco Place, with five to six shade trees planted along the way. This design concept came about from local residents and members of the San Marco Preservation Society as a way to maximize the beauty and layout of this unique neighborhood green space.

We like to hear from you so please feel free to contact me with your questions or concerns, ideas or suggestions regarding San Marco or the City of Jacksonville, at my Council office at 630-1382 or by email at ashad@coj.net. Also, please call 630-CITY to report any Code Enforcement, Traffic, Public Works, Solid Waste, or other city concerns or complaints. This will generate a CARE issue (Citizen Active Response Effort), which is immediately sent to a specific City department for immediate response. This is a good tool to track common complaints and issues and helps the City determine where (and how often) problems exist and what has been done to address them.

Thank you for your efforts at maintaining San Marco’s beauty and charm. It is a pleasure to represent this unique area of Jacksonville. I wish all of you a happy and safe summer and look forward to seeing you in the neighborhood.

Boy, that’s a loaded question, isn’t it? I read recently in an article written for the Florida Times-Union that the generation gap is growing in our culture. The reporter quoted a UNF Sociology Professor Adam Shapiro who attributed the growing gap to information technology. I would imagine that he has some empirical evidence which suggests that the more “experienced” members of our society are alien to the use of things such as computers, the internet, and e-mail, much less more contemporary adaptations of such communication technology, such as Twitter, Facebook and texting. While I am very sure that this does not apply to all seniors, I do not doubt his assertions based on such data one little bit. It is a shame that this gap seems to be growing. Yet one place I see that still exists where young and old can and does come together for a common purpose is in our churches.
I was called to serve St. Mark Lutheran Church here in San Marco a year ago. The primary role I was called to serve in at Saint Mark’s was as Pastor for Youth, Family and Young Adult Ministry. But I still see my role as part of a pastoral care team which brings the love, care and compassion of God to the whole community. To me and our faith community at St. Marks, this means young and old, rich or poor, gay or straight, black or white, member or non-member. Our youth group, like many in our community, is preparing for special summer excursions aimed at going out to care for our neighbor as ourselves. This year, we go to New Orleans for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s National Youth Gathering. The focus of this gathering is faith exercised in service. 36,000 Lutheran youth gathered to support a community still struggling to heal and rebuild. Don’t get me wrong they will have fun in the process.
In preparing for this, the group has thrown its back into some major fundraising projects and raised a lot of money in the process. The Youth raised a lot of money in a time of economic hardship that has affected us all. But it has been the love, prayers and support of all of our members working together to accomplish this goal of taking youth so far away to serve in a community that many of our kids have never even been to, much less know anyone there. Young and old alike have worked together to bring others together, to offer healing and hope. All of our San Marco communities of faith have similar stories, if we just take the time to stop, look and listen. Don’t tell me churches don’t offer anything to our communities, I know better.

The Rev. Alan Peacock is the Associate Pastor of St. Marks Evangelical Lutheran Church on Hendricks Avenue in San Marco. Pastor Peacock is married and has a four-year old daughter. He was formerly the Magnet Lead Teacher and Assistant Football Coach at Wolfson High School here in Jacksonville. Email comments on this article to him at pastorapeacock@yahoo.com

The gourmands at Take Away Gourmet have announced new ways to enjoy their tasty dishes. TAG is now offering unlimited access to their food bar for $12.50 when you dine in. The price includes a fountain drink as well. Originally the food bar was $8.50 per pound. Now you can eat and eat and eat for $12.50.
TAG is also offering a new take away option for $19.95 that includes four dinners; each dinner includes a main course and two side dishes. This option cannot exceed four pounds.
And eating in or taking away, TAG now serves all natural frozen yogurt. If you haven’t tried TAG yet, stop in and take advantage of the exceptional culinary talent right around the corner.

Thanks to some loophole around gambling laws, San Marco is now home to one “internet café” and another is on its way. The San Marco Internet Café, 1543 San Marco Boulevard, is basically an online gambling center complete with raffles, drawings and free drinks, snacks and coffee during play. It is basically a small room with 30 computers set-up for internet gambling. The internet café is open from 11:00 a.m. until late, seven days a week.

If you actually do want to get on the internet, you can for $5 per hour or $3 for 30 minutes. Another “internet café” is opening two shops down from the San Marco Internet Café.

If you have students at Hendricks Avenue Elementary, you are probably aware that there has been a push in the last few years to improve the walking access for neighborhood children at the back of the school. This past year a permanent crossing guard was added and last week the city added a sidewalk to the east side of San Jose Boulevard (for access to the crosswalk). They also added a new sidewalk along San Jose between Saratoga Drive and Inwood Terrrace. Principal, Jane Owens-Thompson, is pleased with the additional sidewalks and noted that it will improve safety for our children as they walk to and from school.

San Marco Preservation Society has hired Karen Sistare to oversee operations at South Jacksonville City Hall.  Karen arrives to work two days a week on bus B7. It’s the last leg of her commute from Mandarin.  Her trip begins with a two mile bicycle ride from her home to the JTA Park n’ Ride facility on San Jose Boulevard where she catches the CT1 bus to Baymeadows Road.  From there, she changes to the connecting bus that drops her off in San Marco. She conceded that the trip takes approximately twice the time that it would take her to drive.  “It takes me about 30 minutes in the car”, she said.  Karen doesn’t mind spending a little more time commuting to work as she enjoys the benefits of not driving her own car–less stress, fuel savings, and good for the environment.  She also gets in some of her daily exercise from the bike ride.  “Yes, I am definitely more relaxed when I arrive at the office,” she says.  “I also notice a lot more of the scenery and I have discovered places that I never new existed.  Driving this route daily was a bit of a blur from my car.”

Karen describes the environment on the bus as pleasant, “most everyone seems to be going to work and the cool AC is great in the summer!  When the weather is cooler, I’ll put my bike on the bus in the mornings and cycle all the way home in the afternoons.  It will be great training for the MS Bike Ride.”  Karen is an avid cyclist and has participated in the MS 150 Bike Ride each of the last eight years.  Although Karen does not live in San Marco, she finds it a great place to work and loves being able to walk to the square for errands and lunch.

To find out more about the renovations of South Jacksonville City and its historic significance to our community visit www.smpsjax.com

For more information on communing to work visit the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization website at www.firstcoastmpo.com and look at commuter services. Information on bus schedules and routes can be obtained from the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) website at www.jtafla.com.