BRISTOL A developer wants to buy two shuttered elementary schools and convert them to apartments for senior citizens, but Bristol Hospital is asking for one of the properties as the site for a medical office building.

Residents will get to give their opinions at a hearing Wednesday on what Bristol should do with the O'Connell and Bingham buildings. The city council ultimately will decide whether to go with one of the proposals or look for different alternatives.

Bristol Hospital is asking the city to give it the 98-year-old Bingham School on Route 6. Hospital officials propose razing the three-story building and building up to 60,000 square feet of medical office space in phases. The hospital estimates that the total construction cost would be $21 million to $27 million.

The hospital, which is on the verge of being acquired by the private Tenet Healthcare Corp., is asking the city to provide the property without charge. It has said it would want up to 18 months to determine whether to go ahead with construction of the new complex, which would provide medical office space on the edge of downtown and within a short drive of Plymouth.

Bristol Hospital's proposal doesn't include the O'Connell School in the West End.

The Litchfield-based Park Lane Group is asking to buy both schools for the combined price of $219,000. The company said it would seek state and federal historic register status for them, and plans to renovate both into housing for seniors. Park Lane said that it could create about 70 apartments in total, and that it would be agreeable to providing the gyms in one or both buildings as community facilities.

Park Lane has been campaigning to get supporters of its plan to Wednesday's hearing. Ted Lazarus, head of the company, said in a statement Tuesday that preservation of the historic schools is important.

"Both buildings are very important elements of Bristol's architectural legacy," he said. "Why demolish a building which can be restored and again made useful in a new role as senior housing?"

The city wants to dispose of both properties to reduce maintenance costs and the risk of deterioration. Both were closed as schools within the past three years, along with Memorial Boulevard Middle School and the Jennings School; the city has not decided what to do with either of those other properties.

A study for the city by AMS Consulting concluded that Bingham's value is theoretically more than $900,000, with about $526,000 of that attributed to the land. But the actual market value would be far less, the company reported.

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Bristol To Hear Suggestions For O'Connell, Bingham Buildings

Hammers are flying in the city of Dauphin at a record-breaking pace.

According to that citys economic development office, building permits have reached an all-time high in 2014 after rising steadily for the past four years.

In total so far this year, local building permits with a value of more than $8.2 million have been issued, and more than another $14 million have been issued locally by the Department of Labour for larger buildings.

The $22.3-million total is the highest ever for Dauphin.

City council and our economic development office have been working hard to provide a competitive and supportive environment for our citys growth, said Dauphin Mayor Eric Irwin. A 15 per cent tax decrease over the past three years, infrastructure improvements and housing incentive programs have all helped to boost growth.

Several substantial projects are credited with contributing to the record-breaking number, including major increases in housing development and new commercial construction projects.

Some of the notable commercial construction started recently in Dauphin have been the Consumers Co-op food store, Mr. Mikes restaurant franchise, CKDM radio station and the return of Boston Pizza.

Brandon Sun

Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition December 10, 2014

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Dauphin building permits set record

Completing a half-built, 1.5 million-SF retail-office center in less than 18 months presented a desert challenge for VCC LLC. The sprawling Downtown Summerlin project in the western suburbs of Las Vegas also represented unfinished business for the Little Rock general contracting firm.

The Great Recession brought construction to a halt in October 2008, and work didnt resume on the 106-acre development until May 2013.

Touted as a showcase of new urbanism design, Summerlin is home to a nine-story, 200,000-SF office building and more than 1.3 million SF of stores, restaurants and entertainment venues. The development is portrayed as the largest retail project in the nation to come on line since 2008.

Its owner, the Howard Hughes Corp. of Dallas, tallied the development costs of the project at $344 million as of Sept. 30.

Were proud of it, said Sam Alley, VCC chairman and CEO. I told our management team that I feel like weve won the Super Bowl. Its an iconic project.

The grand opening on Oct. 9 was greeted by an enthusiastic throng treated to pyrotechnics and fanfare in keeping with a super Vegas event. Summerlin attracted more than a quarter million visitors during the flashy music-filled, four-day celebration.

Among the 85 shopping carnival hosts was Dillards Inc. The Little Rock department store chain held a soft opening Oct. 4 at its 200,000-SF Summerlin store in advance of the big Oct. 9-12 blowout.

The fireworks show was bigger than any Fourth of July Ive ever seen, said Derek Alley, senior vice president in the Dallas office of VCC. It was quite the party.

Dillards was a committed anchor to the project when it was envisioned as a regional mall development, the Shops at Summerlin Centre.

The original fortress mall concept called for a retailing destination designed to capture and contain money-spending patrons all surrounded by a huge moat of parking.

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VCC Goes Big in Vegas with $344M Downtown Summerlin Project

Man told to remove NRA hat at polling place sues Man told to remove NRA hat at polling place sues

A man says his civil rights were violated when a poll worker asked him to remove his National Rifle Association (NRA) hat when he went to vote. FOX 5 first introduced you to Bundy Cobb in late October and now the Douglas County man is suing the county and election officials.

A man says his civil rights were violated when a poll worker asked him to remove his National Rifle Association (NRA) hat when he went to vote. FOX 5 first introduced you to Bundy Cobb in late October and now the Douglas County man is suing the county and election officials.

Updated: Tuesday, December 9 2014 11:53 AM EST2014-12-09 16:53:17 GMT

FOX 5 has learned that a 2-year-old child has died in a house fire in west Georgia.

FOX 5 has learned that a 2-year-old child has died in a house fire in west Georgia.

Updated: Tuesday, December 9 2014 11:08 AM EST2014-12-09 16:08:30 GMT

A freak accident has left a beloved youth football coach paralyzed. It happened while the Union City coach played with his team at their sports banquet.

A freak accident has left a beloved youth football coach paralyzed. It happened while the Union City coach played with his team at their sports banquet.

Updated: Tuesday, December 9 2014 10:57 AM EST2014-12-09 15:57:45 GMT

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Police investigating death of woman found in Decatur

The monster fire that consumed one of two buildings of an upscale downtown L.A. apartment development did at least $1.5 million in damage to the adjacent 110 Freeway, a Caltrans official said Monday.

Patrick Chandler, spokesman for the agency, said the flames destroyed signs, damaged wooden guardrails, palm trees, rubber sealant and metal posts. The fire was so intense and massive that flames shot across the north and southbound lanes, which are each 11-feet-wide, scorching the roadway, he said.

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Burned scaffolding from the gutted building, which stretches for at least a city block along the freeway, threatened to fall on the road, Chandler said, causing the 110 northbound to the 101 Freeway to be closed. Caltrans will hire a contractor to repair the damage, he said.

The fire did about $10 million in estimated damage just to the burned Da Vinci development building, L.A. fire Capt. Jamie Moore said. The nearby Lewis Brisbois building also had significant damage on 14 of its 16 floors, he said.

Moore said he spoke to people who work inside that building who said that their cubicle partitions had burned down and that computers melted from the heat. Three floors were also damaged in the county building at 313 N. Figueroa Street, he said.

For more breaking news, follow@VeronicaRochaLA, @latvives and @marisagerber.

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L.A. fire: Damage to 110 Freeway estimated at $1.5 million, at least

Firefighters silhouetted against a wall of flames worked to put out a fire in L.A. that closed two portions of major highways early Monday morning. The building had been intended to be a residential structure. (AP)

More than250 firefighters battleda massive building fire near downtown Los Angeles a blaze that snarled traffic during the Monday morning commute and left some freeway lanes closed well into the day.

The fire began in an unoccupied multi-story building that took up almost an entire city block at around 1:20 a.m. There are so far no reports of injuries.The seven-story apartmentcomplex, which was still under construction, was engulfed in flames that could be seen for miles.

One fire station was almost directly across the street from the building, and firefighters were on the scene almost immediately after the fire began, according toLos Angeles Fire Department spokesman David Ortiz. But by that time, the fire had already moved quickly through the structure because it was under construction. According to the Los Angeles Times, the fire engulfed two-thirds of themore than 1.3 million square foot structure.

The L.A. Fire Department is investigating two massive fires in Los Angeles, including one downtown that closed portions of two major highways and blanketed the area in heavy smoke. (AP)

It was the perfect storm, if you will, for fire spread, Ortiz said in a phone interview. There were no dividing firewalls between the different components of it.

So we had five stories of a wood frame without any type of fire protection, he added, noting that the two lowerfloors of the complex were made of concrete and are still standing.

This is a historic fire, what we as firefighters would call a career fire, Ortiz told NBC News. Its huge. I really cant remember a building fire this big, and I have been with the department for 13 years.

The LAFD is conducting an arson investigation, which is standardprocedure for a large fire.They are being assisted by theBureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Los Angeles County.

All investigationsare treatedas if they are criminaluntil proven otherwise, said LAFD spokeswomanKatherine Maine.

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Massive Los Angeles fire destroyed apartment building, snarled traffic on two freeways

LOS ANGELES - A fierce blaze that destroyed a downtown Los Angeles apartment complex under construction next to a fire house and damaged three nearby buildings on Monday is being examined by arson investigators as a "criminal fire," authorities said.

Commuter traffic into the nation's second-largest city was snarled through the morning rush as authorities shut down a major nearby freeway because of the blaze, which fire officials said erupted overnight and took three hours to bring under control. No injuries were reported.

About 250 firefighters, roughly a fourth of the city's on-duty force, battled the blaze at its height, said Katherine Main, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles City Fire Department.

Although the cause was not immediately known, city arson investigators, assisted by agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, were "going to treat it as if it's a criminal fire until proven otherwise," Fire Captain Jamie Moore told reporters.

He said that the size of the conflagration, as well as the speed and intensity with which it spread, gave investigators cause for concern that it may have been intentionally set.

The site that burned - two stories of poured concrete beneath five floors of wood framing - occupied an entire city block near the junction of two major traffic arteries - the Hollywood Freeway and the Harbor Freeway.

Moments after the first alarm, firefighters whose station is located at the end of the block emerged to see the entire development, measuring 1.3 million square feet (121,000 sq meters), engulfed in flames, Moore said.

"They opened the doors, and they saw fire from one end to the other," he said, adding it was rare for such a large site to go up in flames so swiftly, especially since the exposed lumber would still have been damp from two days of rain late last week.

Much of the structure, wrapped in scaffolding, collapsed in the flames, producing heat so intense it ignited three floors of a neighboring 16-story high-rise building, melting telephones, computers and office cubicle partitions, he said.

The radiant heat also blew out windows from two other nearby office buildings, one of them, the Department of Water and Power headquarters two blocks away, raining shards of glass on firefighters working below to cool the structures with water.

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250 firefighters battle massive L.A. blaze

LOS ANGELES Federal and local investigators tried Tuesday to determine whether an arsonist set a fire that turned an unfinished downtown Los Angeles apartment complex into a block of flames so hot that freeway signs melted and windows cracked in office high-rises as far as a block away.

Crews were dousing hot spots and smoke was billowing more than 24 hours after flames engulfed the wooden frame of the seven-story construction site, leaving a smoldering heap of wood and metal.

The fire that broke out early Monday caused an estimated $10 million in losses to the Da Vinci apartment complex, city fire Capt. Jaime Moore told the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/1wu0xgF ).

Another $1.5 million in damage was done to a freeway where a sign melted and traffic-monitoring fiber-optic cables under the pavement may have to be replaced, authorities said.

Fire officials said they suspect arson because the fire erupted so quickly over so much of the building.

"It's very rare for the entire building to be engulfed at once," Moore said. "There may have been foul play."

City fire investigators and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will look at surveillance recordings and use dogs that can sniff fire accelerants.

Flames were visible for miles Monday and rained ash onto freeways flanking the construction site. Some signs melted and portions of U.S. 101 and Interstate 110 were shut down as burning debris fell into lanes.

Three floors of a nearby 16-story city-owned building had fire damage and the other floors sustained water damage.

The intense heat also broke glass and melted blinds in three stories of the 15-story Los Angeles County Health Department building.

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Arson eyed in massive Los Angeles apartment blaze

BUILDING PERMITS

PMT2014-04022 745 Mapleton Ave.; $86,279.99; Brian Spear; AGR Building, Inc.; This a building permit application for an addition of a lower-level entry and main-level mud room with elevator access to lower level, main level and second floor. The interior remodel is to convert existing mechanical room to a utility room and convert existing bedroom to a laundry room (and associated MEPs). Additional remodel work includes the master bathroom and hall bath. See HIS2014-00038 approval. Included in this review, under separate permit application, are new retaining walls and associated landscaping see HIS2014-00238 approval.

PMT2014-04248 1498 Periwinkle Drive; $30,000; Julie Seaman and Daniel Still; Sl Murphy Construction LLC; Addition (18 square feet) and remodel (230SF) to existing single-family dwelling. Scope of work includes small increase in floor area of the existing dining room, revised staircase; basement remodel to include modified staircase to exterior and second laundry station and a new bathroom.

PMT2014-04726 981 Crescent Drive; $87,500; Christoph and Melinda Roden; This is a pop-top addition of 703 square feet of floor area, a second floor 180-square-foot covered deck, and a remodel of 84 square feet to a single-family dwelling home. The scope of work includes associated MEPs and electrical radiant floor heat in the new upstairs bathroom.

PMT2014-04893 1955 Vassar Circle; $92,697.50; Paul Dopp; This is a building permit for a first-time basement finish of approximately 1,750 square feet. A portion of the finish will be to establish an ADU (approximately 925 square feet) in association with the AUR2014-00018 approval. the scope of work includes creating three bedrooms, two bathrooms and one kitchen. Additionally, the scope includes new exterior door and window installation and associated MEPs.

PMT2014-05035 3450 Mitchell Lane; $45,077; University Corporation; Sun Construction & Design Service Inc.; Interior, non-structural reconfiguration of existing professional office space (500 square feet). Specifically referencing area including rooms 2060, 2051 and 2052. Includes associated mechanical and electrical work. Fire sprinkler changes under separate permit.

PMT2014-05077 1890 Norwood Ave.; $105,000; Donald and Karen Kehn; Milestone Remodeling Ltd.; Interior remodel of approximately 960 square feet of conditioned space in single-family dwelling. Scope to include removal of existing indoor pool, conversion of space into family room and a new spa room, and additions of a new gas fireplace and spa.

PMT2014-05335 3711 Ridgeway St.; $25,593.70; Elliot Dill; Silver Contracting LLC; Basement finish in condo unit including one bedroom (set existing rough-ins), full bath, and unfinished storage area. Scope of work includes associated electrical, mechanical and plumbing work. Plans consistent with plans approved per TEC2006-00029.

PMT2014-05359 890 Orman Drive; $17,091.36; Eric Dorninger; Owner/contractor Replace existing rear-yard, lower deck. Replacement upper deck and new stairway connecting decks under separate permit. Reference CPL2014-00696.

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Boulder building permits: Dec. 8, 2014

>> Announcer: FROM VERMONT'S MOST TRUSTED NEWS SOURCE, WCAX BRINGS YOU YOUR NEWSMAKERS, YOUR NEIGHBORS. THIS IS "YOU CAN QUOTE ME."

>>> AND GOOD MORNING, EVERYONE. I'M DARREN PERRON. TROPICAL STORM IRENE DEVASTATED THE STATE MORE THAN THREE YEARS AGO, AND DESTROYED THE STATE OFFICE COMPLEX IN WATERBURY. WE'LL TALK ABOUT REBUILDING THE COMPLEX, THE STATE'S LARGEST-EVER CONSTRUCTION PROJECT, AND GET AN UPDATE ON HOW WATERBURY IS REBOUNDING WITH OUR GUESTS THIS MORNING, MIKE STEVENS WITH VERMONT BUILDINGS AND GENERAL SERVICES, AND BILL SHEPELUK, THE WATERBURY MUNICIPAL MANAGER, BUT FIRST, THIS BACKGROUND REPORT FROM ALEXEI RUBENSTEIN.

>> FROM MAIN STREET WATERBURY, IT'S HARD TO SEE THE BUZZ OF ACTIVITY BEHIND THE SCENES. BUT LOOK PAST THE CHAIN-LINK FENCE, BEHIND THE FAMILIAR BRICK FACE OF THE OLD HOSPITAL, WHERE A MODERN STEEL STRUCTURE IS TAKING SHAPE, THE FUTURE HOME OF THE STATE'S AGENCY OF HUMAN SERVICES. FOR OVER A YEAR NOW, HUNDREDS OF WORKERS HAVE DEMOLISHED BUILDINGS AND BULLDOZED THE LAND TO TRANSFORM THIS 43-ACRE SITE.

>> IT'S THE LARGEST CONSTRUCTION BUILDING PROJECT THE STAY OF VERMONT HAS EVER DONE.

>> MIKE STEVENS, THE STATE'S POINT PERSON ON THE $125 MILLION PROJECT, ALONG WITH ARCHITECT JESSIE BECK, ARE OUR TOUR GUIDES. FROM WHAT WILL SOON BE A GIANT HORSESHOE PARKING LOT AT THE REAR, WORKERS AND VISITORS WILL ENTER THE NEW COMPLEX THROUGH ONE MAIN ENTRANCE.

>> THE MAIN ATRIUM WHERE BOTH OF THE OFFICE BUILDINGS COME TOGETHER, PEOPLE CAN MEET, HAVE COFFEE, THERE'S GOING TO BE FOOD SERVICE, A CONFERENCING CENTER ON THE SECOND LEVEL, SO WE'VE GOT VERMONT ARTISTS THAT ARE WORKING ON DISPLAYS, ALL THE MATERIALS IN THE STATION WILL BE VERMONT-MADE MATERIALS.

>> IT GIVES IT A FEELING OF --

>> STARTING WITH A SPRAWLING COMPLEX OF MORE THAN A DOZEN BUILDINGS, BECK SAYS GETTING BACK TO BASICS WAS THE MAIN IDEA.

>> WE APPROACH IT WITH THE THOUGHT OF THE AGENCY AGREEMENT SERVICES, THERE ABOUT HELPING PEOPLE AND THE NEW OFFICE BUILDING IS SHAPED LIKE HELPING HANDS COMING TOGETHER WITH THE ATRIUM IN BETWEEN TO MAKE SENSE OUT OF THE ARCHITECTURE.

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YCQM: December 7, 2014