LISBON - The 162 property owners in St. Clair Township who failed to hook into a new sewer line will soon be getting a warning letter in the mail from the Columbiana County Health Department.

The health board voted at Wednesday's meeting to have Health Commissioner Wes Vins send the letters which threaten court action if the property owners refuse to hook into the sewer line that services the Substation and Glenmoor sections of St. Clair Township.

There are 445 properties - about 400 households and 45 businesses - located along the main sewer line and branches. Properties within 200 feet of a sanitary sewer line are required by state law to hook in since this project was ordered by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

The sewer line was installed by county commissioners, but the health department is responsible for enforcing the law. The project was completed about a year ago, and Vins said 162 of the properties have yet to hook in.

The warning letters, which are expected to be mailed out by week's end, give property owners 30 days to contact the health department and make arrangements to hook into the sewer line.

Board President Dr. Jack Amato expects the letter and news stories may solve most of the problem. "Hopefully, people read this and will be willing to join in rather than be forced," he said.

Property owners did not have to pay a tap fee because the county was able to obtain 62 percent federal and state grants to pay for the $9 million project. The construction loans obtained to cover the rest are to be repaid with monthly user fees charged the new customers.

The homeowners are required to pay the cost of hiring an excavator to install a connector line from their house to the sewer line, as well as the expense of filling in the abandoned septic tank. County Engineer Bert Dawson said he heard those costs have been running between $700 to $2,000, and Vins said the letter will advise property owners of possible government funding sources to help them pay the expense.

The law will be enforced through the monthly sewer bill property owners are to receive, regardless of whether they are hooked in or not. If they fail to pay the bill, the Buckeye Water District will be instructed to shut off water service to the property, and the sewer bill will go on the property taxes.

More:
Property owners to get warning letter

Members of the Boone Lake Association and officials with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation got an up-close look Wednesday at Johnson Citys Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant and three new sewer pump stations constructed to provide great capacity to the citys sewer system.

Around this time a year ago, the city held a dedication ceremony for the Johnson City Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant, which was also part of Wednesdays tour. At the same time that project was under way, the city worked to replace and expand three key sewer pumping stations two along Cedar Point Road in the Carroll Creek community and the other on Honaker Court in Gray and install approximately 31,000 feet of sewer line. The stations, which were a half-decade in the making and went online in May, serve the areas of Carroll Creek, Boones Creek and Snyder Creek.

The significance of these stations is that as you have the need for sewer service in the Carroll Creek drainage basin or the Boones Creek drainage basin or other drainage basins north of Johnson City, this will provide future capacity to allow additional sewage flows to be taken to the regional plant, said Tom Witherspoon, Johnson City director of Water and Sewer Services. It will also minimize the number of customers that will have to have septic tanks, which is a concern as far as the water quality in Boone Lake.

Witherspoon said planning on a project involving the pumping stations and sewer lines began about the same time construction started on the Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant in 2007. He said the existing pumping stations, which were constructed in the late 1970s, were in need of replacement.

With a lot of mechanical equipment and with capacity, we had gotten about as much use out of those stations as what they were designed for, Witherspoon said. The city upgraded the equipment at the stations, and also added capacity over the existing stations. Each station also has equipment that will send signals to the regional plant, providing information on how each of the pumps are functioning and what flow rates are. The regional plant will also be alerted if there are any issues at the stations, so personnel can quickly address the issue before sewage goes out into the lake, Witherspoon said.

Each pumping station was also constructed with a dedicated standby generator. In the event of a power loss, these generators will allow each station to continue to function and pump wastewater.

Thats good for us, and thats a good thing for the lake, Witherspoon said.

Witherspoon said replacing the stations presented a challenge, as the existing stations needed to remain operational during construction. Construction of the new stations and the sewer line work, which Witherspoon said was publicly funded, cost around $10 million and was completed in two separate contracts.

This is part of our water/sewer capital plan, and it took about five years to deliver this, Witherspoon said.

View post:
New Johnson City wastewater pump station toured by officials

Ray Bradbury: The outpouring of tributes to the great speculative-fiction writer Ray Bradbury, who died June 5, included one with an architectural bent. Steve Rose writes in his weekly architectural column in the Guardian about Bradbury as an architectural "imagineer" who took a keen interest in urban design, and a key influence -- "for better or worse" -- on theme parks and urban malls. He quotes Bradbury on the latter:

"Malls are substitute cities, substitutes for the possible imagination of mayors, city councilmen and other people who don't know what a city is while living right in the centre of one. So it is up to corporations, creative corporations, to recreate the city."

Rose concludes: "The only architecture that would really have satisfied him, one suspects, is a permanent moon base, from which to launch manned expeditions to Mars."

"No front porches. My uncle says there used to be front porches. And people sat there sometimes at night, talking when they wanted to talk, rocking, and not talking when they didn't want to talk. Sometimes they just sat there and thought about things, turned things over. My uncle says the architects got rid of the front porches because they didn't look well. But my uncle says that was merely rationalizing it; the real reason, hidden underneath, might be they didn't want people sitting like that, doing nothing, rocking, talking; that was the wrong KIND of social life. People talked too much. And they had time to think. So they ran off with the porches."

-- Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 Home, sweet cubicle: For many of us, a cubicle is our home away from home, which makes this roundup of funky office cubicles just home-related enough to include here. There's a pop-up cardboard office -- think of a giant pop-up card -- and the Kruikantoor portable office by Tim Vinke, which looks a lot like a recycling bin. Gotta love the way the chairs fit into it. There's an office in a box by Toshihiko Suzuki for Kenchikukagu. A puffy one that inflates. A solar-powered outdoor workspace. The uber-cool Hus 1 garden office by Torsten Ottesj. And possibly my favorite, the iTrunk Pocket Office by Pinel & Pinel, which is pink and has a cabinet front that looks like an iPod.

Bathroom amenity: An extra-long bathroom in a Vancouver, B.C., home presented a challenge with its dimensions: 16 feet long and 9 feet wide. Interior designer Kelly Deck writes: "Done poorly, (the room) was almost certain to feel like a bowling alley."

The solution was to bookend the bathroom with two millwork towers: one opposite the toilet for storage; and the other, across from the steam shower, offering a place to sit, hooks for hanging robes, open shelves for fresh towels, and two drawers for more storage.

The tower with seating bench is brilliant, and looks inviting in the photo. Every bathroom that's large enough should have one. As for the steam shower, that's probably grand, too.

-- Pat Jeffries

If you want to automatically receive a free daily homes and gardens tip, sign up at OregonLive.com's newsletter subscription site.

More here:
From the home front: Ray Bradbury and architecture; office cubicles; bedroom and bath design

12-06-2012 22:39 Church Building with Building Gods Way @ , shares an incredible building strategy with church leaders. Building God's Way is a remarkable network of services that includes ministering to workers on the jobsite while in the church construction process. Don't wait till your building is finished before you reach out to further growth in His kingdom BGW has a nationwide builder network, specializing in church building, that fully endorse and support the Ministry of Construction outreach program. An example of that Builder network is listed here, visit any to learn more: Connect with us on facebook & twitter:

More here:
Church Building with BGW's Don Mahoney - Building pt 2 - Video

13-06-2012 00:44 Church Building with Building Gods Way @ , shares an incredible building strategy with church leaders. Building God's Way is a remarkable network of services that includes ministering to workers on the jobsite while in the church construction process. Don't wait till your building is finished before you reach out to further growth in His kingdom BGW has a nationwide builder network, specializing in church building, that fully endorse and support the Ministry of Construction outreach program. An example of that Builder network is listed here, visit any to learn more: Connect with us on facebook & twitter:

Read the original here:
Church Building with BGW's Don Mahoney - Building pt 4 - Video

13-06-2012 02:13 Church Building with Building Gods Way @ , shares an incredible building strategy with church leaders. Building God's Way is a remarkable network of services that includes ministering to workers on the jobsite while in the church construction process. Don't wait till your building is finished before you reach out to further growth in His kingdom BGW has a nationwide builder network, specializing in church building, that fully endorse and support the Ministry of Construction outreach program. An example of that Builder network is listed here, visit any to learn more: Connect with us on facebook & twitter:

Read the original:
Church Building with BGW's Don Mahoney - Building pt 5 - Video

13-06-2012 07:09 Cogun Consultant Randy Ongie talks about his buiilding expansion experience at Grace Fellowship Church.

See original here:
RDO video 2.mp4 - Video

Residents fight construction of low-income duplexes

Residents in one neighborhood are trying to stop duplexes from being built near their homes.

The Meyerland Community Improvement Association held a meeting Wednesday night, and it was full of outspoken residents.

The Presbyterian Children's Homes and Services plans to build four duplex units on the property of St. John's Presbyterian Church, located at 5020 W. Bellfort.

According to a letter sent out to residents of Meyerland, "The plan is to utilize the undeveloped property belonging to the church for the construction and operation of residences for single parents and their children. This particular program will focus on single parents who have limited education or job skills."

Meyerland is one of Houston's oldest deed-restricted neighborhoods. Even though some residents live right across the street from St. John's Presbyterian Church, the church's property does not sit inside Meyerland's boundary lines. Therefore, the church is not subject to the neighborhoods restrictions.

The Presbyterian Children's Homes and Services, along with St. John's, held the meeting with residents as a courtesy to answer any questions and receive feedback.

"I don't feel like our questions were answered," said Trey Stafford, who has lived in Meyerland with his family for four years. "Many of us have concerns about this project. We worry about security and our property value going down."

"The property will be secure," said John Burnham, who is the pastor of St. John's Presbyterian Church. "When we stand before our maker, are we going to primarily be concerned about our property values or our values for showing support for the poor? I have lived in Meyerland for five years and I know of several residents who are for the housing program because they see the need and desire to show compassion."

Some residents said they are all for helping people, but they don't want that to potentially cause their quality of life to be decreased.

More:
Residents fight construction of low-income duplexes

Home sales up. Inventories down. Prices rising in many cities. New houses being built at the fastest pace in years. Interest rates hovering at historic lows. A vibrant rental market.

A growing body of data in recent months has suggested that better days are on the horizon for the nations battered housing market, though it remains clear that a turnaround wont come quickly.

The latest harbinger of (mostly) encouraging news: the annual State of the Nations Housing report released Thursday by Harvard Universitys Joint Center for Housing Studies, which details more signs of revival.

While still in the early innings of a housing recovery, rental markets have turned the corner, home sales are strengthening, and a floor is beginning to form under home prices, Eric S. Belsky, the centers managing director, said in a statement accompanying the report.

The Harvard report, released annually since 1988, assesses nearly every aspect of the countrys housing and rental markets. The findings this year offer glimmers of optimism that have been largely absent in recent years. Among them: an increase in sales of existing homes, fewer homes lingering on the market, an uptick in residential construction, signs of stabilizing prices in many areas, falling rental vacancy rates and low interest rates that make purchasing more affordable.

In addition, a new National Housing Survey released by mortgage giant Fannie Mae shows that despite the turmoil of recent years, most Americans still have strong aspirations to own a home, though fewer people than in the past see it as a lucrative investment.

In spite of the impact of the housing crisis on home values and homeownership rates across the country, Americans by and large still hope to become homeowners, Doug Duncan, Fannie Maes chief economist, said in a statement accompanying the survey results. Some may not be financially positioned to own a home in the near future, but Americans may begin to revisit that aspiration as employment and household balance sheets improve over the coming years.

Of course, the slivers of heartening news about the nations housing situation are still outweighed by troubles, and those who talk of a future recovery also acknowledge the uncertainty of the present.

The Harvard report notes that more than 2 million homes were in some stage of foreclosure during the early part of 2012, with more facing a similar fate. The number of borrowers delinquent on their mortgages has fallen, but its still far higher than historical averages.

In addition, more than 11 million homeowners owe more than their houses are worth, and the total amount of that negative equity has stayed at about $700 billion. As banks have become more cautious, lending to only the most creditworthy borrowers, many would-be buyers are having trouble getting home loans. The lackluster job market adds to those difficulties and also makes it harder for many existing homeowners to simply make ends meet.

See more here:
Housing market shows hints of recovery, but economic troubles remain

Posted: 2:35 pm Thu, June 14, 2012 By ChrisNewmarker Tags: jobs, Mark Phillips, Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, Steve Hine, unemployment

Construction crews work Monday on the future Whole Foods at the site of the former Jaguar car dealership at 222 Hennepin Ave. in Minneapolis. Construction over the past 12 months has grown at the fastest rate among industrial sectors in Minnesota. (File photo: Bill Klotz)

Sector notched May gains while Minnesota lost jobs

An apartment building boom and other projects have made the construction industry one of the states few bright spots in an otherwise disappointing employment situation.

Minnesota gained 800 construction jobs in May and 4,200 over the past 12 months, a 4.5 percent increase over the past year that far outpaces the 0.4 percent growth in construction jobs nationwide over the same period, the state Department of Employment and economic development reported Thursday. All numbers are subject to revision.

The overall number of Minnesota jobs meanwhile shrunk by 900 in May, with the states unemployment rate remaining unchanged at 5.6 percent. The number of Minnesota jobs is up 22,600, or 0.8 percent, over the past 12 months, lagging behind the national growth rate of 1.4 percent.

The past three months weve really stagnated. Its pretty clear weve hit a soft spot in line with what were observing nationally, said Steve Hine, research director of DEEDs Labor Market Information Office.

Hine, though, pointed out that construction is presently growing jobs faster than any other sector of Minnesotas economy. Specialty trade contractors, who make up two-thirds of the jobs in the state, have seen a 10.5 percent increase in positions over the past 12 months.

Residential building construction jobs are up 5.5 percent aided by the 13,829 apartment units that are proposed or in development in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Despite the gain over the past year, construction still has a long way to go to gain back the roughly 50,000 jobs the sector lost during the recession.

Excerpt from:
In Minnesota, construction emerges as bright spot for jobs (update)