Three groups in Fountain Hills are asking residents to support them as they vie for $10,000 in grant funding from Republic Services.

The Republic Community Grant program was established in response to the towns request that citizens be allowed to support non-profit groups through the trash haulers Recycling Rewards program.

A citizens committee selected three projects from the five grant applications that were received this year. Town Facilities/Environmental Supervisor Raymond Rees said two of the applications were incomplete so narrowing the field was a simple process for the first effort.

The Fountain Hills Theater is asking for $5,000 to install shade screening over the patio area between two buildings at the theater.

The Fountain Hills Cultural and Civic Association is seeking $10,000 for the Greening of the Downtown initiative for planting of additional shade trees in Fountain Park.

The L. Alan Cruikshank River of Time Museum is asking for $5,000 for creation of an interactive exhibit emphasizing the value of water in Arizona.

Rees said $10,000 is the amount that is available for the grant this year. That being the case, he said if the FHCCA is eventually awarded the grant there will be no money for either of the other projects. However, if either of the other two is leads the tally of supporters the second place request will also receive $5,000.

Citizens can participate by going to the Republic website and entering under their access codes. They can then use any points they have collected for recycling and designate them for one of the projects.

People who would like to participate in selecting the grant recipient can go to the Republic website or the Town of Fountain Hills website and register for the Republic Rewards program.

People may go to the website and assign their rewards points to one of the projects as often as they like during the voting period, which lasts until May 31. The winner of the grant will be announced at the Town Council meeting in early June.

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3 candidates for Republic grant

Dave March takes a sip of his coffee and looks through the windshield of his car, which is idling in the water in Newport Harbor, Calif., next to his 65-foot yacht.

This has been a dream for 10, 15 years, he says, his gaze fixed toward Catalina. Every time I see that island, I think, Oh, its not that far.

March, 58, has spent more than a decade developing the high-speed amphibious car he is about to take to market for $135,000 apiece.

He has taken deposits from the Prince of Dubai, tycoons in Silicon Valley and millionaires from around the world.

On this day, he hopes to prove the cars mettle by driving it from his WaterCar headquarters in nearby Fountain Valley, Calif., to Catalina Island, 30 miles offshore.

The only problem is he has never tested the car on open water.

March has been building and testing amphibious cars, or amphibians, for years. He filed patents for his first amphibian in 2003. Six years later, he set the Guinness World Record for fastest amphibious car with the Python, which has a 450-horsepower Corvette engine and can hit 60 mph on the water.

The car that March is test-driving to Catalina is the Panther, a smaller, off-road amphibian that can go 45 mph on water and 85 mph on land that is the entrepreneurial fruit of 12 years of trial and error and hundreds of thousands of dollars in research and development.

Ever since he posted a video online of the Panther in action, Marchs phone hasnt stopped ringing. The car already has been filmed in three reality TV shows, including an episode of the current season of The Bachelor.

He also has received a deluge of emails from buyers around the world.

See original here:
Amphibious WaterCar is a pricey, fast boat, too

By Elena Ruiz

elruiz@demingheadlight.com @LenaHeadlight on Twitter

The Deming MainStreet program is looking for local merchants, business owners, or managers who are interested in becoming part of a steering committee. The committee will form an association that will work toward forming a group of local merchants to rebuild and restore downtown Deming.

Interested parties will be asked to create a work plan, organize events with other merchants in the downtown area in an effort to increase traffic and revenue. They will also play a key role in rebuilding the historic downtown district.

"We are trying to get a meeting set up," said Chris Stevens, executive director of Deming MainStreet, "The response has been good. We have five merchants interested so far."

The steering committee will allow local merchants the opportunity to come together to create a merchant's committee and help each other bring new customers and revenue to the downtown businesses.

DMS is a non-profit organization aimed toward the revitalization and restoration of historic downtown Deming.

Chris Stevens, executive director of DMS, worked diligently during the holiday season to promote local businesses and to get the word out to "Shop Deming First."

Stevens has been working on renovating Pocket Park located on Pine St., next door to the Shirt Shop. The park was once the Luna Theater movie house back in the day. Plans to landscape and restore the area are in the works. Stevens assures the project funds are available, noting PNM recently donated $13,000 to the project.

"We are still currently in a planning phase," said Stevens. "The plan is to make the pocket park a friendly and inviting spot for the community."

Read the original post:
MainStreet seeks committee members

San Antonio, TX (PRWEB) January 27, 2014

The Lancer Corporation recently launched the Spartan Beverage Dispenser, a compact, versatile dispenser with a small price tag that provides consistent quality fountain drinks. Made with the highest quality materials, the Spartan is designed to go where other dispensers havent before.

Intended to make the most of your limited space, the Spartan frees an operator from having to mess with cases or pallets of product. An entire pallet of product is equal to just three BIBs. This space savings is also a cost savings and healthier for the environment. Fountain beverages save the environment from the transportation and packaging waste of prepackaged drinks. Fountain drinks are fresh, mixed at the point of dispense instead of bottles or cans that have been sitting stagnant since being packaged at the factory.

The Spartans modular design allows for multiple configurations including two, three or four valves, built-in plain water booster, chiller configuration, cabinet assembly alternative graphics and optional refrigeration systems. The Spartan is a turnkey solution, perfect for low volume commercial accounts, an office, break room, concession stand or home bar, outdoor kitchen or man cave. The Spartan comes with an on board chiller, carb/non-carb flexibility, consumes minimal energy, is easy to install, and is backed by the industry leading Lancer Service Network. Spartan, Big value in a small, economical machine.

About the company: Lancer is a leading manufacturer and marketer of beverage dispensing systems with a passion to fulfill their vision of providing Dispensing Solutions that Pour More. Headquartered in San Antonio, Lancer serves customers throughout the world and maintains sales and/or manufacturing facilities in the United States, Mexico, Australia, Belgium, Great Britain and New Zealand. Lancer consistently designs, manufactures, and markets superior quality products. Lancer will meet or exceed the customers needs and expectations and is committed to a quality program that drives continual improvement. Please visit http://www.lancercorp.com or call 800-729-1500 for more information.

View original post here:
Lancer Corporation Launches Spartan Beverage Dispenser

Dave March takes a sip of his coffee and looks through the windshield of his car, which is idling in the water in Newport Harbor, next to his 65-foot yacht.

This has been a dream for 10, 15 years, he says, his gaze fixed toward Catalina. Every time I see that island, I think, Oh, its not that far.

March, 58, has spent more than a decade developing the high-speed amphibious car he is about to take to market for $135,000 apiece. He has taken deposits from the Prince of Dubai, tycoons in Silicon Valley and millionaires from around the world.

On this day, he hopes to prove the cars mettle by driving it from his WaterCar headquarters in Fountain Valley, Calif., to Catalina Island.

The only problem is he has never tested the car on open water, and 30 miles is a long way to swim.

March has been building and testing amphibious cars, or amphibians, for years. He filed patents for his first amphibian in 2003. Six years later, he set the Guinness World Record for fastest amphibious car with the Python, which has a 450-horsepower Corvette engine and can hit 60 mph on the water.

The car that March is test-driving to Catalina is the Panther, a smaller, off-road amphibian that is the entrepreneurial fruit of 12 years of trial and error and hundreds of thousands of dollars in research and development.

Ever since he posted a video online of the Panther driving on the freeway, scaling sand dunes and impressing scantily clad ladies at a lake, Marchs phone hasnt stopped ringing. The car already has been filmed in three reality shows, including an episode of the current season of The Bachelor.

He also has received a deluge of emails from buyers around the world.

The embassy of the United Arab Emirates has ordered one, and Sheik Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, the crown Prince of Dubai, has ordered six. Two of the most powerful men in Silicon Valley each have sent deposits with nondisclosure agreements to prevent their names from appearing in the media. NASCAR drivers are knocking at his door.

More here:
Speedy on Land and Sea

(PRWEB) January 11, 2014

The Holiday Inn Resort, Panama City Beach, kicks off the New Year with several projects to enhance the resort and the vacation experience for springtime of 2014. During the month of January the resort will be working to enhance Aqualand - their kids water playground - with new water toys, as well as adding additional seating in the large lagoon style pool, enhancing the WiFi experience, and installing new tile on several floors of the resort.

We are working hard to keep our resort at the level of excellence our valued guests deserve, while evolving for their future enjoyment, says Jay Canales, Director of Facilities Maintenance for the Holiday Inn Resort.

Its out with the old and in with the new for Aqualand as the resort team replaces a few of the older water features with fun new water toys for kids to explore. These new toys will include an Aquawave and Aquatips Tippin Pirates; the team hopes to have all the new toys in place by February 1st, 2014.

We are very fortunate to have so many of our guests that have become a part of our resort family and visit year after year. We do our best to keep our resort fresh and full of new, exciting features and activities for our loyal guests to enjoy each year, says Philip Colvin, Director of Marketing for the Holiday Inn Resort.

Last year the resort enhanced their large lagoon style pool with underwater speakers, LED lighting, and underwater bench seating. The underwater benches quickly became a favorite spot to relax and it didnt take long for the resort to see the need to expand the seating area, and that is exactly what they plan to do.

During the busy spring and summer season the underwater benches became a prime location for relaxation, and by the middle of the summer we already started making plans for expanding the in-pool seating area so that we could better accommodate our guests. Were also looking to place the Dive-Inn Movie Screen up above the waterfall, so that guests can sit and relax in the pool while watching the movie, Colvin said.

The small fountain pool will remain open and heated for guests to enjoy all month, but for a short time the large pool will close to install additional underwater seating.

As the resort amps up for the spring and summer season the resort team is working hard to make sure that everything is in its best shape from top to bottom. Some of the other projects around the resort will enhance the aesthetic, with new slate tile on the higher level guest floors, as well as increase functionality with a stronger Wifi system and more throughput for all of the guests connected devices.

We hope to have these enhancements completed quickly for you and your family to enjoy, but during the process there may be some noise that comes from these projects between 9am - 5pm. We tried to pick a time of day where there will be the least amount of guests in their rooms, and we will do our best to cause as little disturbance to our guests stay as possible, says Colvin. The Holiday Inn Resort team is aware that our guests have other accommodation options, and are thankful for our guests loyalty to our resort and for their understanding as we work through these enhancements.

Read more here:
Enhancements Happening At The Holiday Inn Resort, Panama City Beach

Chris Riley, top, and Brandon Pennington, bottom, both water and sewer department technicians for the town of Front Royal, maneuver to clamp this 10-inch water line that ruptured during the cold weather on Tuesday. The town worked to repair two leaks on Tuesday. Rich Cooley/Daily (Buy photo)

Eric Riley, a water and sewer department technician for the Town of Front Royal, saws into the pavement at Virginia Avenue and Sixth Street to repair a water leak on Tuesday. Rich Cooley/Daily (Buy photo)

By Katie Demeria

Though relief from frigid temperatures should arrive soon, the polar vortex that swept through areas of Virginia on Tuesday left many scrambling to prevent a severe impact.

The cold hindered travel in various parts of the commonwealth -- AAA experienced a higher volume of calls than usual Tuesday morning, largely from individuals with dead batteries or cars that would not start.

Mass transit was also impacted, with a cracked Metro rail causing delays in Washington and HOV lanes on Interstate 95 opening an hour later than usual due to frozen gate motors.

During the day Tuesday, the wind chill warning issued by the National Weather Service was decreased to a wind chill advisory scheduled to end at midnight.

NWS meteorologist Bryan Jackson said the wind was still blowing throughout the day Tuesday, and would possibly continue to do so through the night, but the temperatures largely did not reach minus 20 degrees, the minimum for a wind chill warning.

"There might still be some minus 20-degree readings at higher elevations, like in the Blue Ridge Mountains, but we wanted to highlight more of what is happening in the valley itself and what will continue through the evening hours," Jackson said.

The Shenandoah Valley likely will see a south breeze today, Jackson added, causing temperatures to rise out of the single digits and into the upper 20s and 30s.

Read more:
Cold temperatures impact many in area Tuesday

Installation of rock fountains begins by excavating for the preformed pond liner, but excavation begins by establishing a safe power source for your pump (unless you already have one). Have a certified electrician install a GFCI outlet on your outer house wall, near where the rock fountain will be.

Speaking of safety, another step precedes the installation proper: calling the Call Before You Dig phone number. Why take a chance on severing a utility cable?

As said on Page 1, the granite piece will rest over a pond, supported by a grate. To create the pond, insert a preformed pond liner into the ground. I already had my preformed pond liner in place, since I merely swapped out a prior fountain I had in this area for my new rock fountain (you can see that the landscaping is different in this old picture).

Here's how to install the preformed pond liner:

With the excavation for the rock fountain's pond out of the way, in Step 3 we'll move on to what goes on top of that pond....

Continued here:
How to Install Rock Fountains - Excavating for the Preformed ...

She is rapidly becoming the priciest floozie in history.

But its not the cost of sampling this beautys ample charms but of keeping her in tip-top condition.

The Floozie in the Jacuzzi in Birmingham city centre has already run up a big tab.

She has cost more than the mountaintop statue of Christ The Redeemer of The Andes, which overlooks Rio De Janeiro, and is considered one of the worlds greatest landmarks.

Birminghams naked temptress cost an eye-watering 3.5million when she was unveiled and has been dogged by breakdowns and leaks, running up a huge repair bill.

Currently switched off yet again, some 410,000 has already had to be spent on repairs, bringing the total to 3.9m, excluding routine maintenance and cleaning work.

That compares to the cost of the famous Rio mountain-top statue, which weighed in in todays inflation-adjusted terms at a mere 2.3m to build back in the 1920s.

Christ the Redeemer in Brazil

With renovation and maintenance, the Brazilian wonder of the world is reckoned to have cost around 3.3m so far, less than the Second City floozie in her faulty Jacuzzi.

And now, the naked temptress with the voluptuous figure is demanding even MORE.

Continue reading here:
Floozie in the Jacuzzi runs up eye-watering £3.9m bill

Most of the big news stories of 2013 are still getting ink and pixels: The F-35 fight aint over yet or so say opponents. Victims of serial killer Israel Keyes continue to turn up. Officials are working on the multi-million-dollar details of Vermont Yankees shutdown. And the business manager of Seven Days is still waiting for a call back about medical insurance from the IT department at Vermont Health Connect.

Youve read all about it.

But in the spirit of alternative journalism, our reporters are always on the lookout for stories that no other media outlet is reporting. Why are some Asian massage places open at all hours of the night even in far-flung corners of Vermont? Ken Picard conducted a simple investigation and turned up glaring evidence of human trafficking and uncaring cops in our own backyard.

Also from the police blotter: Officers in Winooski and Burlington opened fire on suspects, with results that ranged from alarming to tragic; and a pissed-off artist succeeded in shaming the Shelburne 5-0.

Some Seven Days stories played out in the political realm, as lawmakers gave terminal patients the right to seek a doctors help to die; officials kicked hate groups out of the state employee charitable pool; and Champlain Valley superintendents heard loud and clear that parents want school out for summer.

Other stories sprang up from the grass roots, as volunteers launched a farm to make goat meat available to the newest group of Americans; entrepreneurs built a wind-powered barge to bring Vermont farm products to the Big Apple; and residents of Jericho and Underhill tried to resolve their feud over what to do with a sweet gift of land.

None of these dramas ended the day you read about them. To that point, Seven Days reporters followed up with their sources to get the latest on everything from state daycare regulations and Burlingtons bike lock registry to leaderless Goddard College. What they found is nothing short of well, read on.

Illustration by David Junkin

Jan 30: In June 2012, a 3-year-old boy attending the Ed-U-Care Childrens Center in Essex Junction walked off the premises and into heavy traffic on Susie Wilson Road. Luckily, a passing motorist pulled him out of harms way. A subsequent investigation by Vermonts Child Development Division found that daycare staffers never alerted authorities that the boy had gone missing, as required by law. The state cited the center, but allowed it to remain open and licensed.

View post:
Updating Some of Vermont's Top News Stories of 2013