KANE The Highland Township Supervisors approved two contracts at the supervisors meeting on Wednesday night.

Supervisor chairman Jim Wolfe said the township received only one bid to repave Pennsylvania Avenue in James City. The bid came from IA Construction of Franklin for $113,282.90.

The supervisors announced at the May meeting the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation estimate for the project was 128,560, which would include widening the thoroughfare. IA Construction was also recently awarded the contract for repaving several streets in Kane.

Supervisor Paul Burton wanted the bid rejected and to open the bidding again for the project. However, Supervisor Joe Milstead said that times wasting on the project and suggested they accept the bid.

Damion Bevacqua, an attorney with the office of township solicitor David Pontzer, pointed out that multiple bids were not necessary for the bid to be accepted. The bid was awarded to IA Construction by a vote of 2 to 1, with Burton casting the loan vote to reject the bid.

The township also received only one bid to replace the carpet at the municipal building with non-slip tile, repair a gutter, and install a sign-in desk inside the front door of the building for visitors. The bid came from K&B Construction of James City, and included the removal of 980-square-feet of carpet and the installation of industrial vinyl flooring, the gutter repair and the desk for $4,300. Again, the bid was accepted by a 2 to 1 vote, with Burton casting the only vote to reject the bid.

Meanwhile, Burton said that new township road crew employee Frank Gillespie refused to take a mandatory drug test for the township.

Township roadmaster Kim Kuhn said Gillespie took the test on Wednesday morning. Wolfe said that Gillespie took his urinalysis on Tuesday but it was immediately rejected for not being the correct temperature. He said Gillespie then drank water, waited 15 minutes, and left, claiming he had no time. While Burton wanted Gillespie terminated, Kuhn described Gillespie as a good worker, and opted to wait until the results came back before making a determination on his future.

Township secretary Christy Reigel said that results of the urinalysis should be available in approximately one week.

Wolfe said a caveat with Gillespies urinalysis is that the township has no enforceable drug policy. He said that since employment was not advertised as contingent upon passing the drug screening, there may not be much the township could do if Gillespie tested positive.

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Highland Township Supervisors approve contracts at meeting

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Sabine Lisicki

The German, 24, is the closest thing to a grass-court baby you could get. Of her five Wimbledon main-draw appearances, Lisicki has reached the last eight on four occasions, including a semi-final appearance in 2011 and a runners-up finish behind Marion Bartoli last year. She might encapsulate tennis fans worldwide with her beaming smile, but it is her doggedness on the court that has seen her shine on the grass. She beat three major winners on her way to the SW19 final in 2013, what's the bet she becomes one herself in '14?

Zarina Diyas

This Kazakh could be one hell of a surprise packet come Wimbledon. Diyas was 10-2 in grass-court tournaments last year, all three of which she played on the ITF Tour on Japan. While she did not have a top-200 opponent coming up against her, she did beat rising Swiss teenager Belinda Bencic to win the $25,000 tournament in Makinohara. She has won 17 of 23 pro-tour matches on the surface. You can't buy that experience at age 20. One to watch.

Camila Giorgi

The pint-sized Italian has fourth- and third-round appearances at Wimbledon to her name, and she is only 22. While her name has been tarnished by reports she and her camp ripped off people who invested in her, the French resident has gone on her merry way, rising to 50th in the world, and enjoying success on the grass. It has taken an eventual finalist to bring her down at her past two visits to the All England Club, while in 2011, she was ousted by eventual quarter-finalist Tsvetana Pironkova on Wimbledon debut. A kinder draw in London, and Giorgi can do some damage.

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Grass-court season: The women to watch

Hot, rainy weather is nirvana for weeds. Check out my garden if you don't believe me.

The weeds that drive me nuts the rest of the year are familiar, their points of origin clear. Such perennial weeds as Canadian thistle, oxalis, quack grass, plantain, bindweed, wild violet and dock survive no matter how vigorously I went after them the year before.

Annual weeds like dandelions are just as bad. Their seeds blow in from neighboring yards even if mine are all dug up -- not that they ever are. Equally annoying are the acorns that rain down on my garden in late summer and produce wire-stemmed seedlings so tenacious that I have to use pliers to pull them up the following spring.

Then there are the self-seeding annuals and perennials that I planted myself. These include a nonsterile catmint (never again!), cushion spurge, California poppies, creeping Jenny, wild petunias, an heirloom morning glory called Grandpa Ott ... the list goes on.

I like drumstick alliums. I used to love them. I'm not referring to Purple Sensation, a hybrid whose stems are strong enough to hold its flowers aloft. I mean the tall, skinny ones that reproduce so thickly they collapse before a single bud has appeared. Unless given something to lean on -- like an upright sedum or a stout boxwood hedge -- they flower in the prone position.

At first I thought the onions were some native grass I'd invited onto my boulevard strip. On closer inspection, I sniff the same monster that had tried to suffocate the Angelina sedum, English thyme and hardy geraniums on my brick terrace. I must have pulled up thousands -- no, tens of thousands -- of the pea-size bulbs. The best time to weed is after a hard rain, by the way.

I've left most of the Egyptian walking onions alone, even though they've also multiplied many times over since last summer. Their tall grayish-green and -- at this time of year -- erect stems make a bold vertical statement against spreading conifers and creeping sedums.

I know they soon will produce onions at the tips of their tubular stalks and that the onions will cause the stalks to bend under their weight and topple, whereupon another stalk -- this time in a prone position -- will shoot off from the first.

Thus, the plant will begin its stroll through the garden, here and there sprouting new bulbs, roots and plants. Around mid-July, the original stalks will begin to age, turning brown and unattractive. That's when I'll begin to question the wisdom of planting Egyptian walking onions in the first place.

On the other hand, every garden needs its eccentrics.

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Blundering Gardener: Thistles and quackgrass and dandelions - oh, my!

I love lawns. Not big lawns, and they dont need to be pure Kentucky bluegrass, either. I love a little bit of mowed green that has some grass and clover; it can have a few dandelions or bluets or violets, too. I can live with Creeping Charlie (also called ground ivy or by its scientific name, Glechoma hederacea). Overall my philosophy is this: If its green and you can mow it, its a lawn. Only thistles and other sharp things need to be dug out, but never nuked with chemicals.

Despite that philosophy, people often remark on how lush and thick my lawn is, and how nice it feels underfoot. Having a nice lawn is easy if you follow a few simple rules.

First, stop worrying about it. And certainly never add any chemicals to it. Weed-n-feed formulas not only kill off the broad-leafed plants like dandelions, they also diminish the biological activity in the soil. I want a healthy soil full of microbes (including bacteria and fungi) and know that many microbes are killed or adversely affected by chemicals.

Chemical fertilizers are made of salts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. These have the ability to dry out and kill microbes. And of course, if your product includes chemicals for killing moss, weeds, fungi or insects, all those chemicals add to the killing power. Your soil cringes when you load up the spreader with weed-n-feed.

If you want to have a good healthy lawn, you need good healthy soil. It needs about 6 inches of reasonably good soil that drains well (so as not to drown the lawn grasses), but is not so sandy that it dries out in an afternoon. Cut and peel back a one-foot square piece of sod after a rainstorm, and look at the soil. Grab a handful of soil. Does it form a cylinder in your hand when you squeeze it, and hold its shape when you open your fingers? If so, you have clay, or a clay-based soil.

If you perform the squeeze test on sandy soil, it will crumble apart when you open your fingers. When you rub the soil between your fingers, you will feel sharp grains of sand. But if you have a nice loam, the soil with be dark and the cylinder will fall apart if you touch it with a finger.

If you are not happy with your lawn, I suggest getting your soil tested. The Extension Service in most states will have online instructions on how to take a soil sample, and where to send it. Some garden centers have kits for sale. Find out what kind of soil you have, what it needs, and if your soil pH is in the right zone.

Soil pH is a measure of how acidic or alkaline your soil is. Lawns do best when the soil pH is near neutral (which is 7.0) or slightly acidic. Our rain is acidic, and neglected soils including most lawns have soil that is pretty acidic. You can fix this easily by adding limestone to the lawn, and a pH test will tell you how much to add to balance it out. If your soil is too far from neutral, some soil minerals will become unavailable to the grass plants, even if the minerals are there. You can add limestone at any time, though most lawn experts recommend the fall so that it will have time to do its work before spring growth begins.

The other additive that helps an anemic lawn is compost or organic matter. Good crumbly compost can be flung around the lawn with a shovel and then raked out to provide even coverage. Doing that now would help. Earthworms in a healthy lawn will be more than willing to eat that compost and then excrete the nutritious ingredients into the soil.

Earthworms, fungi and bacteria also will help you improve your lawn by breaking down your grass clippings. Those clippings will add organic matter and enrich your soil. So cut your lawn regularly, avoiding a thick layer of clippings that needs to be bagged or raked.

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Notes From the Garden: Take It Easy When Taking Care of the Lawn

Fundraisers collect more than 1,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support

2:00pm Sunday 8th June 2014 in News By Rebecca Perring, Senior Reporter

A charity set up by volunteers who have lost loved ones to cancer have raised more than 1,000 during a Gazebos in the Garden event.

Doing it for charity held its fifth fundraiser in the garden at the home of Kathryn Crossley in Homewood Road for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Despite a rainy day loyal guests turned out to help the team raise 1,408.62 and counting, which makes their grand total to date 30,441.09

Ms Crossley said: "We are thrilled that so many people turned out on such a rainy day to support us.

"It was great to see loyal guests back and to make new friends who came for the first time.

"I would like to thank all our guests, our stallholders, the wonderful businesses of St. Albans and especially the hard working doing it for charity team 2014 who are Amanda, Trevor, Tim, Chris, Andrew, Marion and Pat.

"We could not be more delighted to have now surpassed our 30,000 target for this year". Visitors enjoyed a range of stalls selling: food, plants, shrub, ladies clothing, jewellery, handbags, and handcrafted wooden items.

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Fundraisers collect more than 1,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support

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Feng Shui Q A with Carole Hyder
Feng Shui Q A with Carole Hyder.

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Feng Shui Q & A with Carole Hyder - Video

Arts & Leisure

Posted on June 08, 2014 08:32:06 PM

By Jeffrey O. Valisno, Sub-Editor

Feng shui expert Marites Allen established Frigga in 2012, after studying at the London College of Fashion, a constituent college of the University of the Arts, London.

Named after the Norse deity regarded as the goddess of all the goddesses, Frigga incorporates feng shui concepts into wearable and stylish clothes and accessories.

The basic principle of feng shui is that you attract prosperity and auspiciousness in your life if your living and work environments are balanced and harmonious, Ms. Allen told reporters.

Feng shui uses shapes, colors, symbols, and elements in seeking that balance, so it lends itself naturally to fashion. You apply the same principles on clothing, which is the most intimate environment there is, close to our bodies, and essentially that is wearing and projecting our aspirations to acquire harmony in our lives, she added.

Working with her in putting together the Frigga brand is a team of Londons top fashion designers. Using her meticulously prepared feng shui forecast for each animal sign, the team makes its own creative interpretation by combining the forecast guidelines with the latest European fashion trends.

For this year, Frigga features the Pantone colors that dominate the 2014 fashion palette in the major European fashion houses.

Ms. Allen said the latest collection features fabulous fabrics, chic style, lucky prints, and unique design -- the qualities that set Frigga above other brands.

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Feng shui fashion