With spring just around the corner, streets in Mahanoy City will be swept during the next two weeks.

In addition, officials will walk through the borough to identify properties where owners will be told to clean porches and yards.

The borough has secured the use of the street sweeper from the Northern Schuylkill Council of Governments for the two weeks.

Parking will be prohibited on the streets scheduled to be swept from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. that day. Vehicles that are not moved on the scheduled days will be ticketed.

The parking restrictions for next week are:

n Monday - North side of Center Street, south side of Mahanoy Street.

n Tuesday - South sides of Center Street, D Street and 14th Street.

n Wednesday - North side of Mahanoy Street and both sides of Main Street.

n Thursday- North side of Market Street and south side of Pine Street.

n Friday - South side of Market Street and north side of Pine Street.

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Borough setting example with cleanup

MAHANOY CITY - With spring just around the corner, Mahanoy City will get some sprucing up with the sweeping of streets during the next two weeks.

In addition, borough officials will make their walks in the borough to identify properties to tell owners to clean porches and yards.

The borough has secured the use of the street sweeper from the Northern Schuylkill Council of Governments for the two weeks, with a schedule that will be advertised informing the public where parking restrictions from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. will be in effect.

The street sweeping parking restrictions for March 19 to 23 are:

- Monday - north side of Center Street, south side of Mahanoy Street.

- Tuesday - south sides of Center Street, D Street and 14th Street.

- Wednesday - north side of Mahanoy Street and both sides of Main Street.

- Thursday - north side of Market Street and south side of Pine Street.

- Friday - south side of Market Street and north side of Pine Street.

The parking restrictions for March 26 to 30 are:

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Spring cleaning to begin in Mahanoy City

15-03-2012 06:40 The Porch Company Nashville's Design

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The Porch Company Nashville's Design - Video

Living in Cleveland Park in Northwest Washington is a dream come true for residents who want to enjoy the charm of some of the citys most picturesque streets, where visitors exclaim over the Victorian, Cape Cod, Craftsman and Colonial-style homes with their old-fashioned front porches, fillips of architectural whimsy and lovely gardens.

The tree-lined side streets of Cleveland Park extend between Wisconsin and Connecticut avenues, where residents can enjoy the delights of city living, including shops, restaurants, movie theaters and such Washington treasures as the National Cathedral and the National Zoo. An abundance of bus and Metro service links Cleveland Park to Dupont Circle, downtown Washington and Georgetown.

While many of Cleveland Parks homes date back 80 to 100 years, a handful of newer homes have been designed for seamless incorporation into the neighborhood so homeowners can enjoy the full range of modern amenities along with an architectural nod to the past.

The home at 3517 Porter St. NW, on the market for $1,849,000, was designed and built in 2005 by an architect who opted to live in the property. This Craftsman-style cedar-shingle semidetached home has mature trees, professional landscaping and a side entrance with a porch with columns. An arched gate provides an entrance to the fully fenced backyard, which also is accessible from French doors off the family room.

The multilevel flagstone patio provides sitting and dining areas as well as garden beds. The owners even have tented the area for special events. A detached one-car garage leftover from the home that previously was on the site has been restored by the owners, who also added storage along one wall. An off-street parking space, accessible through a wide alley with two entrances, is adjacent to the garage.

The home, which looks deceptively small from the outside, fits easily into the surrounding community. Inside, it has four finished levels with more than 4,100 finished square feet. Each room has been beautifully finished with high-end materials, including hardwood flooring on all three upper levels, built-in cabinets and bookcases, and detailed crown molding. Each of the homes three fireplaces has a detailed mantel. Myriad windows on all four levels fill the home with natural light.

The front door opens into the foyer, which includes hardwood stairs to the upper levels and is flanked by the living room and dining room. The living room includes a gas fireplace and a triple window facing the front garden. On either side of the fireplace are built-in cabinets with both wood and glass doors.

Two columns frame the entrance from the foyer into the formal dining room, which also has columns flanking the entrance to the central hall. The dining room includes a double window facing the side garden and a third window that frames a view of the front porch. The dining room includes chair-rail molding in addition to the crown molding found throughout the home. Every room also has recessed lighting.

The hallway provides access to a coat closet, stairs to the lower level and a powder room with hardwood flooring and a pedestal sink. At the back of the house are an open center-island kitchen, breakfast area and family room. The kitchen has pendant lighting over the oversized island, which has a granite counter, a breakfast bar and plenty of additional storage.

The kitchen includes custom-made wood cabinets, granite counters and high-end stainless steel appliances, including a Viking range, double wall ovens, a built-in microwave, a dishwasher and a Viking refrigerator. The breakfast area has a chandelier and is open to the family room, which has a fireplace with a mantel and a built-in entertainment center as well as additional cabinets.

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Resale of the week: '05 home fits Cleveland Park

Decks with Style, serving North Virginia, explains how homeowners are jazzing up screened porches to make outdoor living more enjoyable.

(PRWEB) March 15, 2012

In 1992, the U.S. Census noted that 42 percent of new homes had one or more porches. By 2008, that statistic had risen to 60 percent. In fact, deck replacement, the addition of a new screened porch, and front porches are three top remodeling trends on the rise.

Last year was our biggest year for screened porches, says Greg Deans, operation manager of Decks with Style, which specializes in unique deck, patio, and porch designs. People want to enjoy the outdoors, but without putting on a SPF 50 sunscreen, sweating, and swatting profusely.

Screen porches have been around for years but have changed from Grandmas porch with open rafters and a ceiling fan centered over a patio table. What was formerly a practical venue for family dinners and gatherings have become a luxurious amenity for homeowners. Screened porches can offer solitude, calm and quiet or the rooms can be used as playrooms, shelter for pets, or entertainment rooms.

Porches have definitely become more stylish, Greg notes. Last year we built a jaw-dropping screened porch with western red cedar and a 30 foot chimney.

The following are some porch upgrades homeowners may want to consider:

An outdoor kitchen or a fireplace can be added with proper venting.

With so many recent advancements in new products and installation practices, Decks with Style believes its become more important than ever to educate their clients as to the many options available and involve homeowners in the building process. Their experienced team of designers can skillfully add screened porches, decks, gazebos, and patios to an existing home seamlessly as if the improvement had been there all along. We enjoy hearing our customers tell us that it looks and feels as if our work was part of the original architecture, Greg says.

To learn more about this business with an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, please visit their website, http://www.deckswithstyle.com.

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Ashburn Porch Builder Shares Insight into why Screened Porches are Making a Big Comeback

On Sunday afternoons, a handful of trailer-towing bike riders pedal through the neighborhoods of Kirksville, Missouri, stopping at select lawns and porches to collect buckets brimming with food waste. The unwanted contents are raw material for compost piles, which any green thumb in the community can use to nourish her garden.The environmentally-minded two-wheeler crew called The Rot Riders has made weekly rounds since spring 2010, collecting from more than 40 houses and apartments within striking distance of downtown Kirksville.The number of food waste donors is growing fast, and the program is earning more recognitionit finished as the runner-up in GOOD Maker's recent GOOD Citizenship challenge.

Inspired by a Northampton, Massachusetts wastecollection company called Pedal People, cofounders Jonathan Lessing, Rodery Riney, and Allison Sissom developed the idea for Rot Riders as a project for a student-led grassroots environmentalism course at the local college, Truman State University. Now a community-centered group, Rot Riders involves a pack of five core riders, plus or minus a few volunteers, who break up into pairs, divide the route, and collect buckets of compost left on porches. The rotting goods are taken to Trumans University Farm compost pile, where they're mixed with other ingredients like campus food waste, leaves, straw, sawdust and manure. The resulting compost takes roughly three months to break down and is made available to all local gardeners.

Crew member Kyle LaVelle says getting involved in Rot Riders is easyall that's needed is an ice cream bucket or other container to hold the organic waste.I was initially drawn to the idea of the Rot Riders [as] community action to close the broken nutrient cycle in our soil, he says. I've stayed motivated because we keep things fun. My hope is that more people will get involved, with our project or in their own. And the concept serves as a model for smaller communities where public works may not yet have gotten on board with municipal composting.

Though most of the riders are Truman State students, the team is looking for volunteers to expand their crew. Bikers, organic waste collectors, and composters are all welcomeall you need to do is send an email torotriders@kvpermaculture.org.

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'The Rot Riders' Bike for Compost

Boy Scout Troop 86 will be collecting food for the local pantry at the Bloomingdale United Methodist Church on Saturday, March 17 from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. Residents of Bloomingdale will be receiving a bag on their front porches on Saturday, March 10. Anyone who wishes to donate food to the local food pantry just needs to place the item in the bag and put it on their front porch by 9 a.m. on March 17 and the Boy Scouts will pick it up.

Boy Scouts will also be on hand at the Bloomingdale United Methodist Church at 65 Main Street in Bloomingdale between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. to accept food that is dropped off. Note that they would like non-perishables and canned/jarred foods only, please. Also, non-food items such as dish and laundry detergents, shampoo, deodorants, toilet paper, tissues, toothpaste, trash bags, baggies and food wraps/foil or household cleaning products are always appreciated. They are currently well stocked with pasta, canned tuna, and soups, but all food donations are always appreciated.

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Troop 86 Scouting for food

Post-Gazette

This five-bedroom home in Bell Acres has Victorian-style features, including a grand turret, high ceilings and a wrap-around porch.

There are lots of reasons to love Victorian style -- high ceilings, wrap-around porches and cozy turrets to name a few -- but the maintenance that usually comes with these classic beauties can be daunting. Fortunately, there is lovely home at 165 Summerlawn Drive in Bell Acres that has all of the belles and none of the alarming whistles.

The five-bedroom, 51/2-bath house (MLS No. 900843) is on the market for the first time for $465,000 with Realtor Carroll Ferguson of Howard Hanna Real Estate (412-741-2200 or http://www.howardhanna.com).

The 13 years-young home is picture-perfect, with a grand turret, lots of windows and a wrap-around porch that urges you grab a seat and take in the view. Hugged by lots of natural landscaping, the entryway is made more inviting by pair of evergreens that flank the low stairs.

BELL ACRES

Website: http://www.bellacresborough.org

Size: 5.38 square miles

Population: 1,388 (2000 census)

School district: Quaker Valley (www.qvsd.org)

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Buying Here: Bell Acres

Back in the day, when I delivered newspapers on porches, driveways and peoples mailboxes, I had no idea Id spend a life pursuing the dream of writing in those things. As I began to work myself into the mix school publications, internships with the dailies, college and, eventually, hooking on with a full-time job I had to laugh at the irony of the business.

There were war correspondents risking their lives, political beat writers battling the back-and-forth misery and hypocrisy of those serving in office, not to mention cop reporters scanning the daily police logs in search of stories throughout all those naked cities.

Back at the office, there were people selling advertising, backroom workers piecing together newspapers, plus the ink-stained pressmen risking mangled fingers in all that machinery.

All those people college-educated, lifelong technicians and trained sales people were each in pursuit of the same goal: To develop and publish a daily newspaper, which one former editor used to call, History on the run.

Those days? Gone forever.

Thats why Im on the fence about the way pro football teams might be viewing the candidacy of Ronnie Fouch, the ex-Redlands East Valley QB, whos seeking a career in the National Football League.

In the old days, guys scouted kids playing a college game, try and size them up and bring them along slowly if they got drafted and eventually made an NFL roster. Today, its a whole new game. Anyone hear of the scouting combine?

On the surface, after viewing Andrew Luck and Heisman Trophy winner Ryan Griffin III, most casual observers would say, Ronnies got no chance.

Luck and RG II are trailed by the new hot guy, Ryan Tannehill.Brandon Weeden of Oklahoma State, Brock Osweiler of Arizona State and Michigan States Kirk Cousins, who threw well at the combine, are more pro-ready right now. Tannehill could go as high as eight to Miami, to be reunited with his former college coach at Texas A&M, Mike Sherman, on Joe Philbins new Dolphin coaching staff.

Among the NFL combine experts we heard from, Tannehills got some gaps in his game and could be picked higher than he should go, the same way Christian Ponder and Jake Locker went higher than most football people expected last April.

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Here’s an idea in search of a good pro QB

New Valley development usually translates to a sea of red tile roofs and cul-de-sacs, but Mesa has drawn a line in the sand against bland suburbia in one emerging part of the city.

Mesa leaders are demanding an urban approach that was typical a century ago, with front porches and neighborhood amenities close enough to encourage walking instead of driving. The anti-suburban sentiment even applies to gas stations, as officials dont want prime intersections dominated by a field of fuel pumps.

This urban push is taking place by the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, where developers are reviving plans that went on hold during the recession. The latest proposal is from Pacific Proving LLC, which is preparing to build homes and some commercial development on 484 acres on the southeast corner of Ellsworth and Ray roads.

Pacific Proving plans to build a downtown-like development at the communitys entrance and avoid the typical suburban design. Zoning attorney Paul Gilbert said much of the work will be done by Harvard Investments, a Canadian firm that built much of the downtown skyline in Regina, the capitol city of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan.

Mesa wants the area around Gateway to become one of the Valleys largest employment centers, with mid-rise buildings in an urban setting.

Vice Mayor Scott Somers represents the area and said he envisions something like Phoenixs Willow Historic District or the more modern Agritopia in Gilbert. He liked much of the plan but questioned whether it went far enough.

How are you going to make housing stock that is not only complementary to the airport, but doesnt have that suburban design, suburban feel, suburban sameness that weve had up until now? he said. Some of this looks pretty good but some elements of this plan still feel a little suburban to me.

He also wants the developer to look at other urban developments to see how gas stations can have a more attractive appearance.

The development will be defined by a formal street grid system with short blocks and tree-lined streets to encourage walking, zoning attorney Susan Demmitt said. All homes would be within 300 feet of a park, open space or trail. And Pacific Proving will work to blend different areas into each other by avoiding walls around shopping centers or neighborhoods.

Were really trying to encourage, in the architecture and design, things like front porches, houses closer to the street, so that you have an engaged and lively street scene, Demmitt said.

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Mesa says bland suburbia not welcome by Gateway airport