They say God never gives you more than you can handle, but its been getting close lately, said Thysen Scott with a laugh, referring to the amount of catering jobs that he and his wife, Debi, have been booking for their business, God Bless Food Catering.

Faith is important to the Scotts, self-described committed Christians who donate 10 percent of their earnings to their parish, the Oak Bay Baptist Church in Port Hadlock. Just as important to them is carrying on a family tradition, and treating their customers as though they are members of their extended family.

Thysen is well steeped in the food service industry, with a father who has owned seven restaurants on the east side of Seattle, an aunt who owns three catering companies in the same city, and family roots in the Taco Time chain. Yet, in spite of spending two years working as a manager for his dad, Thysens primary business is carpet installation.

I did the floors at the Port Townsend paper mill, but I would always bring Rita Hubbard some soup or a sandwich, Thysen said.

She liked his food so much that, four years ago, she decided to upgrade her catering by hiring him instead, for their Christmas party, Debi Scott said.

With six weeks to prepare and no actual catering company at that time, Thysen and Debi nonetheless managed to serve more than 200 partygoers, paving the way for their return to the paper mill every Christmas since then.

Our first year, we had just a handful of gigs, but word of mouth spread fast, Debi said. Our second year, we catered 40 events, which went up to 70 in our third year. This year, weve already catered more than 100 events, and its not even over yet.

In addition to serving meals at the Port Townsend Elks Lodge every Tuesday, God Bless Food is also a fixture at annual community events ranging from Hadlock Building Supplys customer appreciation day to the upcoming Port Ludlow outdoor movie night Aug. 27.

Weve catered fundraisers for the North Olympic Salmon Coalition and Chimacum High School, Thysen said. We go to peoples homes and teach clinics on how to make pizza dough or lasagna. Ive done events at cost, and then given away auction prizes like free dinners to boot.

We dont have as much time as wed like to volunteer for organizations, Debi said, so this is our way of giving back.

Regardless of where they show up, the Scotts have developed a fan following, to the point that Thysen cant even shop at the QFC in Port Hadlock without folks checking out what he has in his shopping cart.

I just use the best fresh ingredients, preferably by local companies, Thysen said. I slow-cook the meat, and I cut the salad 20 minutes before I serve it. A lot of my stuff is from scratch. Its a matter of timing and attention to detail, so you know how long to cook each item, and when it should come out.

He just has a natural talent for flavoring, seasoning and layering that you cant train, Debi said. He can throw together amazing dishes, like baked potatoes infused with butter, garlic and cheese; smoked salmon thats like candy; and chowder thats white gold.

Thysen was humbled when a readers poll conducted by The Leader named him the best chef in the area, especially since his catering companys motto is He makes it, I put it together, with He referring to God.

Thysen eventually hopes to operate out of a food truck, but in the meantime, he and Debi are inviting people to taste their chowder at the Port Ludlow outdoor movie night for the second year in a row.

We start serving at 6 p.m., and the movie starts at dusk, Thysen said. I make my chowder on site with only 10 or 11 ingredients, in a huge cauldron that I stir with an oar, he said, laughing. We want to feed the world, but well start with Jefferson County.

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It is sculpture thats largely invisible, announcing itself subtly, almost stealthily. Walk an unpaved path through a eucalyptus grove at UC San Diego, and suspended tones with no apparent source weave their way into the already densely layered soundscape. Traffic on the adjacent road, jets rumbling overhead, clicking spokes of passing bicycles, the frictive thrum of a skateboard, the crunch of your own footsteps all shift from background noise to counterpoint for the tones emanating from above.

"The Wind Garden" is the new work of Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy-winning composer John Luther Adams. Its his first permanent outdoor art installation and the latest addition to the Stuart Collection of commissioned, site-determined sculpture on campus.

The works tones are generated by 32 small, tubular devices that Adams has positioned on tree branches. A speaker assigned to each is mounted nearby, and four subwoofers in steel boxes are inconspicuously arrayed on the ground, atop the carpet of dried leaves. The wind's activity, time of day and season all determine what tones will charge the space.

Lighter, higher sounds in major tonalities dominate the day. At night, the register lowers, minor keys are invoked, and (thanks to the subwoofers) the sounds drop down from the canopy to the level of the body.

"You have to move through the piece, or sit for a long time and let it move through you," said Adams, 64, who was in La Jolla to make adjustments to the piece before its opening this month. Long and lanky, in a working uniform of jeans and baseball cap, Adams paced the path before settling onto a bench of reclaimed eucalyptus in what he considers the apse of his "arboreal chapel."

"In recent years, space has become a fundamental compositional element for me, in the way that it would be for a sculptor," he said, referring to the present work as well as music he has written to be performed outdoors, by ensembles dispersed across a landscape.

"Yes, I mean poetic space, a sort of metaphorical space, and temporal space, but I also mean physical, volumetric space. Everything about this piece is meticulously composed, but the thing that gives it its life, its breath, is the way we're working with the space the placement of this particular tone in that particular tree, in relation to that tone at the other end of the grove."

Erik Jepsen / UC San Diego Publications

John Luther Adams' composition notebook.

John Luther Adams' composition notebook. (Erik Jepsen / UC San Diego Publications)

Adams called himself a Luddite by disposition.

I love that the conduit in the ground, the computer in the closet [in the nearby Mandell Weiss Theatre], all the sensors, all the data that's feeding this it all disappears, he said. When you walk through here, it's just you and the trees and the wind and the sound. It's certainly not about technology. It's about listening."

A dozen students arrived and fanned out across the grove, the sonic architecture of the piece choreographing their movement and their stillness.

"I find it to be very zen," says Mary Beebe, founding director of the 19-piece Stuart Collection. "It takes you out of the university, into another part of the world, and maybe another part of your head."

Beebe invited Adams to roam the 1,200-acre campus and conceive a project nearly 10 years ago. Long evolutions are not unusual for works in the collection, in part because artists are encouraged to stretch into new territory, and also because the logistics of site and engineering usually deliver surprises. Not long after "The Wind Garden" was first installed last fall, a fierce storm felled one of the largest trees in the grove, requiring months of recalibration.

Erik Jepsen / UC San Diego Publications

Looking up into the eucalyptus trees, where Adams' tones drift down and blend with ambient sounds on the ground.

Looking up into the eucalyptus trees, where Adams' tones drift down and blend with ambient sounds on the ground. (Erik Jepsen / UC San Diego Publications)

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For Adams, the origin of the piece was his "spur-of-the-moment" wedding in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 29 years ago.

"No one was there, just a couple of friends, Adams said. Our orchestra was an aeolian harp, a wind harp that I'd brought with me to record up on the arctic coastal plain. I spent much of that trip standing on the tundra with this harp on my head, like a weathervane, playing with different tunings, trying to catch the wind. Hours upon hours, day after day, with this music coming out of the sky and down into my body and into the earth. It was a profound experience, and I think it has influenced a great deal of my music ever since. You might say that this piece is a big wind harp, and that the strings of the harp are the trees."

Adams lived for 30 years in Alaska, working for the Northern Alaska Environmental Center, the Wilderness Society and the Alaska Coalition. He keeps a one-room cabin studio there, as well as an apartment in New York, and he spends a good deal of time on the road.

A current of activism continues to run through his work.

"Music," Adams said, "has a particular power not just to illustrate or instruct but to allow us to be more fully present in the world. I actually do believe that music can serve as a sounding model for the renewal of human consciousness and culture."

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Composer John Luther Adams' new campus 'Wind Garden' art ... - Los Angeles Times

Mohawk Industries (NYSE: MHK) and Interface (NASDAQ:IFSIA) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, earnings, dividends, valuation, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Mohawk Industries and Interface, as provided by MarketBeat.

Mohawk Industries presently has a consensus target price of $266.50, suggesting a potential upside of 7.43%. Given Mohawk Industries higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Mohawk Industries is more favorable than Interface.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Mohawk Industries and Interfaces top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

Mohawk Industries has higher revenue and earnings than Interface.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

76.5% of Mohawk Industries shares are held by institutional investors. 17.1% of Mohawk Industries shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Mohawk Industries and Interfaces net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Summary

Mohawk Industries beats Interface on 6 of the 8 factors compared between the two stocks.

Mohawk Industries Company Profile

Mohawk Industries, Inc. is a flooring manufacturer that creates products for residential and commercial spaces around the world. The Company segments include Global Ceramic, Flooring North America (Flooring NA) and Flooring Rest of the World (Flooring ROW). Its manufacturing and distribution processes provide carpet, rugs, ceramic tile, laminate, wood, stone, luxury vinyl tile and vinyl flooring. The Global Ceramic segment designs, manufactures, sources, distributes and markets a line of ceramic tile, porcelain tile and natural stone products used in the residential and commercial markets for both remodeling and new construction. The Flooring NA segment designs, manufactures, sources, distributes and markets carpet, laminate, carpet pad, rugs, hardwood and vinyl. The Flooring ROW segment designs, manufactures, sources, distributes and markets laminate, hardwood flooring, roofing elements, insulation boards, medium-density fiberboard (MDF), chipboards, and vinyl flooring products.

Interface Company Profile

Interface Inc. is engaged in design, production and sale of modular carpet, also known as carpet tile. As of January 1, 2017, the Company marketed its modular carpets in over 110 countries under the brand names Interface and FLOR. The Company operates through three segments: Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The Company distributes its products through two primary channels, including direct sales to end users and indirect sales through independent contractors or distributors. The Company sells an antimicrobial chemical compound under the trademark Intersept that the Company incorporates in all of its modular carpet products. It also sells its TacTiles carpet tile installation system, along with a range of traditional adhesives and products for carpet installation and maintenance that are manufactured by a third party. It also provides turnkey project management services for national accounts and other customers through its InterfaceSERVICES business.

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Financial Survey: Mohawk Industries (MHK) vs. Interface (IFSIA) - TrueBlueTribune

Beth McCracken started skipping across the floor during a recent tour of the renovated Hastings Public Library.

Is that your happy dance? library director Amy Hafer asked her.

One of them, the HPL education librarian responded.

Neither woman could stop smiling while touring the downtown building that has been closed since Feb. 24, 2016. Since March 24, 2016, the library has operated out of the Hastings Museums east gallery.

I dont think you can prepare yourself for how excited you feel when you see the almost-finished product because I think youre caught up in the details of the planning and so you think youre just going to be bogged down in the details forever, Hafer said. When you see the almost-finished product it brings back to home all that youve been working toward. Its so gratifying and so exciting you cant put into words what it means that this is going to be in your community and what it means that this is going to be your library.

Even seeing new bookends with rubber clamps that are easier to move than the old bookends made her happy.

Darrion Freeman, lead installer from Midwest Storage Solutions, Inc. of Omaha, works on the shelving units in the children's area at Hastings Public Library Thursday.

It really is the little things, she said.

McCracken said seeing the almost-finished library brings to mind the transition of paper to reality.

Im very visual, so seeing something on paper and then seeing it in real life makes it more exciting, she said.

In addition to donations, the citys current half-cent sales tax helped fund the $5.7 million library renovation.

Each year, the sales tax generates about $1.7 million. Currently, 60 percent of that revenue goes to street repairs, 25 percent to Duncan Field renovations and 15 percent to Hastings Public Library renovations.

Shelving began arriving Aug. 7, the installation of which is scheduled to take two weeks of four 10-hour days.

The final furniture installation is scheduled for Sept. 6.

The museums east gallery will close Sept. 11. Library staff will work out of the Abbott Room, so the community will have access to DVDs, newspapers, magazines, audiobooks, wireless internet, holds, returns and other basic services.

The library will be closed all day Sept. 28 for staff training.

The library will close to the public Oct. 1 for the final move of all materials and staff items remaining at the museum.

The downtown building is anticipated to open toward the end of October.

Weve enjoyed our time at the museum but that time has come and gone, Hafer said. (Staff) are so excited about the new opportunities, the new technologies, the new carpet, the new shelves just having new things. Its like back to school shopping for them in a way, having new stuff to play with and to work with.

Hafer joked that library employees, having not been inside the building for six months, were holding their own Hunger Games to see who gets in first. It turns out the entire staff toured the library together on Aug. 13.

They were so anxious to load the books on carts and get out of here that they did it in less time than we planned, Hafer said. I think theyre going to be twice as fast to load the books to move back in here.

In addition to the boiler room and storage, the basement previously unavailable to the public will be home to the librarys maker space that will contain a laser cutter, 3-D printer, a green screen studio, sewing machine and serger, button maker and Cricut machine.

Hastings Public Library director Amy Hafer stands in the building's basement Thursday. Dubbed the "Maker Space," the basement will be home to a laser cutter, 3D printers, sewing machines, a green screen and room for DIY projects.

Money the library has received each of the last three years during Give Hastings Day more than $20,000 has totally funded maker space equipment.

Because staff oversight is needed, the maker space will be open to the public about four hours every day except Wednesdays, when it will be closed but could be used for classes and library events.

Education Librarian Beth McCracken stands among new shelves in the children's section at Hastings Public Library Thursday. The shelves are 48 inches tall.

As a librarian you can only dream about working in a library like this thats brand new, Hafer said. Not every librarian ever gets an opportunity to do this, so to look at it and think we get to work in this library is breathtaking. Thats whats so exciting.

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TODAY'S TOP STORIESMitch Albom tells Oprah about lessons that still resonate from 'Tuesdays with Morrie' | 0:37

Free Press columnist and author Mitch Albom is to appear on Oprah Winfrey's "SuperSoul Sunday" on OWN about the 20th anniversary of the publishing of his best-selling memoir, "Tuesdays with Morrie," and the lessons that still resonate. Kristen Jordan Shamus, Detroit Free Press

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In this June, 2015 photo, a contracted demolition crew from Detroit-based Homrich demolishes a house on Dolphin Street, as part of the city's blighted house demolition program.(Photo: Keith Matheny, Detroit Free Pres, Keith Matheny, Detroit Free Pres)

WASHINGTON The state of Michigan charged a federal fund dedicated to housing relief and tearing down abandoned homes more than $330,000 to give employees free parking, an audit found today.

The Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) responded to the claim, which was contained in an audit that found millions in what a special inspector general in Washington characterized as unnecessary expenses charged to the federal Hardest Hit Fund by various states, saying the charge was reasonable.

"The parking for contract employees who work in downtown Lansing -- where parking is not free and is actually at a premium because it is the state capital -- was essential to meet staffing levels required for the important work of helping families in Michigan avoid foreclosure," said Katie Bach, a MSHDA spokeswoman. "Not paying this expense would have put (the state) at a disadvantage in attracting and retaining the talent required."

The number of contract employees receiving the benefit has fluctuated over time, from between 65 to nearly 100 at the height of the program.

Bach said the MichiganHomeowner Assistance Nonprofit Housing Corp., which MSHDA created to oversee the Hardest Hit Fund in the state, approved the charge,believing it was "a reasonable and customary expense of doing business, withwhich previous federal audits have taken no issue."

The Hardest Hit Fund, created in 2010 under the Trouble Asset Relief Fund to help keep residents in their homes and stabilize neighborhoods in the wake of the housing crisis, has committed a total of about $761 million to Michigan since its inception, about half of which has been targeted for demolitions, especially those in Detroit.

In previous reports to Congress and the U.S. Treasury, Christy Goldsmith Romero, the special inspector general for the TARP, has found instances of alleged waste, including last year uncovering what it said was $8.2 million in waste and abuse in Nevada that included car allowances, rent payments and overhead expenses Romero concluded were unjustified.

In the most recent report, which was sent today to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Romero and her auditors found that state agencies in Michigan, South Carolina, Nevada, Rhode Island, Ohio and California charged TARP more than $600,000 for transportation costs which would have been more appropriately paid for by the states themselves.

It recommended the states be required to pay back the money.

The Michigan state agency charged TARP $330,575 to give all employees the perk of free parking, the audit said. The Michigan state agency decided at a Board of Directors meeting in February 2011 to provide free parking for employees working on the Hardest Hit Fund.

Every dollar spent on unnecessary expenses is a dollar that is no longer available for homeowner assistance, the audit said, noting that funds were charged to cater barbeque dinners in North Carolina and to pay back rent on offices in Rhode Island among other expenses.

Michigan officials didn't immediately respond to the suggestion that the funds be repaid.

In Michigan, the audit also found charges of $77 for refreshments for a meeting with Treasury officials in 2015; $55 for gifts for employees from Bed Bath and Beyond and some $6,000 in other charges for food and beverages over the last seven years.

The Hardest Hit Fund and the demolitions it largely funds in Detroit have become a source of controversy, which questions being raised about costs and payments made to contractors. This week the Detroit Land Bank Authoritys demolition director resigned after just seven months on the job and a federal investigation into Detroits aggressive demolition program is continuing.

The citys inspector general also said this week that two contractors submitted doctored photos of sidewalk repairs done in connection with the demolition program in order to get paid.

Contact Todd Spangler at 703-854-8947 or at tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @tsspangler.

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Feds: Michigan charged housing, demolition fund $330000 for parking - Detroit Free Press

The demolition program came under scrutiny in the fall 2015 amid concerns over bidding practices and soaring costs.(Photo: Detroit News file photo)

Detroit The program director for the land banks federally funded demolition effort has resigned, the authority confirmed Thursday.

Rebecca Camargo is stepping down from the post for other opportunities, said Craig Fahle, a spokesman for the Detroit Land Bank Authority. She tendered her resignation last week and it will be effective Sept. 1, he said.

The high-ranking departure is the latest in recent months for the land bank, which is currently at the center of a federal criminal investigation into the citys demolition activities. The probe is among several federal, state and local reviews.

Camargo, a former Wayne County prosecutor, has worked with the land bank since 2014 and formerly assisted with its nuisance abatement and drug house programs. She could not be immediately reached Thursday for comment.

We thank her for her time, said Fahle of Camargo, who took the director job earlier this year. Shes been a great asset to the land bank for over three years. We wish her well.

The demolition program came under scrutiny in fall 2015 amid concerns over bidding practices and soaring costs. The land bank oversees Detroits blight elimination along with the Detroit Building Authority. More than 12,000 blighted homes have been demolished under the program since May 2014.

Camargo was named program director in mid-January, replacing Pura Bascos, who resigned. Officials at the time said Bascos was stepping down to return to her family in New Orleans. Days later, land bank compliance manager Martha Delgado left the blight reduction program for undisclosed reasons.

The departures came after former building authority deputy director Jim Wright, who oversaw the blight removal program, abruptly resigned in August 2016.

Bascos and Delgado were among 14 current and former employees listed on subpoenas from the Office of the Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program received by the land bank last year requesting documents pertaining to federally funded contracts and several demolition contractors.

The land banks deputy general counsel, Tammy Daniels, will step in as the interim director, Fahle said.

A permanent replacement will be determined by the land banks new executive director, Saskia Thompson, who is slated to join the authority Sept. 5. Thompson, a Detroit native who formerly served as deputy finance director for the city of Philadelphia, was selected for the $150,000-a-year position following a national search.

Prior executive director Carrie Lewand-Monroe announced her departure in March to take on a consulting role with the agency as well as private development work. Lewand-Monroe had joined the land bank in 2014 and became its executive director in December 2015.

CFerretti@detroitnews.com

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Judge blocks demolition of historic Brooklyn synagogue New York Daily News Their prayers were answered. A Brooklyn judge temporarily blocked the demolition of the oldest synagogue in Borough Park after members argued the sale of the building was based on misrepresentations. Chevra Anshei Lubawitz, on 12th Ave. and 41st St., ...

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Judge blocks demolition of historic Brooklyn synagogue - New York Daily News

Crew have begun work to demolish Pensacolas historic 1928 Hallmark School as a Texas-based homebuilder moves forward with plans to erect 76 townhomes on the site.

Located at 115 South E Street, the school was named forGeorge Stone Hallmark, a prominent Pensacola judge. Closed in 2011, the school was sold for $1 million in 2013 toPensacola-based 349 LLC. Following several unsuccessful attempts to develop the property,349 a partnership between attorney Fred Levin and longtime associate Fred Vigodsky sold it last month for $1.65 million to Dallas, Tex.-based D.R Horton, one of the nations largest homebuilders.

Demolition permits were issued for the 89-year-old school back in January, and city records list the permits as having expired in March. City officials, however, said the permits were still valid due to delays in asbestos testing and abatement.

Because demolition of the structure cannot occur until the testing and abatement have been completed, the contractor was not able to start the demolition until approved by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, said city building official Bill Weeks. The demolition contractor was allowed to continue the work on this demolition permit in accordance with the Florida Statutes regarding permit life.

As of Thursday, crews from Maverick Demolition had razed most of the library outbuilding and were well underway with interior demolition of the main school building.

Despite the buildings age and its handsome Renaissance Revival architecture, its not located within any of the citys historic districts and was thus unshielded from redevelopment. A proposed historic preservation ordinance introduced by city council president Brian Spencer last year would have required board review before any structure built before 1940 could be demolished, but that proposal was pulled prior to a vote.

I do think this is a loss and its another historic neighborhood school that has been demolished in the past few years, said Ross Pristera, a historic preservationist with the University of West Florida Historic Trust. This site had a lot of potential with the large amount of open acreage and a great historic building. The original school building could have been rehabilitated and the developer could have applied for historic tax credits and a local ad valorem tax exemption.

Architecturally, the school had great Renaissance Revival details and fit with other buildings of this period, Pristera said.With this loss, more generic-looking buildings will replace the interesting architecture that makes Pensacola unique from other cities. Besides the architectural importance, the personal connections related to this school are strong since it served the community for decades.

City council members in June issued final approval of the new proposed plat for the five-acre site, which calls for 76 0.03-acre townhome parcels arranged around the perimeter of the property. D.R. Horton hasnt yet released details about the development or construction timeline.

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Demolition underway at Pensacola's historic Hallmark School | The ... - The Pulse

MT. VERNON The MVTHS School Board Tuesday approved seeking bids to demolish Buildings A through F and M at the old campus.

The cost of demolishing the buildings and abating asbestos has been estimated at roughly $1.3 million, but a firm price tag won't be known until after bids are received. The goal is to complete the project by June 1, 2018, but the time frame is not set in stone, said Mt. Vernon Township High School Consultant Dr. Nick Osborne.

That's our target, Osborne said. We'd like to see it all taken care of before the next school year begins.

Last month, school board members reached a consensus that A through F and M Buildings should be demolished and G and H Buildings should be sold. A through F are located on the east side of Seventh Street and M is a small house across from F Building.

Dealing with the old campus has become a major priority for the board considering the cost of maintaining the site, as well as liability and vandalism concerns.

Estimates are it costs $11,000 to $12,000 a month or about $150,000 a year to maintain A through F Buildings with utilities. And while outside parties have expressed interest in buying G and H, no one has done so for A through F.

Currently, MVTHS officials are compiling a list of firms that may want to submit bids for the demolition. A bid specification packet will be sent to those companies.

In addition, the district will place ads in local newspapers to advertise for bids and interested parties can also contact MVTHS for more information.

Potential bidders will be required to attend a pre-bid meeting Sept. 13 in A Building at the old campus. A time for the meeting has not yet been set.

We think this is important enough that we're going to make sure people are understanding what they're getting into with this, Osborne said. This is a very big project, a very large project with a lot of issues that have to be attended to.

MVTHS Board President Matthew Flanigan warned that the asbestos abatement adds another layer of complexity to the project.

There's a lot of liability issues, especially with asbestos, that we've got to take care of, he said.

Meanwhile, the district is seeking proposals from architectural firms to oversee construction of a new 15,000 square-foot maintenance building that would also include space for athletic and drama storage, as well as concessions and restrooms.

It is unclear whether MVTHS will build one or two structures. The cost is estimated at more than $1 million and the project also has a tentative completion date of June 1, 2018, Osborne said.

MVTHS will pay for the demolition and maintenance building out of its Capital Projects Fund, which contains about $2.5 million from the state's final payment for the new school construction, among other revenues. The rest of the state funding was used to pay off half of MVTHS' debt.

According to updated figures presented Tuesday, the Capital Projects Fund begins fiscal year 2018 with a balance of about $6.8 million and will end the year at $212,000, a loss of about $6.6 million.

The fund includes roughly $3.5 million in expenses to pay for the maintenance building and old campus demolition, as well as completion of the greenhouse and the baseball/softball fields.

Interim Superintendent Marilyn Holt said she hopes bids for the demolition and maintenance building come in much lower than initial cost estimates.

Holt praised Osborne and Director of Facilities Brian Rightnowar for their work on the projects and said she is excited about the progress being made.

They have done amazing work and I take my hat off to both of those gentlemen, Holt said. I'm pleased with the progress.

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One of the least popular homeowner honey-do tasks right up there with toilet scrubbing or cat litter emptying is (yuck) gutter cleaning. You could install gutter guards as a way to simplify this annoying chore, but are they really worth the cost? Lets take a look at what gutter guards are, exactly, and what they can do for your home.

First, whats a gutter for? And why does it need cleaning?A gutter is a trough made of metal or vinyl, which edges the bottom of your roof. Often called rain gutters, these devices collect rain and melted snow running off your roof and channel them safely away from your homes foundation, via a type of tube known as a downspout. Unfortunately, rain gutters also tend to collect what we scientifically refer to as gunk. Here are some unwanted items that often end up in gutters:

fallen leavestree branches and twigspine needlesseeds (which, left alone, may eventually sprout into baby plants right there in the gutter)mossdust and dirtpollennests home to birds, wasps, or small rodentsanimal droppingstennis balls and other toys

Without regular gutter cleaning, all these things can block your gutters and eventually prevent water from draining off through the downspout system as intended. Instead, it will end up soaking into your fascia boards, walls, and/or foundation, where it may do thousands of dollars worth of damage and even threaten the structural integrity of your home.

In winter, water backup will freeze, resulting in ice dams which can tear off the gutter installation, downspout, fascia, etc., etc.

What are gutter guards?Designed to minimize gutter cleaning, gutter guards are covers which keep out debris and allow rainwater and snowmelt to flow freely through your gutters. They can be included in the gutter installation or retrofitted at a later date.

There are 5 basic types of gutter guards:Screen gutter guards are the most common and cheapest type, which are uncomplicated to install as a DIY project. Just cut PVC or aluminum screening to the dimensions you need and drop or slide it into place. However, standard screen gutter guards dont filter out smallish items like pine needles.

Foam gutter guards are extremely porous foam strips that are inserted in the gutter. Water passes readily through the foam, but solids are trapped on top. These are super simple for the home handyperson to put in place.

Brush gutter guards work similarly to foam. Place them inside the gutter and theyll allow water to pass through, yet trap any solid particles in their bristles. This is another excellent do-it-yourself choice.

Micromesh gutter guards have tiny holes, capable of filtering out almost every size of debris. They should be installed by an experienced roofing pro, either mounted under your roof shingles or attached to your fascia and to your gutter. For durability, choose surgical stainless steel mesh.Surface tension gutter guards are curved covers that guide water into the rain gutters, while solids slide harmlessly off the guards and onto the ground. Once again, find a professional roofer to install these.

Do gutter guards eliminate gutter cleaning completely?The good news is that gutter guards can cut down significantly on gutter cleaning work and the clogs that result when cleaning is neglected. The bad news is that they are unlikely to eliminate this job completely from your home maintenance checklist.

You will have to budget a certain amount of time to remove rubbish from the gutter guards themselves. This is a lot less trouble than old-school gutter cleaning, though, and only needs to be done every couple of years ... as opposed to at least twice annually without gutter guards.

The average cost to install 200 running feet of mid-range gutter guards is $1,500-2,000. (Cheap gutter guards tend to be poor quality, which may need frequent repair or replacement.) Do the math and decide whether you feel the added convenience is worth it to you personally.

Laura Firszt writes for networx.com.

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Networx: Gutter guards simplify cleaning but are they worth the cost? - Aledo Times Record