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Los Angeles City Controller Wendy Greuel announced Wednesday that she will launch an investigation of billing practices at the citys Department of Building and Safety after an audit by her office found overcharging as well as undercharging.

Greuel, who is running for mayor of Los Angeles, said her offices audit found that the Building and Safety Department arbitrarily charged for permit fees when not required for projects valued under $500 and charged extra fees for projects requiring multiple permits. Business and building owners must often obtain multiple permits before opening their establishments or buildings.

People who do business with the city expect more and deserve better, Greuel said in a statement accompanying the release of the audit. At a time when everyone is struggling to get by, these careless mistakes and overbillings are unacceptable.

The audit also found instances of undercharging. For example, the audit said the department does not always verify estimated construction costs provided by customers in permit applications, thereby allowing customers to understate costs and shortchange the city on its share of permit fees.

Responding to the audit, Building and Safety General Manager Robert Bud Ovrom said he did not believe these billing problems were pervasive.

We collect more than $100 million a year in fees and this audit stated that there were a few instances in which overbilling or underbilling occurred, he said.

Nonetheless, he said he would work with Greuels office to review his departments billing procedures. If there are any defects, we will correct them.

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City Controller to Probe Billing Practices

New Delhi, Oct. 2: The decks have been cleared for the signing of a settlement with the Dima Halam Daogah (DHD) factions on Friday, unless pitripaksh casts a shadow on official business.

Contented with the steps the Centre is ready to take, more than 70 representatives off the two DHD groups will reach New Delhi tomorrow. Dilip Nunisa, chief of one of the factions, is already in the capital hoping that the signing of the memorandum of settlement which has been deferred twice since July is not put off once again.

The pitripaksh problem was discussed (with us by the government). We do not have any problem in signing during this period, Nunisa told The Telegraph. Pitripaksh is the ongoing fortnight-long shraddha period from September 30 in the Hindu calendar, which is considered inauspicious and in which politicians seem to have a deep belief.

Officials are unsure if the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) will take up the issue on Thursday. Last week, no cabinet meeting was held. If the matter is included in the CCPA agenda by tomorrow evening, North Block will intimate chief minister Tarun Gogoi to attend the signing ceremony, if it is scheduled for Friday.

The signing could be done anytime between October 5 and October 10, a government official said, leaving a large time window open till the ceremony. He, however, assured that the MoS would be signed soon. Pitripaksh ends on October 15.

Uncertainty over the schedule aside, all work by the government has been concluded. Several ministries, including defence and finance, whose schemes would be implemented as part of the settlement, have given their nod to the draft MoS. Both factions have already signed the draft agreement Dilip Nunisa on July 13 this year and Jewel Gorlosa in 2011. The Cabinet meeting is only a formality actually, a senior official involved in negotiations with the DHD factions said.

Nunisa hoped that the Centre would not call off the ceremony as it had done earlier. The MoS was to be signed on July 30 but it was deferred after violence broke out in the Bodoland Territorial Areas District (BTAD). The signing was then scheduled for September 28, but the Centre cancelled the date again.

What is certain, however, is that with the signing of this settlement, one more militant group of the Northeast will dissolve itself. It will be a joint celebration of the Dimasa groups two factions in Haflong.

The DHD will be the second group within a year after the Karbi group United Peoples Democratic Solidarity that will be dissolved. The UPDS signed the MoS in November 2011.

DHD will be dissolved. Our cadres will be rehabilitated in the army or police depending on fitness and their willingness and all cases except those concerning heinous crimes, will be withdrawn, Nunisa said on Tuesday.

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Decks cleared for DHD pact

Unpermitted sewer lines that discharge untreated sewage, known as wildcat sewers, threaten to further delay the already nearly decade-long Act 537 project for West Penn Township and Walker Township.

Sewage Enforcement Officer Scott C. Bieber of Lehigh Soils and Wetlands, the sub consultant hired to redo an outdated needs assessment survey, revisited 230 of 231 homes that were suspected to have septic issues.

On Sept. 25, the sewer committee met with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) where Bieber presented a draft of the needs assessment survey. At the West Penn supervisors' meeting last evening, township engineer Ronald B. Madison, PE said the good news is that the sewer needs of the study areas are not as widespread as the original survey done by Ludgate Engineering showed them to be, which means that a costly public sewer system is unlikely necessary. (The one done by Ludgate previously estimated the project to cost $11.5 million, and it would have left the homeowners who were involved in this option with $104-a-month sewer bill until the debt of the project was fully paid.)

As this new survey was finished, however, the issue of the wildcat sewers followed. Further investigation has to be done, which could delay the completion of the full Act 537 plan update, the deadline for which is Dec. 31. Madison said South Tamaqua has some homes that were built using these wildcat sewer lines, and there might be one in Clamtown and Andreas.

"There may be a lot (of homes connected into wildcat sewers)," sewer committee member Ted Bogosh said, "but until there's further investigation, we don't know."

Photos from the survey show discharge of these wildcat systems clear evidence that the unpermitted wildcats exist but the real problem is identifying exactly which homes are tied into them. Some of the wildcat sewer pipelines, according to Bogosh, are nearly 100 meters long, and some pipelines are short. The main concern of DEP is how many homes are on these systems and how far the pipes run.

Although an investigation is unavoidable, both solicitor Gretchen Sterns and Madison agree that it would be a mistake to do it during the planning stage.

"The need to investigate the wildcat sewers won't go away," Madison said. "It's just whether or not you're doing it now as part of the planning process or later as part of the implementation process."

A major drawback of investigating now, Sterns said, is that the townships will be stuck paying for the planning part of the project, for they are responsible by law for all planning costs. The estimated cost for West Penn and Walker townships since the planning phase of Act 537 began in 2003, up to March of this year, has been $276,907. In addition to that is the $79,200 to have Bieber redo the survey.

To prevent any further unnecessary spending, West Penn supervisors said they would rather let homeowners sort out their sewer issues at their own costs by either having them install on-lot sewer options or having several houses share a system.

Read this article:
Wildcat sewers threaten to delay project

QUINCY, Ill. (WGEM) -

Some front porches along Quincy's Maine Street are lit up in purple tonight. The idea is to get you thinking about people who are living a life of abuse. The Purple Light Night also commemorates October, which is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Purple lights glow in the front yard of Quanada in Quincy - and while the bulbs might be pretty to look at, the issue they represent is much darker. Quanada representatives say that one in four women in America will experience domestic violence at some point in their lifetime,

In addition to the lights that glittered on the sidewalk and bushes, little posters representing domestic violence victims covered the front lawn - and not all of them are women.

"There are men that are serviced by Quanada as well, it's family violence, domestic violence, and there are men that are victimized in that way," says board member Bob Morwell. He says the campaign is for all victims - women, men, children and the elderly. Quanada executive director Megan Dusterhaus says the other purpose is to make sure the issue is at the forefront of your mind.

"After forty years of working to end violence, it can start to seem like - you know - we've done a lot of work and we've done a lot of good, and it's easy to get complacent," she said.

Dusterhaus says hundreds of domestic violence victims lose their lives at the hands of their abusers, and she hopes current victims will see the purple lights and found strength.

"I hope it gives them hope, and I hope it lets them know that there are people that care and that are willing to speak out," she says.

Quanada and the YWCA Quincy provide services for domestic abuse victims. Quanada offers counseling, legal andmedical advocacy, and emergency shelter. The YWCA offers supportive housing, financial literacy, racial justice, and youth development programs.

View original post here:
"Light Up" Event Held at Quanada Tuesday Night

2012-10-03 09:01

Cape Town - Construction workers renovating a Cape Town apartment building have found a rotting human body in a chest freezer.

They were refurbishing one of the citys most notorious blocks of flats - Senator Park in the CBD, which had become known as a prostitution and drug den, reported Eyewitness News.

The building is uninhabited at present after all the tenants were evicted and the units were welded shut to prevent squatters from moving in. The renovations started a month ago.

The Cape Times reported that the electricity supply had been disconnected when the renovations started. Workers found the freezer on the fifth floor and opened it, discovering the rotting meat which caused a "horrendous smell" in the room. They initially thought it was half a sheep, but then spotted "what looked like a sock".

Police were called in and forensics confirmed that it was a human body.

A murder docket was opened, and the body has not yet been identified.

Read this article:
Human body found in freezer

The 49-unit Clearview Apartments at 4000 North Main St. sold this summer for $3,420,000, nearly $1 million more than the last sale five years ago, according to city assessors.

The North End property consists of two three-level buildings of mostly two bedrooms and one bath, with air conditioning and patios or balconies overlooking the Taunton River.

The property was built in 1989 on 1 acres.

Tag Fall River Real Estate III LLC in Boston, a division of Waldorf Capital Management in Providence, took ownership on Aug. 31 from Clearwater Investments LLC, assessors said.

NAI Hunneman, the Boston firm representing the city for development of the new bio park, represented Clearwater, according to Banker & Tradesman.

The last sale to Clearwater Investments on Dec. 31, 2007 was for $2.5 million, following sales in 1999 for $1.89 million and in 1996 for $1.35 million, city records show.

The $3.42 million sale price would average roughly $70,000 per unit.

The property is assessed for $2.8 million, nearly $2 million for the buildings and the remainder for the land in an area of many apartment buildings and condominiums.

See the original post:
Clearview Apartments in Fall River trades hands for $3.4 million

Article posted: 10/2/2012 3:14 PM

Many homeowners are updating their kitchen with granite counters.

Courtesy of imperial Stone

Homeowners today are investing in their homes for their own enjoyment. They are improving their kitchens and baths, in particular, so that they and their families can benefit from an enhanced atmosphere in two rooms where people tend to spend a lot of time.

But they arent going wild and offering contractors and suppliers a blank check for these projects.

The first question many of them ask is how they can get what they want without spending too much money, said Derek Wawyca, manager of Imperial Stone in Elk Grove Village. Luckily for them, the granite countertops that everyone wants today came down in price by about 40 percent five or six years ago, thanks to the opening of new quarries and more competition. So more people can now afford granite and they are investing in it.

In fact, he added, many homeowners are choosing to keep their existing kitchen or bathroom cabinets, but they are enhancing them with new granite or quartz countertops.

There arent many people moving right now so, instead, they are remodeling their kitchens and baths and we are helping them by supplying cabinets, countertops, tile and sometimes flooring. We will provide installation of any of these items, particularly the granite countertops, but we will also let a homeowner have his own contractor install the items we sell, Wawyca said.

Imperial Stone also provides a design service. An experienced Imperial Stone designer will travel anywhere in the Chicago area to take measurements and design the kitchen of each particular homeowners dreams.

Maple and cherry cabinets are the most popular choices today. Imperial Stone carries four brands of cabinets: Kraftmaid, Waypoint, Shiloh and 6 Square.

More here:
Price of granite counters has fallen

Developers of the Branson Landing are hoping a nearly decade-long court case will soon end, allowing them to build additional retail space in the area.

Rick Huffman, CEO of HCW Development, said his company is ready to move forward on construction of 30,000 square feet of new retail and restaurant space north of the Landing, provided they can get title insurance.

Were just a tenant, he said. We pay rent to the city every year, but we cant build because we cant get title insurance. Its like owning a home that you cant live in.

Legally, ownership of the land has been in question thats been the hang up in the lawsuit between the city of Branson, Empire District Electric Co. and Coverdell Enterprises, since 2003, with the story behind the land going back much further.

Douglas Coverdell and Coverdell Enterprises claim ownership of North Beach Park and a portion of Branson Landing, property of which Empire District Electric Co. and the city of Branson have claimed ownership for years.

In January 2010, a Taney County jury ruled in favor of Coverdell and against Empire, which for years leased the North Beach Park area to the city. The legal description in the ruling included not only North Beach Park, however, but a portion of Branson Landing, including the Belk building, the north Branson Landing parking lot and two undeveloped areas often used for overflow parking.

On June 3, 2011, the Missouri Southern District Court of Appeals reversed the January 2010 ruling on the 27 acres of land along Lake Taneycomo, stating the decision was in error.

Coverdell had hoped the Supreme Court would review the case, but his application was denied at the end of August 2011.

Since then, Coverdell has appealed the decision, but the company also filed for Chapter 11 protection in June. It was later changed to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which typically results in liquidation of company assets.

Huffman said theyre hoping that the pending bankruptcy decision leads judge Gerald McBeth to dismiss Coverdells case and claim to the land.

Read the original:
Land dispute could soon end

By Kris Hudson

In spite of the rapid rise in online sales that have hurt a number of national retailers, the biggest shopping-mall companies are doing quite well, thank you.

That was the counterintuitive message delivered Tuesday by several chief executives of leading retail property owners at International Strategy & Investments real estate conference. ISI, an investment research firm, held its annual conference at the St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan. The CEOs argued that, despite challenges facing individual retailers, many real estate investment trusts that own retail property are posting occupancy of 90% or more and annual gains in lease rates.

Thats happening, they said, for three primary reasons. First, while retailers such as Best Buy Co. and Staples Inc. have been closing stores, chain stories such as Forever 21 Inc. and TJX Cos. TJ Maxx are expanding. Second, many retail landlords are bolstering their properties by adding tenants that offer services, such as restaurants, nail salons and gyms, rather than goods that otherwise can easily be bought online.

For every Best Buy or Staples with dramatic headlines about their downsizing efforts, there are five or 10 other retailers who have ramped up their expansion plans, like Nordstrom Rack, said David Henry, CEO of Kimco Realty Corp. , which owns stakes in 926 shopping centers. There is more demand for space than downsizing going on.

Third, retail landlords are benefitting from a dearth of competition as construction of new retail space has been limited. Developers are expected to complete construction of 19 million square feet of retail property in the top 54 U.S. markets this year in comparison to 159.4 million square feet at the height of the boom in 2007, according to CoStar Group.

To be sure, online sales represent one of the greatest threats that shopping centers have ever faced. Internet distribution of certain goods has devastated several retail categories, namely electronics, books and office supplies. Though still a small portion of overall sales, online sales are growing at a pace far outstripping the rest of the market. To wit, the National Retail Federation predicted Tuesday that holiday salesboth online and brick-and-mortarin the United States this November and December will increase by 4.1% this year to $586.1 billion. However, online sales, taken on their own, are projected by the NRF to grow 12% to $96 billion.

To that end, a new rallying cry among retail landlords is to recruit so-called omnichannel retailers, those that sell robustly both online and in their stores. Those include Apple Inc. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. , Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. and Saks Inc. s Saks Fifth Avenue Off Fifth.

Online sales are raising the bar for us in terms of the product we provide, said Don Wood, president and CEO of Federal Realty Investment Trust, which owns 85 U.S. shopping centers. We had better provide a more experiential, more social atmosphere. You want the retailers who have great distribution through the Internet. Theyre the smart retailers; embrace them.

Daniel Hurwitz, president and CEO of DDR Corp., which owns stakes in 459 shopping centers, highlighted one positive trend and one negative trend in the market. First, the move by some prominent retailers to shrink the size of their stores can become a benefit for landlords, he said. Replacing one big tenant with several smaller tenants diversifies a landlords risk, boosts the shopping centers sales and profits per square foot and often enables the landlord to collect more in rent.

Originally posted here:
Retail Landlords: Malls Doing Well Despite Online Sales

Construction to replace a Central Street apartment and retail building that was demolished by a fire last January is set to begin by the end of the month.

The Planning Board waived the a site plan requirement on Monday, allowing developers to reconstruct a building at 64-66 Central St., and expand its parking lot, as long as developers make minor changes to the parking lot layout and make plans to rebuild a granite retaining wall.

The renovated two-story building will include a single retail space on the first floor and two apartments on the second floor. It is unknown what kind of business will occupy the retail space, said the projects general contractor, Tony Chiarelli, president of the Milford-based restoration contracting company Landmark Associates.

He told the Planning Board Tuesday, If we have to make the adjustments accordingly, we will do that.

Chiarelli said that once construction begins, the entire project should take around five to six months, but it is unknown when the new tenant will set up shop.

Foundation-wise and framing-wise, thats how far they are. They need to make some minor kinks. They should have it off the ground any day, said Town Planner Larry Dunkin.

A three-alarm fire last January destroyed the building and its two apartments and Brazilian check-cashing and multi-service store. Officials at the time said the building did not have working smoke detectors.

The property is owned by Uxbridge resident Wendy Beltramini, who said shortly after the fire destroyed her building that she had poured her heart into remodeling it.

The old-styled building was constructed around 1890, said Zoning Board of Appeals Chairman David Consigli in the boards decision to approve Beltraminis special permit request last August.

Chiarelli said that developers have already adjusted their site plans to accommodate minor requests by several town departments such as installing catch basins in the rear parking area, adding a 4-foot-high chain link fence on top of the buildings retaining walls, and changes to the location of the handicapped parking space.

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Burnt Milford building to be redone