COEUR d'ALENE - A proposed parking ordinance which addresses concerns about the McEuen Park parking garage was reviewed Tuesday by Coeur d'Alene parking commission members.

City Attorney Wes Somerton presented the draft ordinance and told the commission that the changes were originally brought to the city council due to observations from law enforcement officers about behavior in the parking garage.

"There was a lot of concern raised about people mingling around in the garage," Somerton said. "Since the garage is out of view, this creates a public safety concern."

People lingering in the garage, Somerton said, have caused several issues including vandalism which has cost the city $700 since the garage opened in March, and numerous instances of people breaking into vehicles.

Amy Evans, who sits on the city council and is a parking commission member, said the proposed changes to the ordinances would give the Coeur d'Alene Police Department tools for situations where people are "mingling" in the structure. Without the changes, law enforcement wouldn't be able to handle those types of situations, she said.

Law enforcement officers have also encountered people sleeping in the garage, using it as a restroom, and dumping their trash.

"We want to be careful not to point a finger at any one segment of the community," Somerton said.

Somerton added that the ordinance would create several new infractions and misdemeanors for the police department to enforce in the garage.

The ordinance was first brought to the council months ago. However, according to interim City Administrator Troy Tymesen, city officials decided to attach the new rules for the parking garage to a revamped parking ordinance.

Tymesen encouraged the commission to look at the proposed revisions and additions to the ordinance and provide their input during the approval process.

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Proposed parking ordinance presented

University officials said they want to add more businesses to the area.

by Lian Parsons 07 October 2014

The number of businesses has recently increased in the Temple area, with the additions of a Chipotle Mexican Grill at the base of The View at Montgomery, Tropical Smoothie Cafe at Avenue North and a Pizza Hut at 15th Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue.

Adding businesses to the Main Campus area is one small part of Visualize Temple, a university-wide initiative which outlines the master plan for Temples campuses. This long-term plan is a comprehensive overview for the university to build a framework for future growth and renovations.

Theyre services that havent been there before, Rich Rumer, associate vice president for Business Services, said of the new businesses. We work closely with City Council and the community to try and do anything that enhances the campus and, at the same time, enhances the community in which we live.

Senior Vice President for Construction, Facilities and Operations Jim Creedon said Visualize Temple is slowly filling all [Temples] spaces on campus.

New businesses like Chipotle create a certain dynamic at street level, Creedon said.

[They help] with safety and [make] campus more vibrant, he added.

Creedon said Cosi in Pearson-McGonigle Halls is a product of Visualize Temple.

There are also two retail spaces in Montgomery Avenue Garage on 11th Street. One of the two is leased to a private company and will become a Sage Cafe. Creedon said there are plans to add a sportswear store to the second retail space.

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New restaurants welcomed by administration as part of plan

For weeks, people would see us together and say something like, "Hey, Amy, I loved your column last month." Or, "Wow, Amy, it looks like you have a second career in writing after you retire from teaching."

Amy gloated over the attention she received, while I felt a teeny-weenie bit slighted. OK, truth be known, I was miffed. After all, I wrote most of the column.

While Amy was snickering, and my face was reddening, I challenged her: "You write my next column!"

"OK, I will," she quickly responded. She called my bluff.

"Um, um, um," I stammered. "What will you write about?"

"I'm going to write about you!" Amy said, touching the tip of my nose with the tip of her index finger as if it were a fairy godmother's wand. "And all of your odd behavior," she added.

I felt like I'd just been turned into a toad.

"Well, that will be the shortest column in the history of newspaper columns," I said. "But, OK, you can write it under one condition I get to edit it and add my comments before sending it to the Tribune."

"Deal!" she said, sticking out her hand.

"Deal!" I said, spitting into my palm and quickly shaking on it.

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BERRY: Wife puts up with oddball (or is he unique?)

J'ade, designed by Italian company CRN, can store an eight-metre speedboat in its floating indoor garage Hydraulic-powered hatch fills with 18,000 litres of water and can also be used as an indoor ocean pool The luxury vessel was nominated for Best Interior at 2014 Monaco Yacht Show 196-foot vessel also features a gym, hammam room, and aquarium, and can sleep ten guests in four cabins

By Andrea Magrath for MailOnline

Published: 10:13 EST, 2 October 2014 | Updated: 16:15 EST, 2 October 2014

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In the battle to be the most extravagant mega yacht on the seas,it takes a lot to really impress.

While helipads, waterslides, and movie theatres are commonplace additions to the yachts of the super wealthy, a stylish Italian vessel is making waves for being the first to feature a floating drive-in garage.

J'ade, by Ferretti group company CRN, features a hydraulic-operated hatch which can store an eight-metre speedboat without the use of a tender lift to hoist it out of the water.

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196-foot J'ade mega yacht with world's first floating drive-in garage

The latest upgrades to the Presidio Officers Club, which reopens to the public Saturday, are a showcase of meticulous historic preservation. They also show how subjective a term like historic preservation can be.

While you can glimpse an exposed adobe wall from Spanish military days, most of the newly completed work involved the restoration of an earlier restoration from 1934 that relied on romantic visions of Californias roots. More recent additions to the complex, by contrast, have been altered freely in the latest round of work to bring them into sync with current design priorities.

Make no mistake: The $19 million rehabilitation designed by Perkins + Will for the Presidio Trust is another welcome step toward making the former Army post part of the Bay Areas daily life. But it is an act of reinvention as well as preservation, a case study in how turning back the clock is never as simple as it seems.

Other local examples of blurred history include such high-profile cultural buildings as the Contemporary Jewish Museum from 2008, which spills out from the shell of a much older Willis Polk-designed substation facing Yerba Buena Gardens. The lobby includes the original iron trusses and tile-clad columns, but they were stored off-site while a parking garage was inserted below. On a more mundane level, consider the frequency with which the facades of older buildings are retained while much larger structures are erected behind them.

But the goal at the Officers Club, billed by the trust as San Franciscos most historic building, wasnt to restore pieces of the past as much of an overall sense of what was.

We wanted to repair what needed to be repaired and leave everything else in place, said Christina Wallace, project manager for the trust, which manages nearly all of the 1,491-acre enclave at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. The great thing about the Army is that they always added. They never took things away.

Relics of Victorian era

This is most obvious in the Mesa Room to the left of the main entrance: At the south end is a wall of exposed adobe bricks that were stacked there at some point between 1780 and 1812, a period during which earthquakes and fires periodically ravaged the Spanish garrison. The walls on either side are covered in thin strips of wood painted green, relics of the Victorian era when the small adobe building was expanded and, simultaneously, reclad in Old West style.

The overall tone of the room is set by the most thorough redo of all, 1934s Mission Revival makeover. The deep-set windows slathered in white plaster are from that era, as are the dark wood doors and beams that were artfully distressed back then to make them look old.

The faux historic 1934 details extend throughout the newly restored portions of the older wings of the complex, because thats what defined the building California Historical Landmark No. 79 when its period of historic significance ended in 1945. Army officials touted the Officers Club in 1934 as a faithful replica of the former building, complete with wrought iron grilles on the windows and a Mission Revival veranda and buttresses out front. Eighty years later, it feels more like a beguiling act of make-believe shipped in from Santa Barbara than a remote outpost of a fading empire.

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Presidio Officers Club preservation also an act of reinvention

Primarily due to the Stonebridge of Plainview apartment complex, permitted construction in the city is running more than double the pace set in 2013.

The citys September building permit report, released Wednesday, shows total permitted construction for the month at $6,292,722. That brings the total permitted construction to date in 2014 to $8,306,378. That compares to just $3,230,107 for the same period in 2013.

The bulk of Septembers construction activity is for a single new residential project, valued at $6,227,000.

According to city officials, that project is the 80-unit Stonebridge complex.

The Plainview City Council in July unanimously approved the annexation of a 5.79-acre site just north of the Walmart Supercenter for the project, at the request of apartment builder State Street.

That request was made, according to an announcement at the time, so that the complex could connect to city utilities and have access to Plainview police and fire protection along with garbage collection.

Up until the September report, construction totals for 2014 were trailing 2013 slightly, coming in at the end of August to $2.01 million compared with $2.38 million for the same period in 2013.

During the entire month of September, the citys building and zoning department issued a total of 16 permits. In addition to the apartment complex, the city issued one permit for residential addition ($5,000), six for residential remodels ($24,320), three for garage/carport ($4,700), one storage building (no value listed), one commercial remodel ($30,000) and three signs ($1,702).

For the entire year, five new residential construction permits have been issued for both single and multi-family projects: 21 for residential additions, 21 for residential remodels, one residential repair, four residential demolitions, two residential accessory structures, 23 garage/carport projects, four storage buildings, one new commercial, one commercial addition, 14 commercial remodels, three commercial demolitions, two commercial accessory structures, one masonry fence and 24 signs.

For the year, 127 permits for various types of construction have been issued by the city. Thats down 56 from the 183 total permits issued during the same period in 2013.

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Apartment complex boosts construction values 10-02-14

Potomac, MD (PRWEB) September 30, 2014

Hopkins & Porter Construction, Inc, a full service home improvement and construction firm based in Potomac, is pleased to announce the completion of one of its most challenging projects this year. A client in Garrett Park approached Hopkins & Porter Construction, Inc with the task of doubling the size of her home. That task was something that Guy Semmes, President of Hopkins & Porter Construction, Inc, felt his company could handle without issue, given the firm's 37 years of experience.

As the project progressed, it became clear that the home's zoning would not allow Hopkins & Porter Construction, Inc to complete the project without getting creative. To get around this zoning restriction that involved an easement on the property reserved for the town of Garrett Park to build a bridge that was never completed, the Hopkins & Porter Construction, Inc team came up with the solution of building a new hidden entrance for the home, kept private by planters and covered storage. The entrance opens into a foyer that leads to the home's new kitchen.

Without the workaround, Hopkins & Porter Construction, Inc would have had to request a variance to go outside of the property's zoning setback, under municipality rules. A response to the variance request could have taken anywhere from six to seven months, with no guarantee that the it would be approved.

Hopkins & Porter Construction, Inc's solution is one which the company's president is extremely proud of.

"This creative solution to our client's zoning issue allowed us to accomplish a number of things. The big thing is we got the job done in a more timely fashion and left her feeling satisfied," Semmes says.

"Beyond avoiding what would have been a lengthy zoning issue, we preserved the view of he house from the street. This home is one of the original Chevy homes. During the Depression the builder put a Chevy in each garage to make the home more attractive to potential buyers. We wanted to preserve the garage, and by going with this option, we were able to do that. Both our client and my team are thrilled with the outcome."

About Hopkins & Porter Construction, Inc Hopkins & Porter Construction, Inc builds custom homes, additions and renovations throughout the Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Washington, DC areas. Their team of experienced architects create quality living spaces for affordable prices. To learn more, visit http://www.hopkinsandporter.com.

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Hopkins & Porter Construction, Inc Uses Creative Solution to Solve Garrett Park Zoning Conundrum

An auto shop along West Washington Street in Bradford is expanding after growing business demand over last three to five years.

The approximately four-month project got underway in August on a larger collision repair facility for Dexters Service Center, which has been in business since the 1980s.

Owner Al Dexter said that enhancing the facility will help employees do a more efficient job of repairing vehicles. The 40-by-110-square-foot addition will also be more efficient for technicians, he said.

Its just going to help us all around do a better job, he said.

At this point, the collision part of the garage can comfortably hold four to six vehicles, Dexter said. The expansion will be able to hold eight to 12 vehicles, Dexter said.

The expansion will streamline operations where two or three vehicles wont have to be moved in order to get one out, he said.

Besides more space to work on vehicles, there will be a new paint booth.

He said that Dexters Service Center keeps busy year-round handling collision repairs on newer vehicles, from incidents such as someone hitting a deer.

Collision and service go hand in hand, Dexter said.

Dexter said the expansion has been in the planning stages for about a year. Kessel Construction Inc. of Bradford should be completed with the expansion by the end of November. The addition should be fully operational by mid-December, Dexter said.

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Dexters expanding service center

Hamilton firefighters say a suspicious fire destroyed two garages and damaged five houses plus a motor home in the 600 block of Sycamore Street around 6 a.m. today.

A woman taking her dog outside this morning saw the flames in the air.

She said her dog needed to go outside and when she let the dog out, she saw the flames in the back and called 911, Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Shaw said.

The fire marshall is on scene, and investigators are still trying to determine the cause. Shaw estimates damages at $200,000. No injuries were reported.

The fire may have started in one of the garages and then spread to the second garage and eventually the six homes, according to Shaw.

The house at 611 (Sycamore Street) had severe siding damage. Siding was melted off from the heat, Shaw said.

Houses at 609 and 623 Sycamore St. also had siding damage from the heat, he said.

Two homes 615 and 619 Sycamore Street had their garages complete consumed by the fire, according to Shaw.

Both of those homes also had one-room additions that were a complete loss, Shaw said.

A motor home located behind 623 Sycamore St. was also damaged.

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Suspicious fire damages several homes in Hamilton

HAMILTON, Ohio -- A suspicious fire in Butler County destroyed two garages and caused extensive damage to six houses plus a motor home early Thursday morning.

VIEW PICTURES OF THE DAMAGE

The blaze started about 6 a.m. at a home in the 600 block of Sycamore Street.

"I turned off of Pershing ontoMLKthere was fire about two stories high into the air then so the structures were totally involved before we arrived," said Deputy Chief Jeff Shaw with Hamilton Fire Department.

First responders managed to knock down the flames fairly quickly otherwise all of the homes might have been destroyed due to how close they are to one another, according to Shaw.

No injuries were reported, but property damage is estimated at $200,000.

Shaw said the fire may have started in one of the garages and then spread to the second garage and eventually the six homes.

The house at 611 (Sycamore St.) had severe siding damage. Siding was melted off from the heat, he told the Journal-News, adding that residencesat 609 and 623 Sycamore St. also had siding damage from the heat.

Two homes 615 and 619 Sycamore St. had one-room additions that were a complete loss, Shaw said. Both of those houses also saw their garages go up in flames.

A motor home behind a home at 623 Sycamore was also damaged.

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Suspicious fire' damages 6 houses in Hamilton