Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

ROSLYN With a wildfire burning out of control just five-and-a-half miles north of this Central Washington mountain town, Chris Martins neighbor came to him with a seemingly unorthodox proposition: Lets burn your woods. On purpose. Itll be a good thing.

Reese Lolley, whose employer, The Nature Conservancy, owned the parcel next to Martins property, was not proposing the awesome, awful sort of fire then sweeping over 36,000 acres on and around Jolly Mountain and threatening to torch Roslyn in the summer of 2017.

Lolleys fire would be small. It would creep across the dry brush and downed branches packing the understory of Martins woods on a ridge above Roslyn, the 959-person town just over the Cascade crest from Seattle that is best known for standing in for a fictional Alaskan town in the 1990s hit television show Northern Exposure.

Fire gentle, controlled fire is exactly what experts say is needed to address the huge wildfires tearing through parched forests east of the Cascade crest. Filled with dead wood and brush, many forests are growing more combustible by the year because of climate change and a century of misguided fire suppression. Those conditions now put communities at risk of annihilation by fire. This year saw half a dozen towns destroyed in Washington, Oregon and northern California.

In Washington, about 951,000 homes sit near forests threatened by wildfire. The most endangered communities lie in a swath extending from Spokane southwest to the Columbia River, and then running north past Wenatchee into the Methow Valley. Much of Central and Eastern Washington, in other words.

The state says the number of threatened homes is only set to grow.

Washington State Department of Natural Resources

Top 25 places most likely to be exposed to wildland fire in Washington.

Intentional burning of underbrush and dead trees prescribed fire to those who practice it is increasingly regarded as the key tool in making combustible forests fire-resistant and heading off megafires. But the technique is rarely used in the West, and prescribed fire rates actually decreased in the Northwest over the past two decades, one study showed.

Bucking the trend, Martin said yes to Lolley and, as the Jolly Mountain fire smoldered, foresters burned 12 acres of his land. In the years since, Martin has increased that amount ninefold and prompted the city of Roslyn to use fire to clear the underbrush in its municipal forest.

Honestly, that Jolly Mountain fire, to use a technical phrase, it was a change of underwear moment here in Roslyn, said Martin, who serves as Roslyns emergency management coordinator. I think our community had not really thought about fire. It was a big wake-up call.

Dan DeLong/InvestigateWest

Chris Martin sits among charred trees caused by a prescribed burn on his Roslyn property.

Planned burning down as wildfires rage

Aggressive firefighting has left forests across the western United States primed for megafires like those that devoured 1,600 square miles of Washington timberland in 2015, leaving an ashy gray moonscape where they flourished. Prescribed fire starves those apocalyptic burns while returning combustion to a biome built for it.

Following the U.S. Forest Services lead, land managers spent most of the 20th century extinguishing as many wildfires as they could, as fast as they could. On the dry slopes east of the Cascades, brush, branches and snags that wouldve burned then are burning now in forests packed too tightly for trees to stay healthy.

Dry forests like those surrounding Roslyn used to be seared every five to 10 years. Low-intensity fires, those that dont reach the crowns of trees, found ample tinder in the underbrush, saplings and fallen trees littering the forest floor. An ecosystem grew up around fires set by lightning and Native people, who used fire to cultivate staples like camas and to clear hunting ground for elk and deer.

Bold plans put forward by state leaders in late 2017 call for the intervention in 1,950 square miles of Washington forest. Prescribed fires would be set on hundreds of thousands of acres annually. The state governments leading evangelist for prescribed fire, Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz, has been pushing state lawmakers for years to create a dedicated tax to fund the plan.

Dan DeLong/InvestigateWest

A firefighter watches a prescribed burn as it approaches a forest road that will be used to contain the fire in Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest near Liberty in May 2019.

But Washington, like the rest of the West, has been slow to invest in prescribed burning. Trained fire workers are in short supply in the region, which has seen the acreage intentionally burned shrink even as a consensus for prescribed fire has formed. Ardent proponents note that, while burning could immediately protect towns and homes, decades will pass before prescribed fire has a meaningful impact on the growth of large fires.Returning to something approximating a natural fire cycle where less destructive blazes prune fire-prone forests would be the work of generations.

Prescribed fires burn low to the ground, removing combustible debris. It is a matter of physics: if flames can be kept short enough, fire on the forest floor doesnt climb the branches to the top of the trees and destroy them. Thinning treatments, which see people cut down, carry away or chop up detritus to clear the forest floor, have a similar impact at a significantly higher cost.

Dan DeLong/InvestigateWest

Savannah Herrera of the Roslyn Fire Departments Fuels Crew cuts the lower branches of a tree in the Roslyn Community Forest in August 2020. Herrera was part of a crew thinning the forest for wildfire management.

Whether that current political will and shift in public sentiment will succeed in returning fire to the forest, though, remains an open question.

Support for prescribed fire is climbing, but the actual practice is not, said Crystal Kolden, an assistant professor at University of CaliforniaMerced specializing in fire science. Reviewing fire records for a study published in April 2019, Kolden found the use of prescribed burning in the West hadnt increased from 1998 to 2018 and actually fell in Washington and Oregon.

Trends aside, the total number of treated acres remains tiny compared to the apparent need and proffered goals. According to the National Interagency Coordination Center, the federal governments fire hub, only 191 square miles in Washington and Oregon were treated with prescribed fire in 2019. While state-specific tallies were not available, experts agreed most of that fire burned in Oregon, where the state leaders recently relaxed restrictions on smoke created by prescribed fires.

When were talking about the forest that needs treatment and the amount of forest that weve treated, theres an order of magnitude difference between those numbers, Kolden said. Land managers, she continued, are struggling to keep up, and every year they fall farther behind.

At present, Washington lacks the capacity to return fire to the forest in force.

The state, like its West Coast neighbors, is short on trained fire practitioners and burdened with regulations formed decades ago when forest management almost always meant fire suppression. Regulators can deny a burn permit even after the crew has gathered on a remote site, making prescribed burns a chancy, expensive proposition.

Dan DeLong/InvestigateWest

A downed tree is engulfed in flames during a prescribed burn in Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest near Liberty in May 2019.

Extreme fire seasons becoming the norm

Climate change is expected to intensify the frequency and severity of megafires across the United States, particularly in the dry western interior. Widely relied upon estimates predict the average summer will resemble extreme fire seasons like 2015, 2017 and 2020, when Seattles smoke-soaked air was at least briefly among the worst on the planet. By the 2080s, the acreage of Washington forest burned annually is expected to quadruple from the 20th century average as temperatures rise and snowpack shrinks.

The climactic shift will find Washingtons forests filled with debris left to pile during a century that saw naturally occurring fire heavily suppressed on most lands. With fire gone, a fire deficit deepens each year in the dry pine woods east of the Cascades.

In a recent study, Nature Conservancy researchers found that in Washington and Oregon just one-tenth of the forestland that should see fire each year does. Forest Service researchers estimate that the debt in unburned acres grows 140 square miles annually in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, which blankets 2,711 square miles on the eastern slopes of the Cascades. At current restoration rates, it would take 53 years to revive Washingtons federal lands, which comprise about 44% of Washington forestland.

Were trying to fix issues that took 100 years to get there, said Steve Hawkins, a fuel program manager now in his 40th fire season with the Forest Service. Its going to take a while to get that rectified.

Prescribed burning coupled with thinning createsconditions that can better accept fire, which is inevitable, said Paul Hessburg, aresearchlandscape ecologist with the Forest Services Pacific Northwest Research Station.

For five years, Hessburg has been traveling the Northwest giving talks onwildfirescience. He describes the effort as an experiment, a successful one, to determine whether a better understanding might encourage people to address the problem.

Hessburgs takeaway was that public perceptions around fire are changing for the better but tragically not fast enough to get ahead of the changing climate. His hope is that targeted interventions may prevent the worstoutcomes.

As Hessburg explains it, the question isnt can we regulate the size of the fires? Any influence will be modest the climate and weather mostly determine how much land is burned.

The question is, he said, Can we moderate the severity so that we can maintain more forest or habitats for the future? I think the answer is prettysolidthat we can.

Washington beginning to burn

Washingtons advocates for prescribed fire see the megafires that swept Washington in 2014 and 2015 as catalysts for the shift in public opinion they hope will enable them to do their work. Taken together, the fires burned 2,330 square miles of forest and rangeland and, along with fires in British Columbia, blanketed the Puget Sound in smoke for weeks. The cost in firefighting expenses alone topped $527 million.

The fires drew a vigorous, if standard, response from policy makers and shapers in the state. Committees coalesced, studies aimed at driving future legislation and funding launched. Training for so-called burners who conduct the prescribed fires, as well as community engagement initiatives, were created or expanded.

And, in a limited way, prescribed fires started being set.

Kara Karboski caught what she calls the fire bug setting fires for the Defense Department at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Karboski, now a coordinator with the Washington Resource Conservation & Development Council and a leading booster for prescribed fire, learned how burners go about their work while clearing brush on the military installations ample open spaces.

Before a fire, burners draw up a prescription a set of judgments on what weather and forest moistness is required for the burn to be safe and effective, as well as a staffing and equipment list, and detailed emergency plans. Hose lines are set and test fires lit before a crew of 10 or 20 workers set the fire in earnest.

Ive seen burns called off because its just not burning well enough, maybe theres too much moisture, Karboski said. Ive also been there where fire behavior has been too high, too much, too hot, and theyve said, Wow, this is too much for us to handle.

Weather conditions are assessed to attempt to ensure the fires smoke clears. Practitioners point out that prescribed fires rarely smolder for weeks or months like wildfires, and that the smoke is lighter and less hazardous. Research has shown prescribed fire also helps tamp down climate change. Thats because thinned forests with fewer, larger trees sequester more carbon dioxide, and are less likely to burn to ash if a wildfire reaches them, releasing all that CO2.

On the prescribed fire line, workers building black with drip torches char a box of burned ground around the area slated for fire, Karboski said. Once the fire is set inside, they keep watch for any embers that cross that line.

Dan DeLong/InvestigateWest

A firefighter uses an ignition tank to set underbrush on fire during a prescribed burn in Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest near Liberty in May 2019.

Afterward, its not like its a blackened wasteland, Karboski said. The intention is to leave most of the trees still standing, so those are still there. And youll have spaces where the fire can get into, so you get more of a mosaic.

To Karboskis eye, prescribed burns in Washington have been kept too small.

Hundred-acre burns, she said, arent really getting us where you want to be.

Smoke regulations barriers to controlled burning

One of the few tangible actions taken following the 2015 firestorm, the worst fire year in state history, was a $1.7 million pilot project meant to assess Washingtons ability to use prescribed fire.

While proponents describe the project as a learning exercise crucial to expanding the use of fire in Washington, those lessons were hard won.

In the fall of 2016 and spring of 2017, fires were planned for 15 sites, 13 of which were in national forests. Tellingly, no privately held lands could be found to include in the pilot; private landowners have been put off prescribed fire by the bureaucratic hurdles, cost and liability concerns. Bringing fire to private lands is seen as a significant challenge to reviving Washingtons forests.

Although land managers selected the easiest spots, just one-third of the 13 square miles slated to burn during the project actually saw fire. One that did demonstrated a key argument against prescribed fire smoke.

For a week in the fall of 2016, smoke from prescribed fires hung in the semiarid, V-shaped valleys north of Leavenworth, the faux Bavarian tourist town west of Wenatchee that has moved into the forest, where glassy, loudly rectangular second homes increasingly share sight lines with the squat chalets built a generation before. Air quality fell to levels hazardous to people who are particularly susceptible to smoke.

Controlling smoke rivals containing the fire itself for the top spot on the to-do list of any prescribed fire manager, known as the burn boss. Washington law requires that a state meteorologist sign off on any burn the morning it is set to begin; crews gathered for the burns are sent home if that permission doesnt arrive.

The aging regulatory scheme governing smoke was drawn up at a time when industrial forestry filled Western Washington with smoke. The Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Ecology and the federal Environmental Protection Agency have been working on more permissive framework for years, but it is unlikely to receive a federal review until 2022 at the earliest.

Drawn up in the 1970s to satisfy requirements of the federal Clean Air Act, the smoke regulations last revised in the 1990s did not weigh the benefits of prescribed fire against its costs, said Lolley of The Nature Conservancy.

It really was focused on the reduction in emissions, but didnt really consider forest health, Lolley said.

Washington smoke regulations limit even the Forest Services prescribed burning. Though Oregons forests draw federal attention because they are more primed for intense, destructive fire, its also simply easier to burn in Oregon.

In the final report drawn from the pilot project, Department of Natural Resources researchers concluded that the regulatory framework keeps prescribed fire small and expensive by making larger burns impractical. Its a view shared by Karboski.

The system itself, she said, is set up to disincentive using fire.

Adam Bacher

Close-up image of Ponderosa pine bark burned in a 2015 megafire south of John Day, Oregon.

Incremental progress as concerns mount

Karboskis tempered frustration, one shared by many concerned for the forests and their neighbors, stems in part from fear.

While the intersection of urban areas and wildlands has long been a concern for those who worry about fire full time, the 2018 fire that destroyed Paradise, California, a town of 26,200 before it burned, laid bare the danger. Embers thrown miles by an intense fire in the neighboring forest set the town ablaze.

That the same could happen to Leavenworth, Roslyn or a host of other Washington mountain towns is beyond question. In Washington, homes and wildlands mix across more than 4,500 square miles, an area almost the size of Connecticut. Millions of acres of privately held timberland could be converted into subdivisions.

In Olympia, state land managers are drawing up watershed-centered plans to prioritize forest restoration in areas where fire is most likely, and most likely to be destructive. The idea is to shape the landscape and secure better options for firefighters when fire does break out.

State Forester George Geissler, of the Department of Natural Resources, describes the forthcoming plans as a granular examination of each watershed, looking at land ownership to find areas where intervention would be most successful.

The Forest Service, too, is considering a new targeted approach to prescribed fire. Prescribed burning would be used to create spaces that would slow large wildfires, increasing the likelihood that some could be allowed to burn while providing firefighters a safer space to work from when they intervene.

In an interview, Geissler ticked through the efforts underway. Assistance programs for landowners. Training initiatives to build a workforce. Changes in law to reduce restrictions on prescribed fire. The dialogue with the EPA to revise the smoke rules. His own appointment; Geissler, who had been serving as Oklahomas state forester, said he was hired two years ago specifically for his background in burning.

With each incremental change, we are making the opportunity to utilize prescribed fire greater, Geissler said.

Acknowledging that prescribed fire has been underused in Washington, Geissler cautioned that it is not a magic Band-Aid that can immediately fix what generations of fire suppression broke. He said he believes the public supports the work, and hopes Washingtonians including those in the Legislature will stay engaged.

We live in a society that if you cant get [something] done in two years you probably failed at it, and yet in forestry I was taught that 30 years is a short time, Geissler said.

The Nature Conservancys Lolley offered a similar view.

Were moving in the right direction, said Lolley, whose organization has been instrumental in training fire practitioners and bringing fire to privately owned lands. And I think we are getting smarter about how to prioritize the investments of money to have bigger gains.

But, Lolley allowed, at our current rate of treatment, it will make a difference, but its not near what we need.

The costs are substantial, and the benefits distant.

Advances in plywood manufacturing and heaters that burn pelletized scrap wood could conceivably make thinning less costly in some forests, but the forest restoration wont pay for itself. And while proponents contend restoration will save millions over the long run, firefighting costs will continue to rise even as the restoration work takes shape.

Behind the curve

Fire gently burns in the hills above Roslyn again, this time on the city-owned land bordering Martins property. The fire makes the town an exception, frustratingly so in Martins view.

Martin is enthusiastic about fires effect on his forest, which he bought to visit and protect from development. Since the fire, elk have returned to the newly open forest, as have turkey and bear. Hes proud that it may protect Roslyn the next time fire rises in the forests that surround it.

And yet he stops short of encouraging others to burn. The bureaucratic roadblocks, he said, are still too large for landowners without an abundance of money and energy to overcome.

In Washington state, we are far behind the curve on this stuff, Martin said.

See the original post here:
With nearly 1 million homes at risk, Washington is losing the wildfire fight - InvestigateWest

By Thompson Smith

In my recent tenure as Chair of the Flathead Basin Commission, I wrote several opinion pieces raising concerns about Steve Bullocks administration. Yet Im urging you to vote for the Governor and send Senator Daines packing. Heres why.

Daines has long portrayed himself as what most Montanans want: reasonable, fair, a problem solver. But his actions and words, now illuminated by the rush to confirm Amy Barrett to the Supreme Court, have shattered that illusion.

Daines did recently join Sen. Tester in supporting the Great Outdoors Act. Unfortunately, thats far outweighed by Dainess support for more than 100 policy and regulatory changes that will leave future generations with dirtier air, dirtier water, and a poorer environment, including gutting the Clear Water Act, weakening restrictions on toxic air pollutants including mercury, hamstringing the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act, allowing coal corporations to dump waste into streams, and dismantling the international effort to address the climate crisis.

Daines has been similarly supportive or silent on a many of Trumps worst actions and statements on matters of civil rights and social justice, the rule of law, and national security. That includes Trumps legitimization of white supremacism and racist hatred, the 26 public accusations of Trumps sexual misconduct, separating immigrant toddlers and infants from their parents and putting them in cages, firing Inspectors General and US attorneys who were investigating him, siding with Putin against US intelligence, and referring to soldiers whove given their lives as suckers and losers. Trump seeks power by dividing our country rather than uniting it; Daines has nothing to say.

On health care, the record is even worse. Daines blames COVID-19 solely on China, omitting the epic incompetence and deceit in the White House that has led to the greatest loss of American life since World War II. More than 215,000 of our fellow citizens have now perished, with 389,000 deaths projected by February 1. We have 4 percent of the worlds population, but 19 percent of the deaths.

Daines voted three times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, when there was no replacement healthcare plan and therefore no way to deliver affordable insurance or continue protecting those of us with preexisting conditions. Eleven years after the ACAs passage, theres still no Republican plan.

Which returns us to the matter of the Supreme Court, since a Justice Barrett might well rule against the ACA. Daines has already helped Mitch McConnell pack the courts with lifetime appointments for more than two hundred judges aligned with the Federalist Society, a special interest group funded by some $250 million in untraceable dark money thats created a pipeline of extremist judges, hostile to restrictions on corporate power, civil rights for common citizens, and environmental protection.

In February 2016, Antonin Scalia died, nearly nine months before the election. President Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland. The Constitution obligates the Senate to consider a Presidents nominee, but Daines followed Mitch McConnells orders by refusing to even meet with the universally respected judge. Daines presented his brazen inaction as based not on the brutal fact that Republicans held power as the majority, but rather on a supposed ethical commitment to democracy, saying the Senate should not act until the American people elect a new President and have their voices heard.

We are now less than three weeks from the next election. Thousands of Montanans and millions of Americans have already cast their ballots. But Daines now says Republicans should proceed, simply because they can. Daines trumpeted principles when they served his political ends, and shamelessly abandoned them when they became inconvenient.

Perhaps the Senate should adopt a simple rule for when a nomination is too close to an election: if its before party conventions in July-August, the Senate can proceed; if its after the conventions, the Senate should hold off until the following February. Lets call it the Abraham Lincoln rule. When Chief Justice Roger Taney died on October 12, 1864, Lincoln deferred nominating a replacement until after the election so that the next President, with a new mandate, could do it.

156 years later to the day on October 12, 2020 Senate Judiciary Committee chair Lindsay Graham bulldozed ahead with the first day of hearings for a nominee from the far-right wing of the American legal spectrum. Like Daines, Graham hopes well forget his previous words: If theres a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said, Lets let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination. And you could use my words against me, and youd be absolutely right.

Well, Lindsay and Steve, we do remember your words, and we are holding them against you, and we are absolutely right to do so. Thats why were voting instead for Governor Bullock.

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Opinion: Will we hold Steve Daines to account? - Char-Koosta News

GRAND FALLS-WINDSOR, NL , Oct. 22, 2020 /CNW/ - The health and well-being of Canadians are the top priorities of the governments of Canada , and Newfoundland and Labrador . But the COVID-19 pandemic has affected more than our personal health. It is having a profound effect on the economy.

That is why governments have been taking decisive action to support families, businesses and communities, and continue to look ahead to see what more can be done.

Strategic investments in creating inclusive recreation spaces will play a key role in ensuring Newfoundland and Labrador residents have modern facilities to support a healthy community.

Today, Scott Simms, Member of Parliament for Coast of BaysCentralNotre Dame, on behalf of the Honourable Catherine McKenna, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, and the Honourable Derrick Bragg, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure for Newfoundland and Labrador , announced over $1.6 million in funding for the improvement and renovation of recreation and cultural facilities in five communities across Newfoundland and Labrador .

In the Town of Grand Falls-Windsor , the Goodyear Avenue Ball Field will benefit from re-paving the existing parking areas, improving the walking track surface, and installing new backstops and new scoreboards in two baseball fields. This project, and others in Stephenville , King's Point, Twillingate , and Change Islands , will improve recreation infrastructure across the province, allowing residents and visitors alike to play sports and become physically fit in modern and accessible playgrounds, cultural centres, and arenas.

The Government of Canada is investing more than $509,000 toward these projects through the Community, Culture and Recreation Infrastructure Stream (CCRIS) of the Investing in Canada plan. The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is contributing over $508,000 , with the municipalities providing the remainder of project funding.

Quotes

"Investing in cultural and recreational infrastructure is important to growing strong and healthy communities. The improvements being made to these facilities means that Newfoundland and Labrador residents can spend more time connecting, staying active, and having fun in modern and accessible facilities. We are proud to work with our partners to deliver these important projects. They are an example of how Canada's infrastructure plan invests in thousands of projects, creates jobs across the country and builds stronger communities. "

Scott Simms , Member of Parliament for Coast of BaysCentralNotre Dame, on behalf of the Honourable Catherine McKenna, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities

"Renovating recreational facilities so that they are modern and accessible is a priority for this government. These facilities allow people of all ages and abilities to take part in activities to promote healthy and active lifestyles."

The Honourable Derrick Bragg, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure for Newfoundland and Labrador

Quick facts

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Backgrounder

Five Newfoundland and Labrador communities to benefit from improved recreational infrastructure

Joint federal, provincial and municipal funding through the Community, Culture and Recreation Infrastructure Stream of the Investing in Canada infrastructure plan will support five recreation projects in communities across Newfoundland and Labrador , including renovating cultural centres and improving playgrounds and sport facilities.

The Government of Canada is investing $509,114 towards these projects through the Community Culture and Recreation Infrastructure Stream (CCRIS) of the Investing in Canada plan. The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is contributing $508,961 , while municipalities are contributing $664,424 in total eligible costs to these projects.

Project Information:

Project Name

Location

Project Details

Federal Funding

Provincial Funding

Municipal Funding

Goodyear Avenue Parking and Ball Field Recreation Upgrades

Grand Falls-Windsor

Upgrades to the Goodyear Avenue ball field and recreation facility, including grading; paving the existing parking lot; improving drainage; paving the walking track around the playground and splashpad; installation of new backstops for two baseball fields; upgrades to existing dugouts and installation of new scoreboards in two fields. The project will support improved access to quality community, culture and recreation infrastructure.

$266,058

$265,978

$347,964

Playground Blanch Brook Park

Stephenville

Construction of a new playground to replace the current structure, creating a modern, inclusive playground which will be centrally located and easily accessible to all residents.

$152,580

$152,534

$199,551

New Steel Dome

King's Point

Installation of a new, pre-fabricated steel roof over the outdoor ice rink, allowing a greater number of residents to participate in more activities and events taking place at the rink.

$50,725

$50,710

$66,341

New Chiller for Twillingate Stadium 1

Twillingate

Replacement of the chiller system in the stadium, ensuring the stadium can continue to provide recreation, entertainment and cultural opportunities for people in the region.

$24,353

$24,345

$30,430

Recreation and Cultural Centre Upgrades

Change Islands

Renovation of the Recreation and Culture Centre, including new windows, doors and siding; repairs to the skirt of the building, improving the current state of the building and ensuring its operations for the coming years.

$15,398

$15,394

$20,138

____________________________________ 1 $4,872.00 will also be provided through the Federal Gas Tax Fund.

Associated links

Investing in Canada : Canada's Long-Term Infrastructure Plan: http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/plan/icp-publication-pic-eng.html

Investing in Canada Plan Project Map: http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/map

Investing in COVID-19 Community Resilience: https://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/plan/covid-19-resilience-eng.html

Canada Healthy Communities Initiative: https://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/chci-iccs/index-eng.html

Federal infrastructure investments in Newfoundland and Labrador : https://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/plan/prog-proj-nl-eng.html

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Web: Infrastructure Canada

SOURCE Infrastructure Canada

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Five Newfoundland and Labrador communities to benefit from improved recreational infrastructure - Stockhouse

Many people dont really pay attention to the bedroom furniture, except the bed, because they think the most important thing is to have a comfortable bed and a few pillows and blankets, in order to get a good nights sleep. But, that doesnt mean you dont need to fit the other furniture to your style, or the home decor theme you prefer. Probably you and your partner and/or kids will be those who will use the bedroom regularly, and usually, we dont let the guests in. Thats one of the main reasons why people dont put much effort when buying new things for this space.

One of the most common mistakes is buying the cheapest furniture, just to fill the room up, without paying too much attention to the color scheme, patterns, and personal preferences when it comes to renovating and remodeling. According to deutschfurniturehaus.com, you deserve to sleep in a beautiful and stylish room, that will energize you every morning you wake up, instead of frustrating you because of the un-matching styles and colors.

The renovation experts are sure you need to put equal effort into the sleeping area, just like the living or dining room, so you can have your dream bedroom. Also, you can afford to buy more quality pieces, because only a few people will use it, and they will last for years.

And when it comes to your home decor style and preferences, you can follow these tips and tricks:

As we already said, many of us will choose to spend more money in the living room, the kitchen, or bathroom, letting the bedroom be the last in the row. But thats wrong on so many levels because we all know how important is night sleep for all of us. The atmosphere in the room where you sleep should be calm, warm, and comfortable, even if that means you will need to improvise a little and put some pieces that usually cant be found there. But, if you prefer red blankets or other vibrant colored accessories, just do it, even though most of people believe these colors will wake you up, and wont let you get sleepy again. We are all different, and that applies to our renovation ideas and taste too.

Just because you sleep there, it doesnt need to look boring and sterile. In the end, everything is about the perception, and things that are bad for the others can be good for you, including the sleeping patterns and the general resting routines.

Its understandable that most of us have a very special taste in furniture, that can be pretty expensive, and we cant really afford everything we want. Thats why its important to set a budget and try to stick to it, without letting yourself go a lot over it. Another one thing you need to consider is if that piece of furniture can be useful and practical? No one wants to spend a lot of money on decorations that arent much needed in the space, no matter how beautiful they look. In the end, if you really like solid woods or something like that, you can buy them used, or repurpose something you already have.

One of our top priorities is to find nice-looking things we can put in the rooms, so we can get that catalog or magazine look, without even thinking are those things quality enough to be in our home? When youre buying a wardrobe, it should fit a lot of clothes. Chairs should be comfortable and support the body properly, and thats also crucial for the bed. So, invest smartly, because no one can afford to renovate the whole bedroom every few years.

You cant put huge pieces of furniture if the room is small. Also, if you bring too small pieces, you will need more of them, so you can avoid the empty-looking redecoration. Sometimes, you need to go over your taste and be smart and practical, because not everything you love can fit the space you have. Its nice to always have some estimation or calculation of how big is the room, and how big furniture you will need, so it can look stylish, and not empty or overwhelmed.

Probably, there are plenty of companies around you that can manufacture custom furniture for you, by taking the right measures and using the materials you prefer. But, very often, this choice is much expensive than buying furniture from a store. The good thing is that you can order exactly what do you want to put in the room and be unique, even though you are using that room just for sleeping. Customizing lets you get everything you have on your mind, and its one of the ways to fit the bedroom furniture to your style and preferences.

If you follow the very same style for every room in your house or apartment, just adapt it to the sleeping conditions. But first, make a list of all the things you really need, and then start your shopping. It can be an exciting experience for you, especially if you are decorating the room by yourself. To make the whole task easier for you, just match the styles, and save a lot of nerves and money by doing that.

When it comes to home remodeling, most of the people leave the bedroom for the last, and it may happen that they dont have enough money, so they are buying the cheapest furniture, without taking care of how it fits the whole house, or if it suits the personal style. But, we hope that after this article, you will realize how good for you is to have a stylish and nice-looking room, in order to be comfortable at night and always sleep well.

Originally posted here:
6 Tips For Choosing The Right Bedroom Furniture To Suit Your Style - EDM Chicago

It's hard to imagine Jennifer Aniston doing anything other than acting because she rivets you to the screen with her talent and likeability but the Greek-American staple of movies and TV shows said she also switched to interior decorating.

Speaking to Cosmopolitan, she wouldn't reveal which role it was she hinted was so exhausting that it made her think of not wanting to go on and to switch to wanting to fix up houses.

During a SmartLess podcast, the Aveeno legend told Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett, "I would have to say the last two years that [quitting] has crossed my mind, which it never did before." She added that it "sucked the life out of me" and she thought, "I don't know if this is what interests me."

The only other hint she gave about what made her rethink her life was that it was an unprepared project she completed before The Morning Show.

She said she'd love to try her hand as a professional interior decorator but didn't say what style she prefers. "I love it. It's my happy place. It's really a happy place for me," she said.

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Interior Decorator? Worn-Out Aniston Almost Gave Up Acting - The National Herald

Theyre probably not who you think they are.

We all have our own presumptions about politicians, and you know that most of those cliches are far from positive.

In the heat of the hottest, nastiest election, probably ever, its easy to overlook especially on a more local level that the herd of people vying for your votes so they can rule our world, are people.

Each year, Sentinel Colorado reporters dutifully ask all the apposite questions about taxes, crime and homelessness. But we also ask personal questions to give readers some insight as to who these candidates are when theyre not candidates, and to marvel at a few surprises and eccentricities.

Here are some highlights weve gleaned from this years survey of 2020 Election candidates.

Congressman Jason Crow, the affable Democrat running for re-election, can actually give himself a hand. His hidden talent?

I am able to clap with one hand, he said in his Sentinel survey. This not only answers a philosophical question but is helpful when eating hot dogs at sporting events.

He doesnt say which hand, but all signs point to a left-hand talent for the guy that got appointed to help impeach the president.

His Republican challenger, the equally affable Steve House?

Im a good ping pong player.

No doubt a consistent right-hand server.

As far as prospective careers, few of these politicians grew up wanting to be politicians. There are a lot of wannabe astronauts in the group who, as their critics would probably point out, ended up as space cadets.

Incumbent State Sen. Jeff Bridges, no, not that Jeff Bridges, is a talented accent imitator. Hard to tell when that could come in handy, but he has fooled many on the Senate floor by actually sounding like a moderate Republican from time to time.

If he wrote a memoir? Hed call it The Other Jeff Bridges. Yeah, that one.

Libertarian Michele Poague actually is a writer. Shes running to unseat Democrat Rhonda Fields in Senate District 29.

Im the author of several novels and there is a little bit of me in each one. Maybe if I write a memoir it would be, The Road to Love: How I learned to forgive.

At least one of her novels hints at her biography.

A reviewer painting a picture of Poagues latest sci-fi fantasy work, The Broken Shade said this:

When she became a cocktail waitress at a mens club in order to earn a few extra dollars to help in her home renovation, Freja OConnell didnt suspect this innocuous job would open the door to new realms. But strange encounters can evolve under the oddest of conditions, and The Broken Shade reflects this experience as Freja explores a strange new world and considers her revised place.

Dystopian future table-dancing resulting in wallpaper inspirations?

Poague said in her Sentinel survey that growing up, she wanted to be an interior decorator.

Disappointingly, the one song she could listen to for all eternity is Amazing Grace by anyone.

Im old and have been to a lot of funerals. Few can sing it.

Fields? She fancies herself a chef these days, whiling away the pandemic looking for just the right kitchen accoutrement. If she were thrust into a reality show that wouldnt shame her family while they watched? Beat Bobby Flay.

Better hope that sauce doesnt break.

While most candidates appear to have had it with metro area traffic, wishing their superpower was flying over traffic or that Verizon or someone would finally roll out the Star Trek transporter, Republican Suzanne Staiert, candidate for the open Senate District 27 seat, wishes she had a superpower few aspiring politicians would think about.

To disappear.

Hmmm. Unclear if thats because of how tacky its become to be a fly on another politicians hair instead of the wall and get a front-row seat to history, or anything. It could be shes realized that, in a pandemic, there is no hiding from anyone or anything. Just as telling is that her all-time favorite song is I Will Survive, and the last book she read was, Why We Cant Sleep.

Between bouts of insomnia and other life stresses, it turns out Staiert is a ringer.

Ive won a lot of hula hoop contests, she said in her response. Gauging from the past few years, any kind of circus-like experience is certain to come in handy if she wins a seat in the next Legislature.

Her competitor, Chris Kolker, gives every sign he would read every word of every bill and listen to every hearing every day. Wild and crazy Kolker tells the Sentinel that his guilty pleasure during the pandemic is a fountain Diet Coke.

You rebel.

A former teacher and pilot, he always wanted to be a teacher and a pilot.

His favorite family fun?

Playing bid euchre at family get-togethers, he says.

For the 99% of the nation who has no idea what that is, you probably dont want to. Think having to play bridge with rules made up by the Colorado Legislature.

The guy is a natural for the General Assembly. So sad.

Like me, you might have had your suspicions about Democrat State Senator candidate Janet Buckner.

Shes not just the overtly kind and gracious teachers wife shes let on to be all these years. Yup, total showboat.

Her secret talent?

I sing really well.

And that ear-worm song she just loves, probably playing every time she gets in the car and definitely right before she gets out?

We Are Family, by Sister Sledge.

Uh, huh. The quintessential club song from the 80s that got everyone on their feet, back when clubs were clubs and Sister Sledge owned the world.

No guessing at what reality TV show she thinks shed walk away from victorious.

Dancing with the Stars.

Of course not everyone can be as flamboyant as Buckner.

If you had to pick one local politician to get stuck with for months at the Capitol during the pandemic, it would almost certainly be Democrat Dafna Michaelson Jenet, running for re-election to her House District 30 seat.

Her coveted superpower?

Eat as much ice cream as I want and not gain weight, Jenet said.

Now that would be a super power. And not that lame DQ stuff, that she says is her guilty pleasure, which you know melts under some serious hot fudge or caramel, otherwise, theres little guilt or pleasure. No, it has to be Ben and Jerrys or Haagen Dazs. Salted caramel truffle in a 5-gallon scuttle.

The fun ends there. Her secret talent?

I crochet.

Another maverick lawmaker.

On the opposite side of that spectrum is Republican 18th Judicial District Attorney candidate John Kellner.

Total Star Wars geek. He grew up wanting to be Indiana Jones.

Hes that guy, too.

The upside of wearing a mask all the time during the pandemic?

I can quietly sing along to music in the grocery store and no one knows its me.

My King Soopers loves Brittany Spears and the BeeGees. We no longer have to ask in the cereal aisle, who was that masked man, singing falsetto?

Hes a total glutton for the stuff most of us dread each year. For most people, the favorite part of family holiday is when the kids go back to school and the inlaws go home. These are a few of his favorite things: Hot chocolate, the merry go-round, with my wife and kids at Zoo Lights in December.

Who is this guy? It gets worse. If he had a superpower?

Unlimited access to Disneyland with my kids, says Kellner, and no one else, ever.

Just as interesting, as a euphemism, is Kellners Democratic opponent, Amy Padden. The 18th District seat is open.

Her guilty pleasure?

It would be from the Athenian on Iliff in Aurora. Love their Saganaki (flaming cheese), although not quite the same when you get it to go. That was the last place I ate before the stay at home order.

I consider Greek food health food. Dont they live forever there?

The most amazing thing about wearing a mask all the time for Padden is not having to put lipstick on every time I leave the house.

At least she doesnt sing about it in the grocery store.

And her secret talent?

I can run long distances (though not very fast). Ive completed many marathons (New York, Marine Corp, Chicago, and others).

These are district attorney candidates, people. No whiskey? No secretly building mud prisons for crickets in the backyard?

Instead we get Disneyland fans and marathon runners.

So disappointed, and yet Im mildly amused.

You can be, too. Discover your own pet peeves about the people who are going to run our world in a few months at SentinelColorado.com. Click on 2020 Voter Guide on top and amaze or disappoint yourself thumbing through the catalogue of candidates who will probably surprise you.

Follow @EditorDavePerry on Facebook and Twitter or reach him at 303-750-7555 or [emailprotected]

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GETTING PERSONAL: True confessions of the Colorado candidates wanting to rule our lives - Sentinel Colorado

Dorrie Walen

In the early morning hours of October 3, 2020, Dorrie Walen passed away, her body unable to match the strong will that had served her for 97 years.

A memorial service will be held for her in summer 2021, at Skabo Church Cemetery, COVID permitting.

Doris Katherine Larson Walen was born to Conrad and Ruth (Bracken) Larson at home in Minneapolis, Minnesota, February 28, 1923, second of their four children. They enjoyed growing up in Minneapolis near a large extended family; unfortunately, toward the end of the Great Depression, and before the onset of World War II, the childrens father passed away. Shortly after Dorries December graduation at the top of her class from Central High School, their mother passed away, leaving them orphaned. Rather than be divided among relatives, the siblings agreed to stick together to raise themselves. Dorrie immediately began working to support her younger siblings, and to put herself through college. She worked as a waitress in a downtown cafeteria, until a counselor at Augsburg College told her shed make more money working for the war effort. She spent the next few summers stamping serial numbers into bomb casings at the Honeywell plant in Fridley, MN, one of many Rosie Riveters. After two years at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Dorrie transferred to Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, at the encouragement of J. Wilhelm Ylvisaker, her mentor and pastor. She graduated with a BA in English with a minor in Spanish.

Dorrie returned to Minneapolis after graduation and found work as a graphic artist at the grocery chain, National Tea. Her social life centered around Our Saviours Lutheran Church in south Minneapolis, where she was active in Luther League, making life-long friends, and sang in the choir. One day, a handsome, young, blue-eyed Norwegian bachelor farmer with a gorgeous tenor voice joined the choir, not knowing that he had just fulfilled every criterion on Dorries list for a perfect husband. They fell in love, beginning a journey that lasted a lifetime. M. David Walen and Dorrie Larson were married at Our Saviours. After a brief honeymoon, they returned to the farm in northwestern North Dakota where Dave had been born and raised. But, before agreeing to become a farm wife, Dorrie required one thing: an indoor, flushing toilet. It would be needed for all the diapers that were going to be washed! The farm neighbors welcomed the newlyweds with an old-fashioned chivaree. Perched atop a hay-filled wagon, towed by a tractor, they were paraded around the township, followed by horn-honking cars filled with friends announcing and celebrating their marriage.

Being a city girl, Dorrie mastered new skills as a farm wife. She was already a good cook, but she learned to churn butter and bake bread, since the nearest grocery store was 20 miles away, and a run to the grocery store only happened about once a month. Her delicious cookies, cakes, caramel rolls were always available for family and visiting friends, as well as weekly baked bread and buns, excellent for summer sausage sandwiches and toast. They raised cattle for dairy and beef, raised chickens and, for a time, pigs, and since they canned most of their own vegetables and fruits, there was no need to shop in town very often. And, as babies kept showing up about every year and a half, there wasnt much time for such luxuries. For two years, the couple and their growing family lived in the house where Dave was born. In 1952, they built a larger house. The house became Dorries canvas for creativity, artistry, and the dream-come-true for a little girl whose modeling clay furniture creations inspired dreams of being an interior decorator.

Dorries daily chores and occupations didnt prevent her from being involved in her churches, first Skabo near the North Dakota farm, and later Concordia, Crosby, and in womens groups. In addition to teaching Sunday School, she was active in Homemakers, Study Club, and Ladies Aid (later Women of ELCA). Dorrie thoroughly enjoyed the creativity of organizing and decorating for dozens of meetings and luncheons, continuing to host community womens luncheons well into her 80s.

Dorrie was the end of her generation for her family and Daves family. She lived after the deaths of her dearly missed husband, Dave, her parents, her sisters, Gert and Marilyn, brother, Conrad, her parents-in-law, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, her grandchildren, Anders and Janae.

Dorrie and Dave had seven children: Claudia Walen Larson, Beth (Steve) Walen, Miriam Walen (Paul) Sikora, David (Anna) Walen, Noreen (Steve) Thompson, Reid (Julie) Walen, and Annette Walen (Colin Evenson). They were blessed with 25 grandchildren, with two more welcomed as adults. There are, so far, 14 great-grandchildren. Dorrie also leaves numerous nephews, nieces, and cousins.

Dorrie relied on her deep faith throughout her life to celebrate joys, to sustain her in sorrows. Memorials may be made to Skabo Church Cemetery Association. Info may be had by emailing homewalen@gmail.com.

In honor of Dorrie, think of her when you see anything aqua or turquoise, and enjoy eating a piece of dark chocolate.

Now more than ever, local news is critical for the health and safety of our readers. Please, give what you can to support the continuation of your local news source!

As local economies struggle with the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, income from advertising will be impacted for months to come. We encourage you to consider a donation equal to your annual subscription at this time to help make up this shortfall. If youre visiting our page, but not a subscriber, we hope youll become one. Select the Subscribe button to subscribe, rather than donate.

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Dorrie Walen | The Journal - Journaltrib

Twinkle Khanna shared this image. (courtesy twinklerkhanna)

It's Halloween month and Twinkle Khanna's latest Instagram entry is a subtle reminder of how the year 2020 has been one long Halloween and we couldn't agree more. In her post, Mrs Funnybones made a reference to the coronavirus pandemic and added, "It's close to Halloween, but 2020 has been such a special year, with masks, shivers and what feels like a zombie apocalypse." She added, "Where instead of a bite, it's a cough from the poor infected soul that would do you in, it seems that we have been celebrating it all year long." She added the hashtag #Halloween to her post.

Take a look at Twinkle Khanna's post here:

On Sunday night, Twinkle Khanna shared a picture from her "new normal" lifestyle. In the picture, the author could be seen getting her make-up done as she geared up for a Zoom meeting. She added a dose of her signature humour to her post and wrote: "In the chronicles of the middle-aged model, this would be worthy of an entire chapter. My first commercial with the director on Zoom and my poor make-up artist peering through a visor! #TheNewNormal #thechroniclesofthemiddleagedmodel."

This is the post we are referring to:

Twinkle Khanna is a celebrated columnist and the author of bestselling books such as Pyjamas Are Forgiving, The Legend Of Lakshmi Prasad and Mrs Funnybones. She is also an interior decorator, the owner of The White Window, and a film producer. Twinkle Khanna also runs a digital content company called Tweak India.

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Twinkle Khanna Points Out That 2020 Has Been One Long Halloween - NDTV

Greg Berlanti (left) on set with the cast

A lot of people ask me when I first knew I was gay. Fact is, I dont know.The character Kevin in The Broken Hearts Club

How did LGBTQ peopleonce erased or denigrated as villainsmake so much progress in Hollywood in just two decades?

Think of the shows and personalities that dominate todays televisionEllen, Queer Eye, RuPauls Drag Race, Pose, CNNs Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon, MSNBCs Rachel Maddow, to name just a fewand how stark a contrast that situation is from the 1980s and even well into the 1990s.

Will & Grace would not premiere until 1998, and sitcom star Ellen DeGeneres wouldnt come out (Yep, Im gay, blared Time magazines profile) until 1997, at the cost of her popular series, ABCs Ellen.

That same year, a young college graduate named Greg Berlanti sat down to write a script and get it filmed, somehow. What began as an exercise in self-reflection on his own search for friendship and love in West Hollywood soon took on a life of its own. A low-budget, art-house film with a cast comprised of mostly unknowns would become a showcase of young actors on the rise, and an affirmation for an oppressed community desperate to see itself on-screen. It would change the way audiences understood gay life in America.

It would also announce the arrival of a young writer/director as one of the most influential filmmakers of his era, a producer who would change the way Americans viewed the LGBTQ community.

This is the story of The Broken Hearts Club.

Tall, lean with dark hair and blue eyes, the then 25-year-old Greg Berlanti hailed from an Italian-American family in New Jersey. By 1997, hed come out as gay, graduated from Northwestern University, and transplanted himself to West Hollywood with ambitions to write for the screen. Like many starving screenwriters landing in Los Angeles, Berlanti found few career opportunities in his first couple of years. He spent his time churning out commercial spec scripts in hopes of capturing the attention of producers.

Moving to West Hollywooda growing hotbed for LGBTQ cultureprovided Berlanti with a surrogate family of close gay friends who could offer him support and suggestions in his original scripts.

When I developed the group of gay friends I had out here, Berlanti recalls, that was the moment. It was the first time I felt like I would be alright.

Frustrated with attempts to go mainstream, Berlanti decided to look inward instead.

I had written a lot, Berlanti says. I hadnt written anything this personal. I started writing about myself. Id always loved the movie Diner. I remember thinking theres no movie like that for all of us [queer people]. So rather than sit down to write the script that all my friends told me would finally get me a job, I wrote something personal to me. I forget how long it took to write around then, but I was definitely trying to capture the spirit of what it felt like to be one of my group of friends in Los Angeles in the late 90s.

Berlanti began working on a script about a group of young gay men living in Los Angeles and playing on the same local gay softball team. Together, they would confront existential questions about love, relationships, insecurities and redefining gay identity after the trauma of the AIDS epidemic. In other words: they would become a surrogate family. The young writer poured his heart into the story, taking snapshots from his own dating experiences alongside images of life in Los Angeles.

Gregs own love life would also suggest the scripts title. As he had a penchant for falling for aspiring actors, which his sister nicknamed his 8x10sanother name for an actors headshot.

The process of writing and self-reflection offered catharsis.

I definitely at the time didnt think my dealing with my sexuality would help me be a better writer, he admits. I had segregated those things in my mind. I focused on scriptwriting and, finally, was inspired to write about everything I went through and the friendships I developed. I learned a lot about myself in the process.

The ultimate scriptnow titled 8x10scomprised a collage of Berlantis life, integrating the personalities of his friends as well as much of their verbal shorthand.

We had language, Berlanti notes. Certain dialogue. Some were things we said, some I made up. But [my objective] was to create the spirit of being part of this little club, part of these guys. Diner, in particular, has its own vernacular in the 50s. American Graffiti was another.

That vernacular would become part of the scripts hallmark humor, dividing it into five acts, each introduced by mock definitions from the gay dictionary. Terms like meanwhile (a term used by friends to indicate the presence of someone attractive), newbie (a newly out of the closet person, usually emotionally vulnerable and facing heartbreak) and guy (a method of characterizing a person by their most apparent attribute; i.e. muscle guy) would become the movies lexicon and, eventually, part of its legacy.

With 8x10s taking shape, Berlanti again looked to his friends for inspiration, and a bit of help.

I worked on the script with two of my close friends who were very instrumental in developing the material, and who have gone on to great success themselves: Julie Plec and Ryan Murphy, Berlanti says. Both really helped me develop it.

Plec became a talented writer/producer herself, creating the long-running series The Vampire Diaries for The CW. Ryan Murphy, who needs no introduction, would go on to become one of the most successful writer/producers in television history, creating the shows Popular, American Horror Story, Pose, Feud, Nip/Tuck and Ratched, among many others.

Still, the comedy and warmth of 8x10s masked the ongoing struggle of Berlantis life as a starving writer. When I finished the script, he sighs, I think my car got booted the next day. I had to borrow a bunch of money from a friend to pay to get my car out. I was a script or two away from heading back home. I had a negative bank account.

Desperate, Berlanti handed the script off to Plec, who, at the time, worked as the assistant to horror director Wes Craven. Craven had scored a major hit with Scream in the early 1990s. By the time 1997 rolled around and Craven began work on Scream 2, Plec found herself promoted to an associate producer position on the film. Impressed with the quality of Gregs final draft of 8x10s, Plec passed the script to Scream 2 writer Kevin Williamson.

Williamson loved it and called Berlanti.

[Kevin] said it was really good and asked if I had other movie ideas, Berlanti says. So I started writing another movie for him. In the midst of that, he asked if I wanted to write on this TV show that hadnt premiered yet. So I started to write on that TV show.

The show would at last offer Berlanti an income. When it premiered, it scored the highest ratings in the history of its fledgling network, The WB. Critics praised it for its frank and sexualized depiction of teenagers, and it developed an immediate following.

It was called Dawsons Creek.

The success of Dawsons Creeks first season earned Berlanti an office space on the Sony lot and a steady writing gig in 1998. In the meantime, he circulated 8X10s in hopes of finding a director. According to Berlanti, agents and studio executives loved it, but often advised him that it would never get made into a film.

Other high-profile gay movies of the era focused on coming out (Beautiful Thing), the spectre of AIDS (Love! Valor! Compassion!) or bordered on softcore pornography (Nowhere). 8x10s took the radical step of focusing on LGBTQ people as people who cared about friendship and community rather than sensationalized and scandalous tabloid fodder. Hollywood, at the time, didnt believe there was an audience for such a film despite the success of television adaptations of Armistead Maupins beautiful Tales of the City, which had a similarly heartfelt community vibe.

It was doing its job, Berlanti observes of 8X10s growing notoriety. I kept getting meeting after meeting. I kept talking about the quality of the writing. It announced me as a writer. Anything beyond that was a gift.

Berlanti chose to focus on writing for Dawsons Creek and put 8x10s on the back burner.

As it turned out, it wouldnt stay there for long.

Down the hall from the Dawsons Creek offices, producer Mickey Liddell had set up shop at Sony. The blue-eyed, sandy headed Liddell had earned his own office space after producing a series of commercial and critical hit indie films, including Traveler, which starred a then-untested actor named Mark Whalberg, and Telling Lies in America for writer Joe Eszterhasthe highest paid screenwriter of the 1990s.

I was more of an independent producer, and Id made four or five films at that time, Liddell reminisces. Then I made [the quasi gay-themed] Go, and Sony bought it [midway through production]. So I was in the Sony world at the time. I met Greg, and he was working with Kevin Williamson on Dawsons Creek. I didnt really know TV at the time; so I just knew he was a young writer around the office.

Despite the gulf between the television and film worldsnot to mention the excessive workloads of both menthe pair struck up a friendship. Liddell told Berlanti about Goan ensemble film that featured a number of up-and-coming stars including Sarah Polly, Jay Mohr, Scott Wolf and Dawsons Creek star Katie Holmes. Perhaps because of the Holmes connection, or maybe just the shared office space, a copy of 8x10s ended up on Liddells desk. Liddell recognized Berlantis name, and read it.

I had been sent a lot of scriptsthere were so many in the 80s and 90sabout AIDS and dying, Liddell recollects. Those were brilliant movies, classics. But that wasnt my story. We were coming out of that. I remember thinking [8x10s was] so light and romantic and fun. And it fell in my lap at the right time.

For Liddell, a gay, Midwestern transplant himself, the script struck an immediate chord. It was more the world I was living in LA at the time, he says. It was gay guys hanging out and going to parties and having friends and all that. Obviously, this was before apps. You had to make friends and family in a big city. You just tried to find your group. I know Greg and I talked about that a lot. Wed both had that experience. He came from New Jersey. I came from Oklahoma. We came here without knowing anybody. If you had two, three, four really good friends, they became your life.

The morning after Liddell read 8x10s, he ran into Berlanti. I remember being in the elevator and we were talking, Liddell notes. I said I just read your script. I really liked it. And he said Why dont you make it? But I was right in the middle of Go at the time. We were shooting nights. So I said Maybe. Ill talk to you when its done.

Liddell went on to complete Go, which would become a critical and commercial sleeper hit in the summer of 1999. Berlanti continued to enjoy his own success on Dawsons Creek, taking on duties as showrunner for the shows second seasona feat almost unheard of for a writer so early in his career. A year after their chance meeting in the elevator, with the release of Go and the second season of Dawsons Creek impending, Liddell asked Berlanti to dinner. He had one thing on his mind.

Unbeknownst to Berlanti, Liddell had already begun developing a plan to get 8x10s funded. The producer appealed to a young actor from Go that he might want to play a part in the potential film. His name: Timothy Olyphant.

I went to Tim, and asked if he would read the script, Liddell admits. He did and said I love it. Ill play any part. So I said What about the lead? He was like ok.

Over dinner, Liddell informed Berlanti that he believed he could get the movie funded with Olyphants interest. Then the producer dropped a bombshell.

I said Greg, you should direct this, Liddell sighs, his words still echoing the shockwave that every aspiring Hollywood creative wants to hear.

Liddells words stunned Berlanti. I had just gotten my first job as a writer, he remembers. I had directed plays in college, but not a movie, not even a short film. [Mickey] said I believe you are supposed to be the director. He had the utmost faith in me.

Liddell admits to making Berlanti his dream offer, though for less romantic reasons. The truth was I knew I didnt have the budget to hire a real director, Liddell confesses. In the end, however, Berlantis enthusiasm and evident dedication won him the job. I think thats why I asked Greg to direct it, the producer opines. It was personal. It was his story. Greg knew how [the characters] should sound. He knew the humor. He knew how to do it.

With Berlanti agreeing to take on the directorial duties, Timothy Olyphants agreement to play the lead, and the buzz around Go building, Mickey Liddell managed to leverage a deal with Sony to fund and distribute 8x10s on a modest budget, assuming the pair could convince enough name actors to appear in it. Given the attitudes of the late 1990s about LGBTQ people, they had their work cut out for them.

Though Mickey Liddell had total confidence in Greg Berlantis ability to direct 8x10s, the producer had no illusions about the production ahead. Filmmaking poses countless potential hazards, even for experienced directors. With a neophyte at the helmalbeit one of obvious talent and dedicationLiddell knew he needed to prepare as much as possible.

Everything that goes wrong falls on your plate, Liddell says of his role as producer. Youre protecting the director a lot. It was Gregs first time, and these were young actors. He moved up a lot more in the television world. His responsibilities became much bigger.

To help guide Berlanti through the shoot, Liddell hired veteran cinematographer Paul Elliott to film the production. He also called in casting director Joseph Middleton, who had cast Go, to produce as well and help the team over the next enormous obstacle on the path to production.

It may seem absurd now at a time when actors fight over who should have the honor of playing a queer character on the screen and when LGBTQ stories often bait major awards, but in the late 90s, playing a gay character was still seen as dangerous for a performer. Ellen DeGeneres had come out of the closet in 1997 only to see her once-popular sitcom tank in the ratings and meet with cancellation just a year later. When Will & Grace premiered in 1998, ratings were soft, and male stars Eric McCormick and Sean Hayes had to endure extremely personal questions from reporters about their own sexual orientations.

At the time, most guys thought if they played gay in a movie it would ding their career, Berlanti recalls. If they werent thinking it, their agents were thinking it. There were more closeted actors than out actors. I remember dinner parties where the subject would come up. It was a hot-button issue. There were definitely a lot of gay men who felt that other gay men shouldnt come out.

Liddell agrees. It was hard to get actors at the time. It wasnt just like were making a gay movie! We definitely got pushback. We got a lot of passes. The producer decided to leverage his own success as much as he could in hopes of convincing actorsgay, straight or otherwiseto read the script.

In my head, it was like, How do you make people think this is cool? Liddell remembers. Because I had just done Go with Jay Mohr and Scott Wolf [playing gay characters], who are both straight, I think that was half of my pitch. It was time. It was cool to do it. I said Look at Greg, our director. Hes going to be huge. I think it was mostly bullshit, but you fake it to make it. I talked to all these people, as did Joseph [Middleton], along with agents and managers.

Berlanti and Liddell began by casting Timothy Olyphant as Dennis, an aspiring photographer searching for his artistic voice, only to find it in his relationships with his friends. Throughout 8x10s, Dennis wrestles with his feelings of inadequacy, especially when compared to another member of the group: Cole, an aspiring actor and waiter. Cole would spend most of the films runtime enchanting men with his handsome charisma and hiding an affair with a closeted co-star. Therefore, the actor playing him needed to have a certain look.

We had to get someone so good looking that it made Tim Olyphant go I can never look like that, Liddell recalls. Middleton came back with a surprising suggestion: Dean Cain.

Cain had spent most of the 1990s lauded as one of the sexiest men alive, having landed the lead on the popular nighttime romance, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. That show had wrapped in 1997, and apart from a few TV movies, Cain hadnt had luck in landing a feature. Much to the surprise of Berlanti and Liddell, Cain agreed to a chemistry reading with Olyphant. Producer & director offered, and Cain took the part.

From there, the creative team began an aggressive search to find the rest of the cast that would secure the budget from Sony. For the role of Patrick, a sweet, if slightly nerdy member of the group, Middleton reached out to a young actor named Ben Weber. Weber had attracted attention the year before as the curly-haired, lovable schlub Skipper on a fledgling cable comedy called Sex & the City.

I was living in New York at the time, Weber now recalls. I was kind of on my own. I had done the pilot for Sex & the City in 1998. I had worked with Tim Olyphant in episode three or four [of the series], so when I heard he was circling the project, I could see where they were going with casting.

Because of the Olyphant connection, Weber decided to have a look at the script. Much to his surprise, he found it delightful.

I really responded to the material, Weber says. I was such a Patrick. I was such a loser. The thing about Gregs work is that he makes these beautiful losers with these great friends that get them through all these things. That was what I responded to: I was always the butt of the joke, I could respond to that in the character.

Patricks storyline in the film saw him dueling his own cynicism and low self-esteem. He also battled his lesbian sister, Anne, and her longtime girlfriend Leslie. Together, the couple lobby Patrick to act as a sperm donor for their desired children. Besides examining same-sex parentingstill a new, hot button concept in the 90sthe lesbian couple added a feminine balance to the otherwise all-male story. Liddell and Berlanti also saw the roles as an opportunity to cast established actresses, which would help keep Sony from cutting their funding. To cast the couple, Joe Middleton turned to two up-and-coming bombshell starlets, Nia Long and Mary McCormack.

Long, a luminous beauty who rose to fame as Will Smiths on-screen girlfriend in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, began to eye the role of Leslie.

The script came to my agent and I remember thinking, Wow, what a cool project, says Long today. Im always attracted to telling stories about the underdog. I remember really liking Greg. He commands respect. He knows what he wants. Hes a character development genius. But hes also so gentle, which created a super safe space to do the work. I was young. I was open to trying new things. My character, Leslie, was a woman I had met many times in my life, but never had a chance to portray on film. Thats why I chose to take the role.

The part of Anne, Patricks sister, would go to blond-headed, blue-eyed Mary McCormack, a name on the rise thanks to her acclaimed turns in Private Parts opposite Howard Stern, and in the critically lauded ABC drama Murder One. For McCormack, the offer required no hesitation.

I was living in LA, McCormack reminisces. It was one job to the next. I spent the late 90s in West Hollywood dancing with the gay boys. It was my community. She said yes immediately.

With Olyphant, Cain, Weber, Long, and McCormack aboard, Sony moved closer to a final greenlight.

Finding the rest of the cast suddenly had a new urgency about it, as the creative team continued to look for men willing to play incidentally gay characters. They cast a wide net looking for actors to play two key roles: Howie, a neurotic psychology student in a dysfunctional relationship, and Taylor, a middle-aged interior decorator recently dumped by his boyfriend.

The team decided to approach actor Dan Futterman for the role of Howie. Futterman had appeared as the son of Nathan Lane and Robin Williams in The Birdcage just two years earlier. At the time of casting 8x10s, he had landed a role in a production of A Fair Country in Lincoln Center. One of his co-stars in the show was an actor named Matt McGrath, who had begun acting in his teens and already amassed a long resume of stage and film work. One night, Futterman invited McGrath out on the town.

Dan had this friend who was doing a play downtown at Playwrights Horizons, Tim Olyphant, who was also asked to do the film, McGrath remembers. So the two of them were like, Lets go hang between shows. And they said Weve been asked to do this movie, but we think you would be great for this part. Read it. We want to talk to Greg. So they kind of ganged up on Greg to at least see me for the part. We set up a meeting in New York. I auditioned, and it worked out really well.

Handsome, bespectacled and with pale skin to contrast against his dark hair and hazel eyes, McGrath felt an immediate connection with the material. Hed come out as gay himself the year before to friends and family, who accepted him with open arms. His agents at the time, on the other hand, had a very different reaction, especially when he began to show an interest in playing gay roles.

I had left an agency over a number of reasons, McGrath explains. There was a very well-known gay movie that I was offered. I opted to do the movie, but my agents said too gay. I luckily had this choice to make between that movie and [The Impostors] that I ended up doing. So moving on from that agency, I never forgot hearing its too gay. For McGrath, his moment of vindication had finally arrived.

When Berlanti sat down to write 8x10s, hed made a deliberate choice not to specify the race of any given character, save one. The writer had based the interior decorator Taylor directly on a personal friend. As such, the script described him as middle-aged, white and blond. But, as the old saying goes, theres no stopping a force of nature. Back in Los Angeles, Berlanti, Liddell and Middleton were about to confront just that.

I was the least known in that movie at the time, recalls Billy Porter, the towering, statuesque actor whose star turn in Pose made him a household name. I was juicier, before I lost my baby fat. I was like 29. [The film] started it all for me. Because I wasnt a name at the time, people very often dont even remember that its me.

Like McGrath, Porter had come up through the New York theatre scene, landing parts in popular musicals including Grease, Smokey Joes Cafe, and the original cast of Miss Saigon. His powerful vocals earned him a recording contract, and it seemed like stardom lay just ahead. Then Porter hit a snag: he refused to conceal his identity as a gay man.

Ive been out pretty much my entire career, Porter explains. There was a dont ask, dont tell policy. But I wasnt hiding anything. I wasnt acting like I had girlfriends. You didnt talk about it out loud, especially in the music business. I also was not lying about it. The choice was already made by the people in positions of power that I wasnt masculine enough to get straight parts.

Doors in New York slammed on Porter as quickly as theyd opened. By 2000 I had moved to Los Angeles. I had done a couple movies, so I thought Ill move to Los Angeles, maybe try my hand. My agent-now-manager Bill Butler, had read the script. He thought I was right for it.

Porter showed an immediate interest in the role of Taylor, despite the specification that the character would be played by an older, white man. Berlanti invited Porter to audition based on his theatrical resume.

I assumed he was based on a friend because what was there was so specific, Porter says of his character. But when I got there, I just did what I do. I went to meet Greg. He let me imbue the character with heart and something real, which was what was so great about that original script. And he was like Oh youre right. You are Taylor. So they gave me the part.

Casting continued, as Liddell and Berlanti plucked one up-and-coming actor up after another to round out their cast. The role of the party boy Benji went to a spikey-haired, blue-eyed upstart named Zach Braff. The part of the newly-out 20-something Kevin went to teen heartthrob Andrew Keegan, known for the primetime soap Party of Five.

That left one part left to fill, and with Sony still waffling on a final budget and green light, casting it would prove essential. When Berlanti had begun writing 8x10s, hed created an older character not inspired by anyone he knew so much as an imagined friend he wished hed had. In the story, the younger men all turn to the character of Jack, the groups softball coach, and the owner of the restaurant where Cole, Taylor, Patrick, and Dennis all have their day jobs. Jack acts as the moral guide and role model to the other characters throughout the film, not to mention a connection to an earlier generation of LGBTQ people.

It was wish fulfillment for me Berlanti admits of Jacks character. It was the one thing my group of young friends didnt have. Truthfully, the generation Im a part of that was just coming out at that time: AIDS had wiped out most of the generation above us. You really felt the void of not having a lot of role models, or the sense of tradition to be passed.

Sony had initially pushed Berlanti to consider a number of respected, high-profile character actors for the part, including some Oscar-winners. All the studio suggestions either balked at the proposed salary, the subject matter, or both. Fortunately, that left Berlanti in a desirable position. From the outset, he had only one actor on his list.

I very rarely have actors in mind when Im writing stuff, Berlanti confesses. But, John Mahoney I did have in mind. So when I finished the script and Mickey said we would make it, I wrote him a letter. And he said Id love to sit down with you.

John Mahoney had emigrated to the US from Britain as a child and grown up in Illinois. As an adult, he joined Chicagos prestigious Steppenwolf Theatre company before launching a long and successful career as a character actor, picking up a Tony Award in 1986 for the play The House of Blue Leaves. By 1999, however, most of the world had come to know him as Martin Crane, the cantankerous father of Frasier and Niles Crane on the NBC sitcom Frasier. Off-screen, Mahoney seldom discussed his personal life in any detail, in part because doing so could have harmed his career. As a gay man himself, Mahoney saw the character of Jack as a way to acknowledge his own sexuality in a subtle way without having to surrender the whole of his privacy.

[John] was the character from the movie, Berlanti affirms. He would hold court off-camera. He wasnt a showy person. He would do it in a quiet way. But he was the sun people would orbit. He was kind and genteel, and he set the tone for everybody. He was like an angel for the movie: everything you wanted to be when you grew up.

Sony loved the casting of Mahoney, a major television star at the time. The studio finally gave the production the go-ahead on a $1 million budgeta modest price tag for an ensemble film at the time, especially one with such high-profile actors. Their cast finally assembled, Berlanti and Liddell could finally move forward with shooting in Los Angeles in October of 1999. Around the same time, Berlanti decided the film should have a less obtuse title, and borrowed the name of the main characters the softball team as the new moniker. Thus did 8x10s become The Broken Hearts Club.

But, for Greg Berlanti, writing and casting The Broken Hearts Club was little more than an overture. The real test lay ahead.

As production on The Broken Hearts Club ramped up in September 1999, Greg Berlanti had his work cut out for him. Hed begun showrunning on Dawsons Creek, which would mean that he had to split his time between both projects, rehearsing his cast and working with Director of Photography Paul Elliott to develop the visual style of the film over a three week period. On breaks, or in the evenings, Berlanti would have to oversee work on Dawsons, often penning new scenes during lulls. The young director also went about building a rapport among his cast, showing them around West Hollywood to get a sense of the lives they would have to embody.

We had a fun rehearsal period, says Ben Weber. We went to gay nightclubs and met all the real people that inspired the movie. Spending time around his friends, seeing how much love there was, how much support they had. These were friendships that had pre-dated Hollywood and gone though different states of coming out. It was interesting to see characters who were making up for lost time, who came out late. That was something I had no ideait makes all the sense in the world.

Says Matt McGrath: Its very much an LA story. Coming from New York, being a New York actor, I had to play catch up. West Hollywood, especially at that time, was its own beast. It was the Mecca of being young and gay at that time. It was becoming a desirable place to live. There was a lot of nightlife. What Greg wanted to do was have me meet his friends. Getting to know these guys and how they moved through the worldthey were very very talented, and like Greg, were striving to take over the town. I see them around still. Theyre writers and producers and executives. It was a special group that this was written about.

Shooting on a modest budget also meant the production would have to consolidate where possible and call in a few favors.

Every one of those apartments: Those were my friends houses, Mickey Liddell admits. We were living that life anyway, and it was easy. We could grab all those places. We knew what a club would look like on a Saturday. It was easy production-wise to do to.

For the cast, that also meant becoming unusually close.

At the time, Matt McGrath was living with me, sleeping on my couch, Mary McCormack reminisces.

I lived with Greg while we were shooting the movie, at his place in West Hollywood, Weber offers. It was the first time Id spent extended time in LA. One of the first nights I was there, there was an earthquake. I was in my room and came running down the hallway and into Gregs arms. He was like, Its OK! Its OK! All these complex emotions of if I could trust my director have answered right away.

The trust came in handy when shooting commenced in early October. To complete the film on time and on budget, Berlanti and Liddell would have to move at a breakneck pace.

It was really helpful that I didnt know much, confesses Berlanti. I got a great DP. And I kept doing things that, after the fact, [the crew] would say I didnt think wed do the whole movie that way, but it worked. We were shooting 8-9 pages a day. For anyone keeping track, most productions shoot 2-3 pages in a standard day.

We were on a moving train, McGrath analogizes.

Continued here:
Happy 20th: How Greg Berlantis The Broken Hearts Club changed the course of queer cinema - Queerty

Deerfield Beach, FL, Oct. 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Polyglass U.S.A., Inc., a leading manufacturer of roofing and waterproofing systems, teamed up with D&D Roofing, a roofing contractor in Nevada, to provide a new roofing system for a Shriners Kerack in Reno. Shriners International is a 501C organization consisting of a network of regional chapters, run primarily by volunteers, that offer support and services to those in need across the US and abroad.

For the Kerack Project, the Polyglass Special Projects team concluded that the facility needed far more than the project budget could support and decided it was critical to provide assistance for the complicated reroofing project. Polyglass offered to work with D&D Roofing on an entirely new roof design that would meet the Keracks needs. D&D Roofing came up with new roof design that included components to strengthen the building diaphragm. They chose a multi-ply modified bitumen roof system with exceptional performance and high puncture resistance, unlike the single-ply membrane previously under consideration.

After installing the insulation board, a layer of Polyglass SBS self-adhesive (SA) base membrane was installed, along with Elastoflex SA Base, a high-performance polyester reinforcement. To add superior weathering and puncture resistance, the D&D Roofing crew installed an SBS granulated cap sheet with a high-performance reinforced polyester mat (Elastoflex S6 G) by torching means, effectively fusing all layers of the assembly tightly as a monolithic layer resulting in 270 mils of membrane. The blended color added UV resistance and a visually attractive look to the completed roofing.

With Polyglass contribution by providing all the modified bitumen and related membrane accessories at no cost the Shriners for this project, the result was a much heavier-duty roofing system. It also allowed them to reroof the entire facility and make needed deck enhancements to the building.

As a result of this important project, this local Shriners facility can continue to provide critically needed meeting and transportation services for children and their families, giving them opportunities for no-cost medical care, and offer local residents in the Reno/Sparks area with a low-cost gathering place, all without the worry of a troublesome leaking roof.

For more information about this project please visit: https://polyglass.us/project/shriners-kerack/

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About Polyglass

Polyglass U.S.A., Inc. is a leading manufacturer of roofing and waterproofing systems. Known for its self-adhered modified bitumen roofing systems based on the companys patentedADESOTechnology andCURE Technology, Polyglass also produces a full line of premium roof coatings and roof maintenance systems. An ISO 9001:2015 certified company, Polyglass provides quality products and adds value through innovation. For more information about the premium products and services offered by Polyglass, call 800.222.9782 or visitpolyglass.us.

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Polyglass and D&D Roofing Collaborate for Shriner's International Project - GlobeNewswire