Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

Hillsborough and Manville schools will each get more than $1 million in state funds to help pay for construction projects.

Hillsborough submitted applications for partial roof replacements at the high, middle, intermediate and Hillsborough Elementary schools.

We are developing schedules for these projects now that approvals have been received, school architect Gregory J. Somjen.

We expect some or all to be undertaken during the summer of 2014, depending on a variety of factors, he said.

Hillsborough schools have been discussing other projects, like HVAC systems and other energy-related projects. Those have not been submitted to the Department of Education, Mr. Somjen said, and are being clearly identified as we speak. Again some of these may also start next summer based on a variety of factors but will take longer to execute based on the scope.

Fifteen Somerset County districts will receive a total of $21.1 million to support 74 projects with a total of $49 million in construction.

The DOE categorizes applications into three tiers, with Level 1 being the highest priority based on critical building upgrades, roof and window repairs, code issues, ADA upgrades, security systems and hazardous material abatement. The announced funding provides 40 percent of the cost of all Level 1 needs for all school districts in the state that submitted projects.

Between state and local contributions, the total project costs of the 1,538 eligible statewide projects are estimated to exceed $1.1 billion. The $507.7 million in grants are contingent on local approval of the remaining cost to school districts.

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MANVILLE: Schools to get $1 million in state aid for roof, boiler projects

New Mexico Gas Co. rebates for energy-efficient water and space heaters are so popular that state regulators have approved a 45 percent increase in annual spending on those programs.

The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission granted a utility request this week to spend up to $992,000 on commercial and residential rebates in both 2013 and 2014. Thats up from $686,000 previously approved for each year.

Those programs have been so well received by customers that we needed to fund additional rebates, said Steve Casey, energy efficiency program manager.

When the PRC originally approved the utility budget for 2013 and 2014, the company had estimated about 600 customers per year would request rebates for water heaters and 600 for furnaces. But now, the utility expects to pay about 1,200 rebates per program each year.

By the end of November, we had already reached our original participant estimates, and we still have four months left in the current year, Casey said. In addition, its winter now, which is when demand spikes.

Under the programs, the utility pays up to $375 to residential customers who change out old water and space heaters for energy-efficient ones, and up to $300 to commercial builders who install them in new homes.

We pay a higher incentive for retrofits because theres more costs involved to change them out and haul away the old appliances, said Dru Jones, senior program developer.

Apart from water heater and furnace rebates, the company offers five other programs:

With the PRC budget boost, the utility is now authorized to spend $4.26 million per year in both 2013 and 2014, up from $3.9 million per year the PRC had approved last spring.

A current rate rider that amounts to about 1 percent of the average monthly residential bill pays for those programs. Despite the budget increase, that rider wont be adjusted until after April, when the 2014 budget year begins.

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NM Gas Co. boosts its rebate program

Cooke County By GREG RUSSELL

grussell@ntin.net

Register Staff Writer

North Central Texas College officials dealt with the countys recent winter weather by rescheduling semester finals and managing campus walkways, but an expected freeze during this coming week should pose fewer problems.

NCTC President Dr. Eddie Hadlock said the Gainesville campus will close Wednesday for a holiday break and stay closed through Jan. 2.

And today marks the end of finals following some shuffling of classes. Hadlock said the week of ice affected testing that had been scheduled for Saturday, Monday and Tuesday, but all exams were administered later and through today.

Some had online finals, so students could take their finals whenever they wanted during the week, he said. We had to be shut down for a couple days but were then able to be open by Tuesday at 11 a.m.

Hadlock said the NCTC maintenance crew worked during the campus shutdowns of Saturday and Monday by clearing parking lots, sidewalks and entries.

The staff was pretty understanding and cooperative and we were able to get through it, he said. But it never had happened during finals before, so that kind of complicated things.

The internet presence at NCTC, active since the mid-1990s, has steadily broadened its effect on how a campus operates at any time. It began with computer labs in select areas of the Gainesville facility in an era when students were more likely to make a call or check television from home to see how weather had affected a day of class.

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Icy weather forces changes during NCTC finals week

Small Tree Removal Process
Our tree climbers carefully take apart small trees such as this Virginia Beach plum tree to ensure there is no damage to a customers property. For more information on our tree removal services...

By: The Whole 9 Tree Service

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Small Tree Removal Process - Video

LENOX -- Firefighters quickly knocked down an electrical fire in an administrative office at Canyon Ranch, thanks to a sprinkler system that quickly helped to extinguish the blaze.

Fire doors prevented any spread to the glass enclosure connecting the pavilion building to the guest wings of the hotel. All guests were safe and there were no injuries, according to Lenox Fire Chief Daniel Clifford.

The fire erupted in a heating and air conditioning wall unit in the building's transportation office shortly before 9 a.m. Thursday, Clifford said.

The department responded with four engines, a ladder truck and the town's 25-member professional and volunteer force, Clifford said, but by the time they arrived, the sprinklers had done most of the work.

Canyon Ranch staffer Bill Walsh discovered the fire in his office not long after turning on the heating unit. He and Managing Director Reggie Cooper closed the door and called 911. An automatic fire alarm to the central station also was activated, Clifford said.

The fire gutted the office, causing about $10,000 in damage, and repairs already were underway on Friday morning, said Cooper. The rest of the pavilion containing the administrative headquarters where guests check in and check out, was unaffected.

An investigator from the state Fire Marshal's office inspected the damage and ruled the fire accidental.

Cooper recounted how he and Walsh saw flames coming out of the unit, saw that an active fire was underway and shut the office door as the sprinkler system came on.

The transportation office coordinates the pickup of guests arriving at airport and railway stations in Albany, N.Y., and Hartford, Conn.

"It's reassuring that in a small community, we have such a great fire and rescue team that responds so quickly," Cooper said on Friday morning as the cleanup continued.

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Electrical fire damages office at Canyon Ranch

KU news More LJWorld KU News Coverage

From a need to a concept to groundbreaking, and through the Byzantine world of state building regulations, the Kansas University architecture school is getting closer to its first-ever lecture room and commons area.

Dubbed the Forum, the extension to Marvin Hall, which houses the KU School of Architecture, Design and Planning, is now under construction. Doing the work is the schools Studio 804 team, a specialized architecture class that follows a project through the entire building process, from design to laying floorboards.

Built in 1908, Marvin has been without a lecture hall through its entire lifetime, which has meant students had to go across campus for large core classes.

Well aware of the need for a large seating space at the school, John Gaunt, KU dean of architecture, made some early drawings of what such an addition for Marvin might look like. I sort of hatched this little dream, and we are now about to realize it, Gaunt said.

Meanwhile, Studio 804 was gaining experience and credibility within the university, with three of its recent projects including higher education buildings at KU and Johnson County Community College, Gaunt said.

Once it designed the Marvin addition, Studio 804 began construction on the $2 million project earlier this fall. It began by demolishing the builders yard and prepping the excavation site for the foundation. After a delay while the team waited for state permits on construction applications, everything is in now place to start laying the foundation next week, said Dan Rockhill, a KU distinguished professor of architecture and instructor for the Studio 804 class. Once the foundation is laid, the team really hopes to hit our stride in January and start getting the physical building up, Rockill said.

In your typical construction project, the foundation would have gone in well before now. Usually you just blow and go to beat the weather, Rockhill said. But before excavating the foundation area, the Studio 804 team had to sift around with shovels looking for random infrastructural remnants: live pipes, broken pipes, electrical wires, former steam tunnels and more. Its just a minefield of problems, Rockhill said.

Marvin Hall has come a long way since it was first built in 1908. This year, Studio 804 students have designed an addition to the building: a lecture hall. Take a look at how the building has progressed into the present and renderings of what it may look like in the future.

The new addition will use a glass exterior meant to be contrasting but complementary to Marvin, Gaunt said. The Forums glass walls have another purpose beyond aesthetics. Two thick panes of glass will trap heat from sunlight during the winter to help warm the building, but will circulate the hot air out of the building during warmer months to help cool it. Inside, the lecture room will seat 120 people for classes and presentations. Connecting Marvin to the Forum will be a commons area that acts as a foyer to the lecture hall.

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New addition to KU's Marvin Hall will fill a 105-year-old need

SPRING VALLEY A smile meets the face of Spring Valley Elementary School District Superintendent Jim Hermes, as he walks through the construction site of what will be the new building addition at John F. Kennedy School.

He watches an assortment of busy projects taking place within the constructed walls.

Whether it be workers laying bricks, cutting cement blocks, welding metal or sorting electrical wiring, he greets them as he walks by exploring the 77,000-square-foot addition.

A little more than 45 percent of construction has been completed to date. Construction kicked off in August and is expected to finish around July 2014.

While the project cost of the addition sits around $17 million, 75 percent of costs were covered by a state grant. The leftover 25 percent of costs will be covered by the district.

Anytime you get 75 percent of something paid for, you cant beat it, Hermes said.

The district has been paying for the project for about five years with issuance of $5.1 million in bonds.

We knew we wanted to do this project. We were just waiting on the states portion, Hermes said. Last year, we received notification that we had finally received the grant through the state.

The district was selected for the grant based off its high low income rate and the poor condition of Lincoln School, according to Hermes.

Each Tuesday, construction leaders and school officials pack into a small mobile on site trailer, as an overview and status update on each small project going on within the addition is given by Phil Heppard and Chris Rossman of Williams Brothers Construction Inc.

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Construction at JFK School progresses

DO IT NOW HOME IMPROVEMENTS- Home Remodeling
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By: Todd Johnson

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DO IT NOW HOME IMPROVEMENTS- Home Remodeling - Video

Martinez, GA (PRWEB) December 13, 2013

When God created the Universe He designed it so that moisture evaporates out of the soil and into the clouds. This moisture later comes down as rain. This has continued since the beginning and water today is the same water that the dinosaurs drank.

In a crawl space, this moisture evaporates up also. The purpose of the foundation vents is to allow this moisture to exit the crawl space. If a home does not have enough vents, or if it has a high soil moisture content, this moisture can evaporate up and into a homes substructure. This will cause the wood moisture content to rise.

In the Augusta, Georgia area, the normal wood moisture content range for wood that is not in a climate-controlled setting is usually around 13 to 15 percent. When the wood moisture content gets to 18 percent for a sustained period of time (a couple of months), the wood is able to support fungus growth (mold, mildew, etc;) and corrective measures should be considered. When the wood moisture content exceeds 22 percent, corrective measures should be performed. At a 28 percent wood moisture content, the wood is considered to have active, wood-decaying fungus. This fungus causes damage. It is considered a wood-destroying organism, like termites, and therefore corrective measures are considered necessary. It is inevitable that this fungus will appear. Fungus spores are ubiquitous in the air and there are also dormant microscopic fungus spores on all non-sterile surfaces. When the surface of an organic object sustains enough moisture to support growth, fungus spores become non-dormant and grow.

Moisture problems can occur gradually. It is not uncommon for a house that was built in 1975 to be fine for 30 years and then start to develop some minor issues. There are a couple of reasons for this. If a house built 30 years ago had a wood moisture content of 13 percent at the time of construction, there would be no issues. During the course of a year the wood moisture content rises percent to 13 percent. There is still no problem. Now suppose this went on for several years. In four years the wood moisture content is 14 percent, in eight its 15 percent, in 12 years 16 percent, and so on. Eventually the wood moisture content elevates to a point when corrective measures should be considered.

There are multiple corrective measures that can be performed:

Sometimes the above corrective measures are insufficient, and a crawl space just remains damp. There are a few reasons for this, but typically it is a product of humidity. Air molecules hold moisture. When the air is moving it can hold more moisture and when it is warm it can hold more moisture. During the day when it is 95 degrees and the humidity is 95 percent, the air is almost saturated with moisture. At night when the air cools to 75 degrees, it is no longer able to hold this moisture and dew or condensation forms on the grass etc. Then the next morning when it warms up, the dew or condensation is absorbed. Crawl spaces are generally cool and therefore often damp. When the warm outside air enters a crawl space, it can warm the crawl space slightly and therefore make it able to absorb the moisture. But often times it causes another problem. When the warm humid air enters the crawl space it cools and therefore extra humidity is created. This is becoming more of a problem because todays air conditioners blow cooler air and people keep their homes cooler than they did 25 years ago. In these cases, different control measures may need to be performed:

It is best to have a home inspected a couple of times during the year, perhaps in the middle of spring and again in late summer. This will give a more accurate measure as to what the homes wood moisture content is and thus the best control method to use. Please feel free to call Hornes office and have a technician come out and advise of any potential issues.

About the company: Hornes Pest Control offers pest control solutions that combine the most advanced chemistry and targeted treatments in three protective layers. It takes the pest control battle directly to a homes four defensive zones: exterior, attic, crawl space and interior. This pest control method stops a pest invasion at all possible entry points. Hornes Pest Control also uses a comprehensive approach to termite control. Hornes Pest Control has the most comprehensive damage repair warranty in Augusta, Ga. and Aiken, S.C. so homeowners can rest assured that their home is protected. Visit the website for more information, http://hornespestcontrol.com.

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Horne’s Pest Control Reminds Homeowners of Moisture Effects

KAPAA The Lemongrass Grill Seafood and Bar opened Friday evening, nearly 24-hours after a suspected intoxicated driver overturned his Jeep on the establishments front patio Thursday night.

According to police, 23-year-old Timothy Hoffmeyer of Kapaa was not injured after crashing his Jeep Cherokee into the restaurant at approximately 9:55 p.m.

All of the customers were out of the building by 9 p.m. and the staff was gone before the accident, according to assistant manager David White.

Responding police officers found the Jeep lying on its roof on the lanai of Lemongrass Grill Seafood and Bar. The Jeep sustained major damages but the driver, the only occupant in the car, made his way out of the vehicle unharmed. He was released on a $250 bail.

How he survived is beyond me, White said Friday. He landed upside down with the front of the Jeep inside the patio sliding doors that were taken out, and part of the rock wall.

The accident was bizarre, White said, and he can only assume that the driver swerved and that the car overturned as a result of going over curbing and slid though the rock wall.

I am not sure how it happened, he added.

The restaurant, 4-871 Kuhio Highway, sustained damages to a rock wall, glass doors, tables, chairs and decorative items. An estimate of the damages wasnt available Friday afternoon.

It was more clean up that anything where the Jeep came into the entrance to the patio, White said of the damages. As far the building, there was a lot of glass but its all cleaned up.

The police department said the investigation is ongoing.

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Jeep overturns onto Lemongrass patio