LIVE OAK - A plan to build a new office building at a prominent lot here has been scrapped, meaning the site will likely continue to serve as the seasonal home for sales of pumpkins and Christmas trees for the foreseeable future.

The proposal, calling for the construction of a 12,000-square-foot building at the corner of 17th Avenue and Brommer Street, gained traction in recent months, with Barry Swenson hoping to submit plans to the county in January.

But that momentum has ground to a halt, and "we have made a determination that we will not be moving forward with this development," according to Barry Swenson's Libby Glass, who was heading the project.

That decision was made soon after a Jan. 12 meeting at the Simpkins Family Swim Center, where area residents were invited to come and view a new architectural design and provide feedback on the overall plans. Everyone appeared happy with the new design, but still, they said, that area is zoned for retail stores that benefit the entire community, and that's not what Barry Swenson had in mind.

Of the tenants that had expressed interest in the building, two are now located at the Live Oak Business Park. They have to move anyway to make way for the new Mid-County Sheriff's headquarters, and they appeared to be on the verge of signing pre-lease agreements. That, Glass said last month, would make it easier to obtain financing.

"The building that we had designed, in terms of dimensions and function, was really more suitable for the types of (research and development) and office tenants we had intended to relocate from Live Oak Business Park," she acknowledged in an email Thursday.

The project was only viable with those tenants as well as retail, but "once it became clear that there would be restrictions placed upon the more office types of uses in the future, we had serious concerns regarding the long term financial feasibility of the project."

But Supervisor John Leopold, whose district includes Live Oak, said he thought it was more a matter of Barry Swenson not realizing the community's particular attachment to that lot. In 2000, the Live Oak Neighbors community group formed specifically to fight a plan to build a Wendy's Restaurant there.

"That corner has a history and it was easy to identify that these issues would come up, but (Barry Swenson) went forward with the process because they could get financing for it," he said.

Follow Sentinel reporter Kimberly White on Twitter @kwhite95066.

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Plans for office building at prominent Live Oak lot scrapped

A New York City construction firm that has done landmark projects in Westport has been chosen to build the new Westport Weston Family Y at the Mahackeno Outdoors Center.

The Y Thursday announced Turner Construction Co. would break ground in October for the new Y, which will replace the downtown facility.

"Westporters know Turner as the company that has given us a long list of successful community projects, including the reconstruction of Staples High School, renovation of the Westport Country Playhouse, the brand-new Bedford Middle School and the Center for Senior Activities," Steve Halstead, a member of the Family Y Construction Committee, said in a statement. "They understand the Westport and Weston communities and what is required to complete local construction projects on budget and on time."

The Mahackeno Y will include a 55,000-square-foot main building that will house a competitive lap pool and family/teaching pool; a wellness center; a gymnasium; three fitness studios; a child watch area; as well as other amenities.

The Westport Weston Family Y has also filed an application to connect the planned new Y facility to the town's municipal sanitary sewer system. The Family Y has already gained local and state approval to install and operate a septic system, which would provide on-site treatment of wastewater from the new Y facility.

The Y said it would hold an information meeting for its members and the public regarding its plans and designs for the Mahackeno facility on Wednesday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. at the existing Y at 59 Post Road East.

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Builder picked for new Family Y

Some musicians attend conservatories, perform in elaborate concert halls and cathedrals, and pride themselves on polished renditions of great masterworks, played note-for-note from the composers’ score.

Some pick out tunes by ear as they gather in parks and on back porches. They sing about their own lives and loves and pass their homespun musical traditions down through their families.

Classically trained musicians sound wonderful. Folk and bluegrass artists are finger-picking good. Yet the two musical camps are known to hold each other in dubious regard, and too rarely find common ground in the field both love.

“I started out with that same snobby perspective,” said Mary Danzig, a classically trained violinist who became a fiddler.

This week, Danzig is enjoying a rare chance to merge the two musical traditions she loves. Along with her husband, Peter Danzig, and other area bluegrass artists, she will be featured in Salt Lake Choral Artists’ performances of Carol Barnett’s “The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass.”

Mary Danzig’s exposure to folk music started after she married Peter Danzig, a classical violist and folk-music aficionado who also plays many traditional instruments. Her epiphany happened when she heard top-notch bluegrass groups perform at a Snowbird festival about five years ago. “All of a sudden I understood what this music was about,” she said. “It really just awoke this passion in me.”

Bluegrass music is blossoming among talented people who lacked formal training, but loved singing to their children, picking out tunes with neighbors and learning to play instruments as well as they could on their own, Danzig said.

“There is something incredible about taking a tradition passed down from one person to another, and putting everything I have into it, just as I would if it was a classical piece,” she said. “I don’t just suddenly become sloppy when I play bluegrass. I honor the tradition of people who may not have had as many opportunities, by making their music be everything they were trying to create.”

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SLCA music director Brady Allred said it wasn’t easy to find musicians to play the fiddle, mandolin, guitar, banjo and bass parts for the unusual Mass performance. “I had to find the right combination of classical musicians that could read standard notation, but also play chord symbols and improvise,” Allred said.

The bluegrass players who assume the role filled by orchestra or organ in a typical Mass must read a written score, follow a conductor and count their way through frequent meter changes — “stuff bluegrass players don’t do in normal playing,” Allred said. And they must pluck and bow in the lively language of bluegrass, with all its jangling verve.

The Danzigs and guitarist Rich Dixon, banjoist Nathan Keller and bassist Jim Thompson are musical bilinguals who are up to the challenge.

“[‘Bluegrass Mass’] keeps you off-balance in a really fun and unexpected way,” Mary Danzig said. “Some aspects of it sound very much like traditional Appalachian roots music. Then it changes meter and goes on to some incredible choral sections from classical tradition. It keeps weaving in and out of these two worlds.”

Danzig and her husband perform and record together as a folk duo called Otter Creek, drawing upon their deep backgrounds in classical music to burnish their folk music performances. Mary was the 2011 winner of the Utah State Fiddle Championship; Peter won the Utah State Mandolin Championship and took second place in the National Mandolin Championship.

Having been trained in note-reading from a young age, the most intimidating aspect of Mary Danzig’s folk-music transformation was learning to improvise music on the spot. She now believes that classical music training programs err in not teaching improvisation. “Bach, Mozart and Beethoven all knew how to improvise,” she said. “That’s part of what a classical musician was supposed to be able to do.”

Learning to create music spontaneously has done more than make Danzig an award-winning fiddler.

“It has helped me be a better classical musician,” she said. “I have to pay attention to what the chords are and what the other instruments are doing. With the music in front of you, you can get away without doing that, but that doesn’t make for the best music.”

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Plucking and bowing for a Mass in the language of bluegrass

POSTED: 5:51 pm CST February 16, 2012
UPDATED: 6:21 pm CST February 16, 2012

NEW ORLEANS -- Police are searching for thieves who appear to be targeting merchandise delivered to the front porches of several Uptown homes.At least three such cases have been reported in the past few weeks."A victim comes home and discovers that the package was delivered," New Orleans police Sgt. Warren Keller explained. "They confirm it with UPS, that it was delivered, but the package wasn't received."More than $1,500 in goods have been taken, including a motorized scooter and clothing.Nell Panida was alarmed to hear of the thefts."That is scary -- right there, that is kind of scary," she said.Panida has worked at an Uptown home for 14 years and said she has never heard of crooks targeting deliveries."They usually leave (mail and packages) underneath the rug or they leave it behind the tree right here so that no one can see it," she said.Keller warned there may be other victims who are not yet aware that their packages were taken."I spoke to a UPS facility manager," he said. "He explained to me that they track it as well, and he had a few more incidents, but we haven't had documentation or no one's reported it to us."That's why Keller is urging neighbors to contact the NOPD if they suspect items have been taken from their property.The U.S. Postal Service told WDSU that its carriers will not leave delivered packages on a doorstep once an area has been identified as a target by thieves.

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Thieves Targeting Package Deliveries In New Orleans Neighborhood

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Posted on February 16, 2012 at 6:17 PM

Updated today at 6:22 PM

NEW ORLEANS – The NOPD is warning the public,especially those Uptown, about reports of delivered packages beingstolen from people’s front porches.

A home security camera caught one suspect in the act.

Sergeant Warren Keller of the Second District said people have come home to see that a package had been delivered but isn’t around and then they call and confirm that it was delivered but isn’t there.

Authorities said a man stole a motorized chair valued at $1,500 off a front porch on Palmer Avenue.

Police say there have been three reports of separate incidents over the past two months.

“We’re encouraging our officers to be on the lookout for that,” said Keller. “If you see a package left out there, go knock on the door and advise them they have a package on the front porch.”

The local post office said it is also looking into the matter that they say is more common at Christmas. A spokesperson said they are telling their employees to be cautious of their surroundings.

“If you’re in an area that’s not safe, even though the package is still saying ‘leave for customer,’ take it back, leave a notice and have the customer come in and pick up the package,” said Sharon Varnado of the Post Office.

The post office advises its customers to get signature confirmation or insurance on all packages. The NOPD says it is looking into the possibility that someone may be following delivery trucks as they drop off the packages.

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NOPD says delivered packages being stolen off porches

15-02-2012 08:53 01.29.12 Service with Kelly Stickel, Victory Church, Lethbridge, AB. Renewal breaks down our resistance to God's rule in our life. A renewed mind results in a transformed life. In other words, to the degree that we get in on this process of renewal is the degree to which we will have success and experience transformation. In the conclusion to the series Pastor Kelly talks about part two of the renewal process.

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01.29.12 Character Under Construction - pt 5 - Video

Sienna Miller put a little femme in fashion during New York Fashion week, flashing her baby bump Tuesday at "The Ever Changing Face of Beauty" video installation.

Miller, 30, and boyfriend Tom Sturridge, 26, an actor, have been playing it a bit coy about their first child together, with word leaking out early in January that they were expecting.

The British actress, a spokeswoman for the Boss Orange fragrance, wore a Boss Black to the event hosted by W magazine's editor in chief, Stefano Tonchi, according to On the Red Carpet.

Miller was previously engaged to actor Jude Law, but that relationship fell apart for the first time after he'd admitted to an affair with his children's nanny, who was caring for Law's three kids with his first wife. They got back together after the 2006 breakup, but finally called it quits a little more than a year ago.

Sturridge and Miller have reportedly been dating for about a year, according to Us Weekly, which reported the pregnancy in January.

They "don't have plans right away to marry, if at all," a source told the mag.

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Photo: Sienna Miller on Tuesday at "The Ever Changing Face of Beauty" video installation by fashion photographer Solve Sundsbo, part of New York Fashion Week. Credit: Evan Agostini / Associated Press

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HAYWARD, Calif. (KGO) -- A Hayward woman had her carpet ripped out and replaced with laminate flooring. That's when her problems started and the problems didn't end until she got in touch with 7 On Your Side. Everyone agrees that the installation job was unacceptable. The issue was what or who is to blame.

Bela Rajpoot loves her new laminate floor, but it didn't start out that way. She points to some of the former problem spots.

"Right over here, the wood was getting bumped up like this in places and over here it also was happening the same thing, the gap from the wall to the wood was getting bigger and bigger," said Rajpoot.

The blue tape in photos from Bela marks where bumps developed on the plank. Another photo shows the gap between the wall and the flooring.

"It was almost like a quarter inch of a gap over here," said Rajpoot.

The material ripped out from her home is stacked in the corner at A to Z Carpet Flooring in Hayward where Rajpoot bought her flooring.

"This is all her stuff. When we pulled it out, it's all garbage," said Naim Rahimi from A to Z Carpet.

The store's owner explains what happened.

"The material in the lock system is defective. So doesn't hold the lock together," said Rahimi.

Rahimi tells us that the individual boards are supposed to lock together, but that the locks failed to work. He blamed the manufacturer.

"So the manufacturer sends an inspector to inspect the flooring. They inspect the flooring and they say material is not wrong. Flooring is wrong," said Rajpoot.

We called Expo Floors and it sent us two inspection reports from two different inspectors. In the reports, the Expo inspector wrote, "The floor felt uneven, and should have been leveled prior to the installation."

"It's not her floor. Her floor was perfectly fine," said Rahimi.

A to Z Carpet refused to reinstall it until Expo floors replaced what A to Z considered defective material. Meanwhile, Rajpoot was left with a living room where half the flooring had been ripped out and half was still there.

Her mother tripped and badly hurt her knee and bruised her arms. We contacted A to Z and asked them why the customer was caught in the middle of a dispute between the store and manufacturer.

"'You need to get this thing done right away' and that's when they had to take care of it and reinstall the whole flooring," said Rajpoot.

And they did, Rajpoot got her new floor.

"Michael Finney and his team really knows how to get the problem resolved and help the customers," said Rajpoot.

We're glad to have helped. If you have a problem you can't get resolved, email 7 On Your Side.

(Copyright ©2012 KGO-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

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CHELSEA, Mass., Feb. 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Award-winning architecture, historic restoration, preservation and master-planning firm The Architectural Team has announced that managing principal, Robert J. Verrier, has been elected to the American Institute of Architects (AIA) prestigious College of Fellows.

The Fellowship program, one of the highest professional honors for American architects, was developed by the Washington, D.C.-based AIA to elevate those architects who have made a significant contribution to architecture and society and who have achieved a standard of excellence in the profession.

"It's a tremendous honor to be recognized as an AIA Fellow, and one that reminds us that our mission goes beyond designing buildings," says Verrier, "It is a life-work commitment to making the world a better place in which to work, to live, to learn and to grow."

This year, 105 architects from around the country were awarded the Fellow designation, by showing they are "advancing the living standards of people through an improved environment" and "making the profession of ever-increasing service to society."

Verrier is well known nationally among architects involved in historic landmarks, affordable housing and multifamily development. His projects are noteworthy for revitalizing communities, especially waterfront sites, historic mills, hospitals, and disadvantaged zones of his native greater Boston.

Verrier's love of old buildings, and his passion for the preservation of historic fabric, has overlapped with his devotion to creating "quality, safe and attractive housing for those who could not afford it otherwise." Historic restoration projects with affordable housing include The Franklin Square House and Kenmore Abbey, both in Boston. Verrier enjoys an unusually strong reputation among real estate developers, business and institutional leaders, and charitable groups.

The announcement comes as The Architectural Team celebrates its 41st anniversary, and it adds to Verrier's long list of honors, including a lifetime achievement designation from Habitat for Humanity of Greater Boston in 2010.  

Founded in 1971, The Architectural Team, Inc. (www.architecturalteam.com) is a 60-person master planning and architectural firm with a portfolio of distinctive solutions for large urban mixed-use developments, multifamily residential, commercial, hospitality, recreational, and academic facilities, and a national reputation for historic preservation and adaptive reuse.

Contact: Chris Sullivan
914.462.2096 chris@ccsullivan.com

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The Architectural Team's Bob Verrier Elected to AIA College of Fellows

As more jobs are created and some Americans are beginning to feel more confident about the economy, stock prices have surged across the board. While most sectors have benefited from this surge in optimism, a few of the more cyclical—and heavily beaten down—corners of the market have seen even more impressive performances to start the year. No more has this been true than in the construction segment, as investors have piled into this corner of the market thanks to solid data, reasonable valuations, and hopes for greater demand going forward.

These expectations have been further boosted by strong economic indicators relative to the construction space specifically. Recent readings on the construction spending front came in well above expectations in terms of month/month reports, while other metrics such as housing starts also posted favorable figures. Beyond these data points, investors have also seen favorable releases regarding both personal income and the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index, all the while rates have stayed low, keeping borrowing costs at a minimum for those looking to expand their operations (read Three Cyclical ETFs That Are Surging Higher).

As a result of this broadly improving economic environment, low borrowing costs, and the vast wealth of untapped capital stored up by many businesses, some are forecasting that a resurgence in the building sector could have some staying power. This could especially be true if the trends highlighted above remain strong and investors continue to pile into highly cyclical industries like construction for their equity exposure (read Three Industrial ETFs For A Manufacturing Revival).

In light of this, it may be a good idea to tilt portfolios towards the building sector, at least in the short-term. While an investment in an individual stock could be an intriguing idea, some investors may be better off seeking broad exposure to the sector via an ETF. For these investors, we have highlighted three construction ETFs that could be in prime position to benefit from this positive trend in the construction world, or at least surge if the economic climate continues to improve as we go further into 2012:

ISE Global Engineering and Construction Index Fund (FLM)

If investors are looking for a global way to play this trend, both from an engineering and construction perspective, FLM is tough to beat. The product tracks the ISE Global Engineering and construction index which focuses in on firms that are principally engaged in the production or completion of large civil and capital projects or any aspect of the engineering process. In order to weight securities, the fund uses a linear-based cap-weighted method which stops a few firms from dominating the performance of the total index. With this strategy, the fund holds just under 70 securities although it does charge investors 70 basis points a year in fees (read Three Outperforming Active ETFs).

Top holdings for FLM are Vinci SA, McDermott international (MDR), and Fluor Corp (FLR), giving the fund a heavy tilt towards industrial firms. However, the product does have a median market cap of just $2.3 billion, suggesting a smattering of mid and small caps are in the fund. In fact, mid caps make up a majority of the fund’s assets at close to two-thirds of the total. In terms of country exposure, U.S. securities make up about one-quarter of assets while Japan (19.1%), and developed Europe (44%) make up much of the rest of the fund.

Dynamic Building & Construction Portfolio (PKB)

If investors are searching for a U.S centric play on the broad sector, PKB could be the way to go. The PowerShares fund tracks the Dynamic Building & construction Intellidex which consists of 30 companies in the U.S. from those sectors. The product also utilizes a more quantitative methodology which looks to evaluate companies based on a number of investment criteria including growth, valuation, timeliness, and risk factors. This approach produces a fund that charges a net expense ratio of 63 basis points a year, after current fee waivers of 28 basis points (also read Are Telecom ETFs In Trouble?).

Current top holdings include Vulcan Materials (VMC), KBR Inc (KBR), and Home Depot (HD) suggesting that while the fund has a heavy tilt towards industrials, consumer firms make up a decent chunk as well. In fact, industrials make up about 52% of the fund while consumer discretionary (23.5%) and materials (19.2%) help to round out the fund from an industry perspective. For market capitalization exposure, the product has a definite focus on smaller firms as mid caps make up a plurality at about 40% of the fund while small and micro make up another 50% of the product, leaving just 10% for large and giant cap firms. This suggests that the fund could be more volatile than some in the sector, pushing standard deviation levels up compared to more large cap focused funds in the industrial and materials sectors.

Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction Index Fund (ITB)

For investors searching for more of a housing recovery play, ITB could be an interesting choice. The product tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Select Home Construction Index which is a broad benchmark of firms that includes companies that construct residential homes including mobile and prefab domiciles. Homebuilders make up roughly two-thirds of the total exposure, although firms in the building materials segment occupy another 19.5% while home improvement firms take up another 9% of total assets (see Five Cheaper ETFs You Probably Overlooked).

This is in stark contrast to the SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) as this product puts less than 30% of its assets in homebuilders, giving double digit weights to home furnishing retail and home furnishing manufacturers. As a result, ITB could be more of a pure play on construction and thus make for an intriguing play for those focused in on this corner of the market. Total holdings include 27 firms while DR Horton takes the top spot, followed closely by Lennar Corp and Pulte Group. The product charges 47 basis points a year in fees but pays out a respectable 65 basis points in dividends in 30-Day SEC Yield terms.

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