What a difference a year makes.

Nearly a year to the day after the Lincoln Public Schools headquarters burned to the ground, city and district officials celebrated the new office building -- and commercial development -- that will replace it.

Unlike a year ago, this is a perfect day today, LPS Superintendent Steve Joel told a group of employees and local dignitaries who gathered on the dirt at 59th and O streets, where construction workershave been preparing the site for weeks.

The district is building a new multistory office building that will be close to 100,000 square feet. Officialsestimate the building will cost about $15 million.

Continuum, aDenver-based company that will develop the commercial space,will payLPS $2.3 million for 1.65 acres, plus another $580,000 to help with the site preparation. The developer also will spend $280,000 to create a "plaza-like" setting on the site.

LPS continues to negotiate with itsinsurance carrier, which had insured the building for up to $15.6 million.Sofar, the district has received about $11.7 millionof insurance money for the building, plus about $2.7 million forvarious expenses, including thetemporary building leases.The district also has gotten the bulk of $3.7 million for computer hardware.

Nancy Biggs, associate superintendent of human resources, said the district is submitting expenses as they incur them.

The districtalso is building a new data center for its computer systems and renovating the distribution center to house the district's print shop, and it is unclear at this point whether insurance will cover any ofthose costs.

Tuesday morning, however, was not about dollars and cents; it was aboutceremony: remembering what happened, thanking the community and celebrating the soon-to-be-builtheadquartersandthe impending arrival of Whole Foods Market, which will anchor the commercial space.The plan also calls for11,600 square feet of yet-to-be-determined commercial space.

We look on this as a new chapter, of remembering, welcoming and breaking ground, Joel said.

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LPS breaks ground on new district office and commercial space

by Amber Gillenwater mdtnews@mydailytribune.com Gallipolis Daily Tribune

GALLIPOLIS During a regular meeting on Tuesday, the Gallipolis City Commission passed an emergency ordinance rejecting bids for the construction of a city administration building.

According to Gallipolis City Manager Randy Finney, three bids came in for the construction of the project, at prices all above the engineers estimate.

The lowest bid came in from Brenmar Construction at $760,000, followed by a bid of $762,000 from Kinsale Construction and a bid of $766,000 from Hoon, Inc.

Finney reported that the bids were expected to come in at approximately $500,000 to $550,000.

Were $200,000 over what we thought we would be, so we need to make some decisions about where we need to go from here, Finney said.

Finney further reported that an increase in materials, prevailing wages and an increase in work for local construction companies may be to blame for the high bids.

Weve been seeing increases in materials, and I think the contractors are actually getting busier now. When we went out to bid last year [on the city justice center], they were desperate for work, and Kinsale took a rate just to keep his people busy, I think. Now people have jobs, and they have people working at different places and you can see the bids are very competitive, Finney said.

The city has plans to construct the administrative facility that will house the citys utility office, city managers office, tax office, code enforcement/parks and recreation and city auditors offices on city-owned property in the 300 block of Third Avenue.

Public hearings in regard to the construction of the facility were held earlier this year and the city was on schedule to begin to construct the facility soon after awarding of a bid. However, Finney also reported on his concerns about the lot located next to Peoples Bank proposed to be utilized in the construction.

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Commission rejects city admin building construction bids

28-05-2012 18:30 RemodelWorks General Contractors of Orange County, California are experts at Room Additions. Increase the value of your home by adding and a den, family room, bedroom, home office, playroom, home gym, craft room, home theater, sunroom, guest room or a larger kitchen.

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RemodelWorks (855) 44-WORKS Room Additions and Home Remodeling - Video

29-05-2012 19:30 Shows sunroom addition that replaced screened in porch. Discusses James Hardie Siding, Azek trim boards and crowns, inside trim and LED Maxim lights on tie beams

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Sunroom Addition Cathedral Ceiling LED Lights by Tatcor.com Building

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Brad Sveinson (seated) of the Manitoba Home Builders' Association with Andrew Stibbard, whose home is being renovated. (PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

Home-renovation fever is showing no signs of abating in Manitoba, even though homeowners are scaling back their reno plans in other parts of the country, a new survey shows.

The survey for the Bank of Montreal found 67 per cent of Manitoba/Saskatchewan homeowners plan to renovate their homes this year. That's virtually unchanged from a year earlier, when it was 68 per cent.

But it's a much different story nationally and in most other regions of the country, where the number of homeowners planning to renovate this year is down substantially. For Canada, it's 51 per cent versus 62 per cent in 2011.

The chairman of the 40-member Manitoba Home Builders' Association-Renomark Renovators Council said he's not surprised by the Manitoba results.

"None of our members are seeing any slowdown at all," said Brad Sveinson, co-owner of Character Homes Ltd. "Some of us are already taking bookings for next year."

"Manitoba has always been the Canadian leader in home renovations," added MHBA president Mike Moore. "We may not spend as much as they do in some other regions, but we do more renovating."

A case in point are Winnipeggers Andrew and Stephanie Stibbard. They're in the midst of doubling the size of their 1,330-square-foot bungalow on Churchill Drive by adding a second storey and a four-season sunroom.

"We've got three kids and we were running out of space," Andrew Stibbard said Monday. "So we had a choice to make: move out of our community or renovate and stay in our community. And we love our community... so we decided it was a no-brainer (to renovate)."

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Manitoba Canada's leader in home renovations

07:07 GMT, May 29, 2012 The Daily Mirror has reported that there is a risk that the new Joint Strike Fighter jets set to fly from the Royal Navy's new aircraft carriers may melt the ships' decks when they land.

It claims the Ministry of Defence (MOD) is seeking help from the Americans to develop a new 'super-tough, heat-resistant deck-coating'. The paper also suggests that this issue is a further setback for the programme following the decision not to go ahead with fitting the carriers with catapults and arrestor gear ('cats and traps') technology.

The MOD will save 2 billion by not fitting 'cats and traps' and this will greatly offset the relatively small cost of deck paint. Deck-coating was always part of the short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) variant ship specification.

Work to identify a suitable deck-coating is ongoing with our American partners in this project, so exact costs are not yet available.

---- Official Blog of the UK MOD

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UK MOD Reacts to Media Report About "Melting" Aircraft Carrier Decks

GREENVILLE, SC --

Greenville County School District officials said that air tests at amiddle school show that air samples conducted at the school show no elevated level of mold or other contaminate in the building.

Greenville County School District spokesman Oby Lyles said in a prepared release that Berea Middle School Principal Robin Mills sentamessage to parents and staff at the school apprising them of the situation. Last week, small levels of mold were found in the school, causing some areas to be closed.

In the phone message left by Mills, she stated that after inspection and testing of areas where smalllevels of mold were detected, school district personnel trained in the identification and remediation of mold conducted a more intrusive inspection.

"These actions Friday night involved opening of spaces not exposed to occupants and in some areas removing some building material," she said. "These actions could have released mold into the air so as an extra precaution our environmental engineering firm conducted air quality tests throughout the building including areas above the ceiling. Test results were received Sunday afternoon. Air tests revealed that there isno stachybotrys in the air."

Mills went on to add, "In fact, the air samples showno elevated level of any mold or any other contaminate in the building. The environmental engineering firm has provided written assurance to the district that Berea Middle School is "safe for student and staff occupancy."

In addition to the previously closed "wing" of the school, traces of mold behind the floor molding in the health room, guidance area and assistant principals' offices were found, Mills said.Mills said that they are relocating those rooms because sheetrock that was touching the concrete foundation was found, and it is believed to be the possible cause of the mold.

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More Mold Found At Berea Middle School, Air Tests Prove Negative

CHATHAM Local residents were out seeking shade under trees or sitting in chairs on their porches or front lawns shortly before 11 a.m. Monday as firefighters and band members assembled on Woodbridge Avenue, all for Chathams annual Memorial Day parade.

Meghan Distin, 7, was sitting on the shady front lawn of a Kinderhook Street house with her great-grandmother, Jean Wadsworth, of Old Chatham, her great-aunt Benita Loyche and her cousin, Rebecca Loyche, as she does every year at this time. Marching in the parade were Meghans father, Chatham Fire Chief Matthew Distin, her brother, Andrew, 12, who was riding in a fire truck and her aunt, firefighter Kelly Distin.

Meghan said her favorite part is always seeing her father march by, carrying a flag or an ax.

Sitting on the porch were Danielle and Peter Palleschi.

And a glorious day to boot, added Peter.

Chatham Police Officer David Moon, directing traffic at Park Place and Kinderhook Street, said the parade was not as busy as last year, but a fine day to do it, especially since its not raining.

Jim and Anita Cartin of Kinderhook Street were standing with a large group of people in the shade of trees at the corner of Kinderhook Street and Park Place. Jim tried to remember when they first started coming to the event.

Ever since the kids were in band, he said. Son Matthew Cartin, here with his family from Atlanta, Ga., said he was in band in 1987. But daughter Bridget Lieberum of Thurman, Warren County, said the family had had marchers from the Girl Scouts in the parade from 1982 to 1997.

The master of ceremonies at the village gazebo was William Hogan of the Chatham American Legion. His wife, Post Commander Melissa Hogan, was the keynote speaker.

Freedom is our call, but it doesnt come free, Hogan said. The meaning of this day impacts the whole world. Tens of millions of veterans put their lives on hold to wear the uniform.

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Parade honors lost soldiers

Textbook Painting is headed for a great season. With little more than half a month under their belts, the student-run house painting and deck staining firm had booked enough jobs for its two local crews to keep busy into mid-June.

According to managers Brian Stecker of New Haven, who heads the northeast crew, and Troy Sutterfield of the southeast crew, they were well ahead of last year's pace and hoped to have enough jobs lined up by the end of this month to carry them into July. About half the jobs to that point, 30 in fact, had been scraping, power washing and staining decks, while the other 30 had been house painting. Total revenue for the two local crews and the one in Auburn as of Saturday was closing in on $100,000.

The week of May 14, Sutterfield's crew stained the deck and painted trim around the screened-in porch at the home of State Sen. David Long and his wife, Melissa.

A door-to-door canvass of our neighborhood by Troy a couple weeks ago turned out to be perfect timing, Melissa Long said. Getting the deck stained was on our to-do list this summer. I was impressed with his thorough presentation and we decided to take them up on the offer.

She liked their professionalism.

They showed up when they said they would, got right to work, cleaned up, finished by late afternoon; we did a walk-around with Troy and approved the work.

She's satisfied with the job the crew did.

They did a nice job, and we're very happy with the results.

Crew members work 30 to 40 hours a week, while Stecker and Sutterfield put in close to 60. They agree that the toughest part is tracking down jobs by contacting customers who are looking for their services and doing some door-to-door cold-sales calls at residences and business to keep the crews busy.

When they see a business that looks like it needs a face lift, they drop in. The technique has proved successful. Marketing and publicizing also falls under their job description.

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Business booming for student-run painting firm

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire -05/28/12)- According to the Annual BMO Home Renovation Report, fewer Canadians are planning home renovations this year but are choosing projects with the greatest returns - a sign that consumers are scaling back and becoming more strategic on spending amid rising concern about household debt.

Half of Canadian homeowners (51 per cent) plan to renovate their homes in the next year, compared with 62 per cent in 2011. Single family homeowners far out-pace their condo-dwelling counterparts (62 per cent versus 41 per cent respectively).

Regionally, the report revealed:

"The scaled-back plans for home renovations likely reflect increased caution on the part of households as they continue to reduce discretionary spending to rein in debt," said Sal Guatieri, Senior Economist, BMO Capital Markets. "After averaging 9 per cent in the past decade, consumer loan growth has slowed to almost 2 per cent recently, suggesting Canadians are taking recent debt warnings to heart."

The study, conducted by Leger Marketing, also revealed the top five renovation plans for Canadians:

"Making home upgrades can add significant value to a home; however, it's crucial that homeowners consider the financial implications involved," Laura Parsons, Mortgage Expert, BMO Bank of Montreal. "Renovation projects come in different shapes and sizes and vary in return on investment. Homeowners planning to move forward with renovations should consult a professional to help balance wants versus needs and the overall value of the investment."

Ms. Parsons added that if the renovations are smaller in size and spaced out over a few months, a personal line of credit can give homeowners the flexibility to borrow what they need, when they need it. For larger projects, homeowners can consider a secured line of credit, such as BMO Homeowner ReadiLine.

HGTV.ca and BMO offer the following advice on which renovation projects provide the best return on investment to help Canadians make sense of their reno plans:

1. Painting: When done well and with taste, applying a fresh coat of paint to the interior or exterior of a home is a simple way to realize gains on your renovation investment. Return: As much as 300 per cent.

2. Kitchen remodeling: A kitchen renovation can be one of the most costly home improvement projects, However, careful planning, budgeting and shopping will help minimize expenses. Consider aspects such as whether or not the project is in line with the style and quality of the rest of the house and neighbourhood. Return: 68-120 per cent.

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BMO Home Renovation Report: Canadians Scale Back Plans for Spending in 2012