McKinney, Texas (PRWEB) October 30, 2014

When it comes to something as important as law enforcement, the North Little Rock Veterans Affairs Office knew they were going to need a very dependable, veteran-owned company to provide their department with a new facility. Recently, the Arkansas VA Office awarded ICON Construction, a general contractor specializing in the design and build of modular, permanent modular and modular re-locatable buildings, the prestigious build of their new Law Enforcement Training Center (LETC) and Academy Administration Facility.

The forces current outdated building offers obnoxiously low ceiling heights, claustrophobically cramped quarters and impossibly narrow common spaces that are keeping officers from successfully performing their job duties. All of these issues will be a thing of the past once the new state-of-the-art building is in place. In fact, the new facility will be equipped with the latest in finger print reading secure doors, energy efficient LED lighting systems, level 4 tape, texture, and print finish interior walls, hi-end vinyl plank wood flooring, and 60 tons air conditioning to supply the entire building.

Construction of the permanent, two-story modular facility is set to begin at the end of February. The resulting 15,000 square foot space will be the only training facility for the VA Police force throughout the country.

Technical Supervisor, Jamie Womble said, Its a really exciting design-build project. In it, were striving for a functional design which aesthetically complements the surrounding buildings. The new building will be 100% compatible with the sites historical surroundings, complete with state-of-the-art security intrusion systems. We look forward to a successful completion and are so honored to have been awarded such a prestigious project with our nations VA.

After careful review of some major obstacles presented by the sites historical base, the VA quickly realized a modular facility was the best way to easily pass the tight streets and large trees without disturbing the locations carefully preserved history. In addition to these, the topography is such that the building will sit at the high point of the site location, requiring ICON to adapt the new LETC with retaining walls and relocated exiting utilities.

Once the modular building is in place, including all of the exterior brick, stone work, and stairways, it will blend seamlessly with the historical sites surrounding buildings, and will have all of the modern convinces you would expect with a new building, including a modular elevator, all of which will meet each of the current codes for the local area.

About Icon Construction:

Icon Construction is proud to be the only small business, Veteran and Native American owned manufacturer of modular structures in the U.S. For the past 15 years, their experienced team has provided customers with outstanding service from beginning to end. Icon continuously strives to build the highest quality modular buildings in the industry & deliver products that are superior to its competitors. Since April 1, 1998, Icon Construction has been able to meet the space needs of many major markets including military, education, administration, health care, government, commercial and residential facilities. For more information please visit:http://icon-construction.com/

Media Contact: Joe Green jgreen(at)icon-construction(dot)com

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North Texas-Based ICON Construction to Design & Build New VA Law Enforcement Training Center

CHESTERTOWN Washington College submitted a final site plan for its new academic building at 215 Washington Ave. to the Chestertown Planning Commission on Oct. 15.

The building is to be constructed on the site of the former Chestertown High School, built in 1915, which also served as Chestertown Elementary School from the late 1950s to 1973, when it became the board of education office building. Washington College acquired the property in 2012, for $850,000 plus $1 million in scholarships for county students.

The new building is to occupy the part of the property facing Washington Avenue. The back portion, formerly the playing field for the schools, is zoned R-2 residential. The college has announced it plans to use that portion of the property for geothermal heating and cooling wells. No construction is planned on that part of the site, which neighbors have said they want to keep open as a community park.

Construction is to take place in two phases. The first phase, scheduled to begin next year, will be a 14,400 square foot rectangular building on the southwest portion of the property, replacing the existing parking lot. The building will house the anthropology department, with faculty offices, a large classroom, a conference room and laboratories for anthropology and environmental studies.

Reid Raudenbush, the colleges head of physical plant, said the goal is to open the building for classes for the fall semester of 2016. We are interviewing for a construction manager right now, he said in an email, Thursday, Oct. 16. Construction drawings should be completed by mid-November, and, assuming all permits are in order, work is expected to start April-ish, Raudenbush said. That would include demolition of the old school building.

The new building, which will combine brick and synthetic wood siding, will be roughly the same height as the one it replaces. The first phase will be oriented with its long side on an east-west axis, with the end facing Washington Avenue finished in brick. The roof will be synthetic slate.

The 18,600-square-foot second phase will match the first phase of the building in materials and design. According to the materials submitted to the planning commission, the college is seeking to achieve LEED Gold certification for the buildings energy usage and environmental impact.

When the entire project is completed, it will be a U-shaped structure with the open end facing Washington Avenue. A knee-high brick wall is planned for the front of the property, along the sidewalk.

The plan also includes plantings of trees, shrubs and grasses, many of them on a lawn between the building and Washington Avenue and in the space between the wings. Trees will also screen the building from the adjacent residential properties. About half the plant varieties to be installed are native species, such as red maple, scarlet oak, American holly and sweetgum.

The parking will be toward the northwest corner of the building site. For the first phase, the lot will accommodate nine cars. The second phase will add another 10 spaces, according to the colleges submission to the planning commission. The lot will be for faculty and staff only. Students will be encouraged to walk to the building from the main campus, said town Zoning Administrator Kees de Mooy.

See the article here:
Washington College gets approval for new academic building

It may not be so apparent for those people waiting in what are sometimes hourlong lines at the Billings landfill, but the number of monthly visits has gone down fromits summer peak.

In June, a month after a hailstorm damaged thousands of Billings roofs, about 19,000 vehicles visited the landfill, said Vern Heisler, Billings deputy public works director many laden with storm-damaged roofing material.

By September, 16,700 vehicles ranging from pickups to large commercial rigs, many of them still loaded with has-been roofs had tipped the scales at the landfill, at 5240 Jellison Road. To date this month, 14,000 vehicles had dropped off their loads at the landfill, including at whats known as the Class 4 section, which is reserved for construction waste.

I am not there hourly, but I think those lines are a lot shorter than they were a month ago, said Vester Wilson, the citys solid-waste superintendent.

Much of the traffic, the two officials said, is still related to so many residents receiving new roofs in the aftermath of the May 18 hailstorm. In the weeks after the storm, the citys Building Division was issuing about 100 permits every day for roof replacement.

Whenever a permit is issued, that comes off the roof and into the landfill, Heisler said.

The Building Divisions permit coordinator, Mary Krenzler, said Tuesday that the number is now down to 30-50 permits issued each day. She cited falling temperatures and fewer hours of daylight as possible contributing factors for the reduction in permits.

Truck drivers carrying roofing materials head straight to the landfills Class 4 section, which is on the far west portion of the landfill. To reduce wait times, a second scale was installed last year at the lower end of the landfill, and that has pulled up to 200 trucks daily from the line of other landfill customers.

Still, to get into the landfill, one must first wait in line.

What that means, Heisler said, is that whether the person in front of you has a bag of trash or a roof, weve got to wait our turn.

Continue reading here:
Hail damage repairs keep Billings landfill busy, but lines are getting shorter

Laguna Beach, CA (PRWEB) October 28, 2014

Greenstar Home Services, Orange County and Las Vegas leader in sustainable plumbing, HVAC maintenance, and whole home water filtration, introduces the Senior Rewards Program. The company is offering exclusive services to honor and protect the values of Greenstars senior clientele.

Through the Senior Rewards program, seniors receive priority service, discounts on repairs and replacements, and special family involvement through second person verification when requested. In addition to these exclusive offers, all seniors ages 62 and older receive a system evaluation fee of $29, a significant discount from the regular fee of $89.

To complement the Senior Rewards Program, Greenstars staff attends weekly training meetings that cover senior sensitivity, to ensure premier service delivery and respect for the senior population at all times. The Greenstar Senior Rewards Program demonstrates Greenstars commitment to its customer base and overall core values.

Greenstar invites readers, family members, and friends who may benefit from the Senior Rewards Program to call Greenstar for service today. Start saving on home repair in a cost efficient and environmentally friendly way.

For updates and more information, visit Greenstar on Facebook (Facebook.com/GreenstarHomeServices), Twitter (@GreenStarHome1), or at GreenstarHomeServices.com.

To view Greenstars blog, go to GreenstarHomeServices.com/blog.

About Greenstar Home Services:

Greenstar Home Services provides environmentally conscious residential plumbing and HVAC service, repair and installation, as well as whole home central water filtration within the Orange County and Las Vegas markets. Our licensed technicians are available all hours of the day, seven days a week. With an expansive knowledge of home maintenance, we provide the highest level of service for our clientsand at an honest price.

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Greenstar Home Services Protects and Honors the Seniors in the Communities They Serve With Senior Rewards Program

Like other Minnesota school districts, the Elk River system has some big construction plans to handle a growing influx of students.

But before any dirt moves, Elk River will need to persuade voters on Nov. 4 to approve a $98.03 million bond referendum to address demands at five over-capacity schools, including Rogers High School.

The bond question covers several big-ticket items, including a classroom wing and auditorium at Rogers High School, at 21000 141st Ave. in Rogers, and a new E-8 school on district-owned land in Otsego, according to district communications director Charlie Blesener.

Statewide, more than $460 million worth of construction is on the line Tuesday as 26 districts ask voters to sign off on everything from security improvements to new buildings, according to a list from the Minnesota School Boards Association.

The biggest referendums are in Elk River ($98.03 million), Waconia ($75 million), Centennial ($49.935 million), Sibley East ($43.045 million), Bemidji ($39.815 million), Rushford-Peterson ($38.165 million) and Moose Lake ($34.7 million).

The November ballot questions add to an already strong year for school bond referendums. Twenty of 27 referendums have passed so far in 2014, kick-starting more than $400 million in construction, maintenance and renovation projects.

Voters have rejected $314.5 million in bonding for school projects this year, including a $188 million referendum for a new high school and other improvements in the Forest Lake district.

As Finance & Commerce reported last November, 26 of 30 capital bond initiatives were successful, generating $560 million for new construction, technology upgrades, security improvements and more.

As the economy improves, more referendums are getting yes votes.

Tony Sjolander, a school bond referendum consultant with DLR Group in Minneapolis, said the passage rate is now in the mid-80 percent range, compared with less than 50 percent in 2008.

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Schools seek $460M for construction

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ST. LOUIS, MO(KTVI)- There was a crash of sorts Tuesday at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. It did not involve any airplanes. A deer, acting erratic, plowed into a window in Terminal 2, formerly known as the East Terminal, three times. The injured animal was later shot and killed.

Passenger Gail Harmata said, That makes me very concerned. Its in the middle of an urban area.

A repairman replaced a big piece of safety glass broken by the deer. It never made it inside.

Airport spokesman Jeff Lea said, It was acting erratic, may have been sick or ill or injured. It appears to take a running charge towards the glass here at Terminal two, 2 or 3 times and ended up breaking the glass.

The deer was bleeding badly; crews were still cleaning up the blood hours after the incident. The animal also smashed out a window in a bus shelter.

Passengers who were outside were ushered inside for their safety. Police and the airports Animal Mitigation Team rushed to the scene.

Lea said, They do a lot of mitigation to make sure that our airfield is safe from any type of animal, whether its four legged or birds or any type of animal.

The buck was cornered far away from the terminal and put down.

Passenger Paul Morgan said, It was probably injured. It couldnt survive in the wild anymore.

So why did this happen? A Department of Natural Resources expert said the animal could have been sick or it acting aggressive because this is the peak of mating season.

More here:
Deer smashes into Lambert Airport window, has to be put down

Another cold night ahead and many of us are reaching for a space heater to keep warm. Spokane firefighters say as the temperatures drop they see a 30 to 50 percent increase in fire calls.

"I don't just mean a small up tick," Asst. Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer said. "I mean a significant up tick in our volume is very routine this time of year."

He says many of them can be prevented. Make sure there is at least three feet around space heaters, wall heaters and your furnace.

The National Fire Protection Association recommends the following things to keep you safe this winter.

Assistant Chief Schaeffer says inspect your wiring if you have an older house. Over the years it breaks down and might not be able to handle the added load new heaters bring.

"Every year that goes by, it becomes more brittle and more brittle, we recommend you replace that with a licensed electrician," Shaeffer said.

Another thing to have checked, your chimney. Tony Parker, the owner of Woody's Chimney and Masonry says business is starting to pick up. He suggest getting a sweep done to get rid of any creosote that has built up.

"The natural bi-product of a solid fuel is creosote form that is highly flammable and when it burns it can burn up to 3,000 degrees for up to 15 minutes," Parker said.

It may seem like common sense but he says to make sure the area around your fireplace is clear of any flammable materials like kindling or paper.

If you need help heating your home SNAP of Spokane can help. http://www.SNAPWA.org

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Cold weather brings fire hazards with it

by Kevin VanOrd on October 27, 2014

His name is Harkyn. He exits conversation not with a goodbye, but with a gruff "I don't care," as if he can barely be bothered to embark on the quest at hand. Harkyn may not be delighted by the adventure he's been thrust into, but I can claim no such apathy: Lords of the Fallen is a dark-fantasy pleasure, cut from the same cloth as Dark Souls, yet distinct enough to earn its own spotlight and, perhaps, to earn your affection as well. Harkyn himself is not easy to love, but ultimately, he doesn't matter as much as the world he serves and the hammers he swings.

"World" might be too generous a word, actually: You spend most of your time in corridors and combat arenas, not gazing onto spacious landscapes. Lords of the Fallen's dramatic citadel and hushed monastery are suffering from the invasion of otherworldly flesh-monsters and armored behemoths. Snowy peaks may rise in the distance, but you will not be breathing in their refreshing air. Lords of the Fallen means to choke you with smoke and poison, and to crush you between the stone slabs that line its monumental suspended bridge. The view from this bridge says more about this world than words can convey. Ahead of you lies the gaping maw of a demonic temple hungry for your flesh. The massive chains that connect your destination to the bridge must have taken hundreds of hours to forge. Two colossal soldiers are carved into the mountain on either side of the entrance, warning you of the blood that will soon be spilled. This is Lords of the Fallen: ponderous and unwelcoming. There is no hiding from its dangers.

Unwisely, the game insists on trying to weave a coherent story into these spaces, with each of Harkyn's cohorts and various audio logs tossing up a word salad that does little to get you invested. In time, the story begins to make sense, but this cliched tale of the balance between good and evil isn't the reason to press on. Instead, it's better to let the frozen walkways and giant braziers speak for themselves. You may begin your adventure in a holy sanctuary, but this place seeks to murder you. Consider the titles of the bosses you fight. Guardian. Beast. Champion. Who needs proper names, when "Annihilator" gets the point across? These titans and their lesser cohorts have no other purpose than to kill.

You fight several such rivals in the first few hours (out of 20 or so) alone, though it takes time to reach the most formidable ones. In the meanwhile, you roam the game's corridors from a third-person perspective, swinging an axe or sword, dodging or blocking incoming attacks, and occasionally calling on the gods of magic to give you a hand when you most need it. It's almost impossible not to draw the obvious comparisons to the Souls series here. An energy meter depletes when you block, roll, and attack, forcing you to closely manage your defenses lest you leave yourself vulnerable to damage. Different melee weapons require different approaches, but Lords of the Fallen gives each of them an authentic sense of weight. Combat requires understanding of how long it takes to swing that humongous greatsword you carry, and how much time that fire-breathing thing you're fighting takes to prepare its next blow.

Lords of the Fallen's dramatic citadel and hushed monastery are suffering from the invasion of otherworldly flesh-monsters and armored behemoths.

So far, so Dark Souls then. Compared head to head, Souls games are superior to Lords of the Fallen in most given areas: Dark Souls is more mysterious, more difficult, and more diverse, and Lords of the Fallen features no online connectivity. To call Lords of the Fallen a poor man's Dark Souls sells it entirely too short, however. For one, Lords of the Fallen strikes a different kind of tone. It is moody and oppressive, but rarely terrifying; it is a power fantasy, not a heart-wrenching death simulator that rolls deadly boulders at you as if you are a single, miniscule bowling pin. The art style reflects the difference: armor and architecture is less Medieval, chunkier and excessively ornate, mirroring Harkyn's strength and confidence. Lords of the Fallen has a few challenges, but it's rare for you to feel frail or afraid: the game simply isn't hard enough to make your blood boil. That's at least true in the main world; the visits you make to a shadowy and sinister otherworld are more frightening.

Those visits bring great reward if you can conquer the darkness. Traversing this otherworld is like exploring a foggy dessert during the witching hour: you can barely see further than the tip of your blade, which make the occasional glimpse of light a true ray of hope. There is tribulation to undergo, however, before you reach possible treasure. Your steps into the beyond lead you first to easily-dispatched knights and mutants, which require only that you put the finicky targeting system to good use. Soon, though, you could encounter a rolling fire demon whose flaming carapace will quickly scorch your flesh. Your introduction to this dimension is a limited one, fortunately: you open a few treasure chests in the hope of finding a rune for upgrading your equipment, a new armor set, or an item that temporarily protects you from poison, and then return to the land of women and men. You reach this realm by entering portals that only unlock when you have killed some unknown beast. You will come to identify an available nearby portal by the crackles and creaks it makes as it opens, as if it's made of ancient tendons that haven't often had a chance to stretch.

The grind to level up is minimal, and while death is likely, it's not frequent enough to elicit heartache. When you perish, you leave behind your ghost and (usually) revive at whichever ruby crystal you last saved at. Your ghost contains all the experience you have accumulated since the prior death, but it doesn't remain forever, so it's in your best interests to go retrieve it, and to be timely about it, at least in the early hours. Every fallen enemy will have respawned after your death, but you will be armed with the knowledge of what lies ahead of you. You will also be armed with some spells and a gauntlet that shoots out magic projectiles, spews fire, and helps open new pathways. Selecting and casting spells is a matter of pressing or holding a button: there's no need to switch from a dagger to a wand if you want to punch a demon in the groin with your quake skill. There are no bows and arrows in Lords of the Fallen: it's all swords and sorcery. You can engorge on magic when leveling up and make quick work of the three-legged freak known as the infiltrator if you play your cards right. I prefer the heaviest killing tools, however, coming close enough to my foes to smell their breath.

You will probably not sob when your ghost expires and you leave behind all your experience. Experience can be regained easily, and in the last several hours, you accumulate too little experience from killing enemies to mind the loss. The bosses may parade around their ominous titles and roar with indignance, but most of them are more bark than bite: if you have Souls experience, many will go down on the first attempt. The challenge ramps up nicely during the lead-up to the final showdown, however, beginning with a double-boss encounter that signals trouble to come.

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Lords of the Fallen Review