Updated: 01/16/2015 10:47 PM Created: 01/16/2015 10:46 PM WDIO.com

Super One Foods celebrated the grand re-opening of its Kenwood store with a ribbon cutting Friday.

Patrick Miner, the store director for Super One's parent company, said the Kenwood store underwent remodeling to its deli, produce, meat and bakery sections.

Miner said the changed will create more room for shoppers and feature new merchandise.

"It's great to actually see the smiles on the store staff's faces as well as even customers as they walk in here to watch people with wide-eyed looks going, 'i haven't been in here for a while, wow this is amazing,'" Miner said.

According to Miner, the company is planning upgrades to more of their stores within the nest year. There are about a dozen Super One stores in the Northland.

Excerpt from:
Kenwood's Super One Features More Space, New Merchandise After Remodeling

GARNER | The Garner-Hayfield-Ventura Board of Education is considering expansion and remodeling options for the districts elementary and high school buildings in Garner.

At the elementary school, the most major proposed changes include:

Adding a secure entrance and office by repurposing an existing band room on the south side of the building.

Creating separate parent and bus drop-off sites to alleviate congestion.

Changing the current office into collaborative and small group space.

Relocating the superintendents office to part of the existing media center to free up much-needed space at the high school.

While there are several options for renovations, the preliminary cost is about $857,000, according to StruXture Architects of Waterloo.

Managing principal Nick Hildebrand told board members Monday night the elementary project could be completed over the summer.

At the high school, the most major proposed changes include:

Remodeling the current district office into a secure entrance and principals office.

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GHV reviews building expansion ideas

When Wes Lokey began rehabilitation following his first heart attack, he remembers working out in a very small room.

It was upstairs and couldnt fit more than three or four patients at a time, said Lokey, 64 of Albany. I was there twice a week.

Lokeys workouts come with a little more elbow room these days, thanks to a complete remodel of the Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation Center adjacent to Samaritan Albany General Hospital on Elm Street S.W.

For Lokey, who has worked out at the cardiac center for 15 years, the new area is a welcome change.

It offers a lot more, said Lokey. Its more room that lets more people take part. Rehab is as much about support as anything.

Lokey spends his time using one of the many treadmills and working out with weights.

I feel good working out here. Its certainly nicer and brings in more people, he said.

Angie Gallagher, who has been the Cardiac Rehabilitation manager since it opened in 1998, has seen plenty of changes over the years.

This is really our fourth remodel, but this gives us so many options, she said. The staff and our patients love it. Aesthetically it is a great improvement.

Gallagher said the makeover provides a 40-percent overall increase in space, including 33 percent more gym space for patients. There is no additional equipment at this time, but that could change.

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Remodeled Samaritan rehab opens

(Jeremy Harmon | The Salt Lake Tribune) Instructor Jeff Rogers, right, works with his class at the Frederick Quinney Lawson Ballet West Academy at the newly opened Jessie Eccles Quinney Ballet Center. The room where this class was held is the same size as the stage, including the wings, at the Capitol Theater giving dancers ample room to rehearse.

(Jeremy Harmon | The Salt Lake Tribune) Instructor Jeff Rogers, right, works with his class at the Frederick Quinney Lawson Ballet West Academy at the newly opened Jessie Eccles Quinney Ballet Center. The room where this class was held is the same size as the stage, including the wings, at the Capitol Theater giving dancers ample room to rehearse.

ARTICLE PHOTO GALLERY (2)

The Frederick Quinney Lawson Ballet West Academy hosted an open house Saturday at the new Jessie Eccles Quinney Ballet Centre.

Visitors were able to take tours, view classes, get information on the academy, enjoy refreshments and take pictures with dancers at the glittering, newest addition to Salt Lake Citys arts scene.

The 55,000-square-foot ballet center opened in December, adjacent to the recently renovated Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre in downtown Salt Lake City.

The Salt Lake County-operated arts facility was jointly funded by taxpayers and Ballet West fundraising. Its construction was part of a $33.5 million public-private partnership that includes remodeling of the Capitol Theatre.

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Jessie Eccles Quinney Ballet Centre: Public invited to tour Salt Lake City's newest arts gem

Douglas Development Inc 1515 Majorca Dr Morgan Hill CA 95037 408 767 9421
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Douglas Development Inc 1515 Majorca Dr Morgan Hill CA 95037 408 767 9421 - Video

Many baby boomers are finally saying goodbye to their adult children, who are moving out of the house and starting the next chapter in their lives. Some empty nesters are excited about this new phase, but it can be a stressful time for others.

When your kids move out and you're faced with an empty nest, lots of questions come to mind.

Should you move and downsize? If you stay, how should you use the kids' rooms? What other changes should you make as you get older?

If you've made the decision to stay in your home - at least for now - it's time to figure out how your house can work better for you.

Focus on small do-it-yourself jobs: With the kids out of the house, you may be surprised at how much free time you have. Use this time to tackle some of those home renovation jobs that have been on your to-do list for a while.

Before you begin any project, however, look at your house - room by room - with a fresh set of eyes. Now that your house doesn't need to accommodate a growing family, how do you want to use each of the rooms to fit your new lifestyle?

Perhaps the mudroom is no longer needed, but a craft room has always been on your wish list. Now you can focus on making those changes.

Create a home office: You may be an empty nester, but you are still a very active member of the workforce. An extra bedroom or den previously used for family activities would be a great place to turn into a home office.

Home offices are becoming less of a luxury and more of a necessity with more people telecommuting or running their own businesses from home.

Expand your space: Depending on the age of your home, you may find that your master bedroom or bath is too small for comfort. With other rooms now vacant, expand into space. Build the master bathroom of your dreams or create a separate seating or dressing area in your bedroom.

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House Calls: Empty nest remodeling

A remodeling project beginning Wednesday at the West Boulder Senior Center will do away with several of the meeting rooms at the back of the facility and replace them with human services offices.

The work, set to continue through March, will also include the application of fresh paint, lighting upgrades and the addition of soundproofing in efforts to improve the spaces available to seniors, according to the city.

Despite assurances that the project will not affect services such as Boulder Meals on Wheels, nor programs hosted by the center, 909 Arapahoe Ave., some local seniors are miffed that regular users were not consulted about the project. Furthermore, they are concerned about the lack of notice for the remodeling, formally announced in a news release Monday.

"They are doing this without consulting anybody or getting any senior input," Win Nolin, 83, said Tuesday.

Nolin, a former president of the Boulder Senior Advisory Committee, said he only heard about the remodeling project through word of mouth when attending a dinner event at the West Senior Center's Caf Classico last week. That led him to email the City Council on Saturday.

The message read, in part, "Our West Senior Center was built 35 years ago for serving the needs of our seniors and I think that our seniors need to have an input on any changes that are proposed to the center. Our seniors that have served others and helped build the community need to have a voice in these matters."

On Monday, Nolin said, he and some other seniors met with Betty Kilsdonk, Boulder's acting senior service manager, Human Services Director Karen Rahn and City Manager Jane Brautigam about their concerns. He described the meetings as "stalemates" that were not productive.

"They have decided what's best for the seniors, it seems to me," he said.

Kilsdonk on Tuesday acknowledged that public input was not sought on the remodeling work but said that is not uncommon for small-scale projects like this.

"This is a fairly routine remodel that the city does all the time," Kilsdonk said. "Though the press release came out earlier this week, city staff have been contacting customers since December who were using those (meeting) rooms and found new homes for their meetings."

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West Boulder Senior Center remodel begins as users decry lack of input

By Sheryl Burgstahler, Ph.D. (Adapted from the publication Universal Design of Instruction: Definition, Principles, Guidelines, and Examples )

Students in academic classes come from a wide variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds. For some, English is not their first language. In most classes, there are students with many types of learning styles, including those who are primarily visual or auditory learners. In addition, increasing numbers of students with disabilities are pursuing postsecondary education. Their disabilities include blindness, low vision, hearing impairments, mobility impairments, learning disabilities, health impairments, and psychiatric health impairments.

Students want to learn and their instructors share this goal. How can instructors select their curriculum and instructional strategies to maximize the learning of all students? The field of universal design (UD) can provide a framework for instruction. This body of knowledge can guide instructors in creating courses where lectures, discussions, visual aids, videos, printed materials, web resources, labs, and field work are accessible to all students.

Universal Design Designing any product or environment involves the consideration of many factors including aesthetics, engineering options, environmental issues, safety concerns, and cost. Often the design is created for the "average" user. In contrast universal design, according to the Center for Universal Design, "is the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design." Universal design is an approach to the design of products and environments, including instruction, that takes into consideration the the variety of abilities, disabilities, racial/ethnic backgrounds, reading abilities, ages, and other characteristics of the student body.

Rather than focus on adapting things for an individual at a later time, universally designed learning environments are created to be accessible to everyone from the beginning. When designers apply universal design principles, their products and services meet the needs of potential users with a wide variety of characteristics. Disability is just one of many characteristics that an individual might possess. For example, one person could be five feet four inches tall, female, forty years old, a poor reader, and deaf. All of these characteristics, including her deafness, should be considered when developing a product or service, including instruction, she might use.

Making a product or service accessible to people with disabilities often benefits others. For example, sidewalk curb cuts, designed to make sidewalks and streets accessible to those using wheelchairs, are today more often used by kids on skateboards, parents with baby strollers, and delivery staff with rolling carts. When television displays in airports and restaurants were captioned, they would benefit people who cannot hear the audio because of a noisy environment as well as those who are deaf.

UDI Principles At the Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University a group of architects, product designers, engineers, and environmental design researchers established seven principles of universal design to provide guidance in the design of environments and products. Following are the principles of universal design along with an example in academic programs for each.

UDI Guidelines and Examples Universal design principles can be applied to many products and environments. Using the CUD format, UDI can be defined as the design of instruction to be usable by all students, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.

When designing classroom instruction or a distance learning class, strive to create a learning environment that allows all students, including a person who happens to have a characteristic that is termed "disability," to access the content of the course and fully participate in class activities. Universal design principles can apply to lectures, classroom discussions, group work, handouts, web-based instruction, fieldwork, and other academic activities.

UDI Examples Below are examples of instructional methods that employ principles of universal design. They are organized under eight performance indicator categories, with a goal statement for each. Applying these strategies can make your course content accessible to people with a wide range of abilities and disabilities, ethnic backgrounds, language skills, and learning styles.

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The Faculty Room: Universal Design of Instruction

A key measure of hospital emergency room use in Los Angeles County shows continued growth during the first six months of Obamacare, but also points to shifting patterns of where patients are choosing to receive urgent medical treatment.

With the healthcare expansion last year, many are watching how the Affordable Care Act affects emergency room use.

President Obama has promised his signature health law will gradually reduce expensive ER visits as access to other kinds of care is expanded. Critics contend newly insured patients especially those enrolled in Medi-Cal, the state's low-income health program that picks up most patient costs aren't likely to seek care elsewhere, and will overwhelm emergency rooms.

Neither of those outcomes were clearly evident in the first months of the new healthcare system's operation in Los Angeles County, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis.

Data hospitals report to the state show that as insurance coverage was extended to hundreds of thousands of residents, ER visits for ailments not serious enough to require an admission grew 3.9% in the county in the first half of 2014, compared with the same period the previous year. The growth is in line with annual increases of 3% to 5% in the three years prior to the federal healthcare overhaul.

Despite little rise in overall emergency room use, the analysis found some significant changes in the distribution of those outpatient ER visits.

The county's three large public hospitals, which historically have cared for many uninsured patients, recorded a 9% drop in such cases. At the same time, several private hospitals reported double-digit percentage increases in outpatient visits, the analysis found.

What the uneven and changing usage patterns mean and whether they signal the beginning of a long-term rearrangement of how patients will seek treatment is not yet clear.

Shannon McConville, a health policy researcher at the Public Policy Institute of California, said the slight growth in visits not leading to an admission generally considered less serious cases that include those that Obamacare aims to divert away from emergency rooms was "good news."

In addition, several private hospitals said they have, at least for now, been able to handle increases in ER patient visits.

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Since Obamacare, L.A. County ER visits show hospitals in 'state of flux'

Big changes are scheduled for the coming monthsat the Waukegan Public Libraryas a remodeling of the main floor begins Saturday, Jan. 10.

The $1.2 million transformation, however, will force the library to close its doors from Jan. 10 through Jan. 18.

After that, patrons can expect to see sporadic changes through June as the project will continue while the library remains open.

By mid-June, library patronscan benefit from a series of new features, including a digital media wall that displays news.A cafe area that will be located near the entrance will be another amenity.

Library spokesperson Rena Morrow said the entire staff is excited about the changes.

Morrow is especially enthusiastic about the expanded space for national and in-house exhibits.Some are expected to include 3D items andmonitors for informational videos.

There are four or five new ones planned, Morrow said of the exhibits.

Permanent displays honoring author Ray Bradbury will be placed throughout the book shelves, which will be moved to the opposite side of the room.

The most significant alteration, though, will be located in the middle of the room, where digital media is currently housed.

Six glass-encased rooms for individual studies or group meetings will be made available through reservations.

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Waukegan Library gets moving on $2 million improvement