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STEUBENVILLE - Several water and sewer department matters were discussed by the Jefferson County commissioners Friday, including a groundbreaking for a sewer project and a contract to sell water to Chesapeake Exploration for the fracking of a gas well outside Richmond.

County Commissioner Thomas Graham announced a groundbreaking ceremony will be held at 9 a.m. on Feb. 14 for the Pottery Addition sewer project.

Shannan Gosbin, county water and sewer department director, said 9,800 lineal feet of gravity sewer lines will be installed serving about 110 houses and businesses. No pump stations will have to be built.

The county has received $2.2 million in grants and loans for the project.

The county is under an Ohio Environmental Protection Agency mandate to install the sewers because of a faulty community septic system that is allowing raw sewage to be dumped into the Ohio River.

The county will be entering a contract with Steubenville to treat the sewage from the sewer system.

Commissioners also signed a contract with Chesapeake Exploration to sell water for a gas well on state Route 152 outside Richmond.

Gosbin said water will be sold at $7.50 per 1,000 gallons. She said millions of gallons of water are used during the fracking process at a gas well.

County Commissioner Tom Gentile said the contract is one-time deal, similar to the county entering a water contract with Hess Ohio Resources to supply water to one well site.

"This is a one-time deal for one well. It may not suggest what we'll do in the future," Gentile said of selling water for other wells.

The $7.50-per-1,000-gallon rate is the county's normal bulk-water rate.

Commissioners signed two contracts for the Crestview-Belvedere sewer project. Rudzik Excavating of Struthers was awarded a $6.4 million contract for the installation of sewers. Utility Contracting of Youngstown was awarded a $2.5 million contract for the construction of pump stations.

The county has obtained $4.4 million in U.S.Department of Agriculture grants and $5 million in low-interest loans for the project that will serve about 330 homes. The assessment cost will be $6,500, plus the cost of removing the old septic tank and connecting the house to the main sewer line.

The USDA informed the county in January the project will receive an additional $550,000 in loans and $884,000 in loans to cover the cost of the project.

Commissioners also:

Signed a resolution authorizing the county auditor's office to resell $6.4 million in 2004 general obligation bonds at a lower rate, which will save the county about $25,000 a year in repayments depending on the actual interest rate at the time the bonds are sold.

Requested an opinion from the county prosecutor's office about the county water and sewer department charging the Jefferson County Regional Airport Authority labor costs to install a water line to new hangars under construction at the county's airport. The water and sewer department submitted a proposal of $9,958 for materials and $6,241 for labor. Questions were raised if the county should have to pay the water and sewer department for work on county property.

Heard from Thomas Underwood of the Laborers' union concerning the lack of local workers being hired for work at gas wells in the county and on jobs to improve roads prior to the drilling of wells. He said the local Laborers' union has qualified workers with a variety of skills who can be used in the local gas drilling industry. The commissioners had approved a resolution urging the gas industry to hire local workers.

Originally posted here:
Sewers, water top county meeting

SAMANTHA BRIX PHOTO | Lorraine O'Fee, lighting sales associate, and Will Bunton, sales associate, at Revco Eletrical Supply Inc. in Southold with a display of LED and CFL light bulbs.

The switch to energy-efficient light bulbs is increasingly common on the North Fork as people recognize the move’s money-saving benefits and bask in the bucks saved on their electric bills.

Light-emitting diode, or LED, light bulbs are up to 90 percent more efficient than traditional incandescent bulbs, according to the Energy Star program, and compact fluorescent light bulbs, or CFLs, are 75 percent more efficient.

In 2009, the typical annual energy bill for a home with incandescent lighting was $2,200, according to Energy Star. About 12 percent of that, or $264, goes to home lighting.

With CFL bulbs, your lighting bill could be cut 75 percent to $66. By using all LED light bulbs, your bill could diminish 90 percent to $26.

“For homeowners, CFL is the way to go,” said Matt Ghosio, branch manager at Schwing Electrical in Riverhead.

That’s because LED bulbs are more expensive up front — a 12-watt LED lights costs about $40, while a 13-watt CFL bulb, its equivalent, costs about $30 and an equivalent 60-watt incandescent bulb costs just $2.

“LED is a bit on the pricey side, so people are slow to adopt it right away because of the initial investment,” Mr. Ghosio said. “But we are starting to see more and more people use them.”

CFLs have become more prevalent in North Fork homes, he said, but some people complain that it takes up to three minutes for the bulbs to reach their maximum brightness.

Some also don’t like the colder look of the light CFLs cast. While incandescent bulbs have a warm orange or yellow tint, which is most desirable in homes, LED and CFL lights emit colder hues of blue, green or gray. Incandescents make homes, and even people, appear more attractive, Mr. Ghosio said. Those bulbs can be found in many supermarkets, too, as they make food look more appealing.

But the downsides of incandescents can’t be ignored. Up to 98 percent of energy consumed by incandescent light bulbs is wasted as heat, not light, according to the Energy Star program. A 60-watt incandescent bulb will last about 1,000 hours, while an equivalent CFL will last 10,000 hours and an LED will last 25,000.

“You could save a ton by switching over to LED versus regular incandescent,” said Lorraine O’Fee, lighting sales associate at Revco Electrical Supply Inc. in Southold.

The Long Island Power Authority offers discounts and rebates to commercial establishments that use Energy Star-qualified LED replacement bulbs and fixtures.

Nearly 50 businesses across Long Island take advantage of the program, including the Home Depot in Riverhead and Revco in both Riverhead and Southold, according to LIPA.

Ms. O’Fee said Riverhead Building Supply recently replaced all its incandescent bulbs with LED lights.

The company “was burning 34,400 watts, and now they’re using 10,358 watts,” she said. “They’re saving a ton and they’re getting more light.

“Commercially, it makes a huge, huge difference,” she added, since many lights are on throughout the day.

Energy-efficient bulbs make a difference in all types of indoor spaces, since the average American spends 90 percent of his or her time indoors, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. There’s no doubt lights are on for much of that time.

Ms. O’Fee said homeowners and commercial operations alike are increasingly opting for CFL and LED lights — and even halogen lights, which use 10 to 40 percent less energy than incandescent.

“It doesn’t make sense not to,” she said

sbrix@timesreview.com

Originally posted here:
Energy-efficient lighting trend gains traction on the North Fork

We are exhorted, vividly and unequivocally in bold block letters signed over a stairwell: BELIEVETH.

It’s almost the only hint of churchiness left in the former First Church of Christ Scientist on Capitol Hill, just reincarnated as The Sanctuary in a conversion to a dozen high-end townhomes. The stained glass windows feature geometric abstractions rather than religious motifs. The rest of the architectural flourishes could as easily belong to a bank or school building from the early 20th century. But BELIEVETH remaineth from the Christian Scientists, and it’s a worthwhile exhortation even for secular Seattleites.

Believe in community, in beauty, in architecture — you name it. Just go forth and honor it.

Whether this conversion will help us to believe more deeply in adaptive re-use is a good question. The architects and interior designers have done a lot of things right, and it’s decidedly a good thing to have an important and exquisite historic building preserved. But some things weren’t done right, and they’ve diminished the integrity of the original. It’s worth pondering them as wider issues in preservation, because they’re common practices that nobody seems to be questioning.

First, the good. The original building was designed by Charles Bebb and Louis Mendel, European-born architects who had the most prominent design firm in the Seattle of a century ago. Like most architects of the time, they worked in a wardrobe of styles from German Medieval to Mission Revival. This church, completed in 1914, is supremely assured but just-short-of-grandiose neoclassical revivalism.

It’s solid and stately, but its heroic stance is softened by restrained ornamentation. It’s a better building outside than the more talked-about First United Methodist, which is more pompous and less coherent.                     

The Sanctuary’s modern architects, the Runberg Architecture Group, and interior designers Robin Chell Design, preserved the shell of Bebb & Mendel’s church and essentially grafted a new residential compound inside it. There’s a central atrium under the great egg-shaped stained glass skylight, with swankly sculpted individual entrances to all the units on its perimeter. Wisely, Runberg raised the apparent ground floor of the atrium 12 feet so residents wouldn’t get that mouse-in-a-cathedral sensation.

The residence interiors are endlessly intriguing, featuring tall and skinny but often exhilarating spatial volumes. There’s stirring built-in wall decoration in the form of the church’s original pilasters with leafy Corinthian capitals, and a good variety of textures from exposed brick walls and stair treads recycled from fir flooring and oak pews. Wherever possible, the architects carved out decks and roof gardens. They weren’t afraid to give the units a strong vertical orientation; most of them are four levels deep—some five, counting their roof decks.

But now the problems, which begin in that atrium. There’s a wierd and intrusive visitor from the planet Mongo, a tall, oval-shaped fencelike structure made of colored resin panels, occupying prime real estate right in the middle of the space. Peer inside, and you’ll see there’s nothing but a pair of large mirrors, intended to bounce some of the light filtering through the skylight around the atrium.

Architect Michele Wang, Runberg’s principal in charge of the project, says the city building department insisted on something to keep human bodies out of the space directly below the skylight, just in case a quake might happen to shake loose a piece of glass. More fetching solutions such as a decorative pool were considered, Wang says, but fell by the budgetary wayside. It was a ridiculous requirement by the city, and the solution is antithetical to the classical logic of the original building. It’s like stuffing a Batman bookmark in a Bible.

The residences tend to be dark, which may discourage some buyers. The architects ingeniously remounted some of the stained glass windows on sliding tracks where they can move aside and expose clear glass windows, but many more remain fixed in place.

The result, unfortuntely, is many rooms that feel claustrophobic. Some, buried deep in the building’s bowels, have no outside exposure at all and interior “windows” to the atrium don’t much help. There was probably no good solution here; replacing the stained glass would have provoked existential howls from the preservation establishment. Light wells might have helped, but it wouldn’t have been easy to plumb adequate daylight all the way to the lowest floors.

In some places, pieces of new structure butt rudely into old, like a heckler interrupting a professor’s lecture on classical aesthetics. In one of the units a steel mezzanine rail smacks right into the middle of a pilaster. You wish it had shown a little respect. This is one of those things that happens all too frequently in renovations of historic buildings. The widely accepted philosophy is to clearly distinguish new construction from old, so there’s no cheap faux-historicism and the building forthrightly displays its evolution through time. This is as it should be, but too often in practice it plays out as the new simply dissing the old, the conjunctions between the two executed carelessly or gracelessly.

With all these conjunction issues, the four units on the building’s west side — the back alley, essentially — may be the most attractive in the complex. Since this back-alley facade didn’t have historic value, all the windows can be clear glass; and there are no built-in classical ornaments posed in uneasy counterpoint with the modern design theme inside.

These units also sport rooftop decks and views of Elliott Bay, no minor perk.

Is there a preservation lesson somewhere in this mixed bag? Yes, a couple. One is that building codes need to be flexible enough to let common sense prevail. The other is that projects such as this are absolutely worth the risk and nearly inevitable criticism, even though perfection is unattainable.

There’s a near-100 percent probability that if the church had been demolished, whatever modern condoplex replaced it would be a poorer building. That’s a hell of an indictment, but look around Seattle — and believeth.

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The architectural pitfalls of refitting urban churches

COURTESY PHOTO When NorthStar Construction Services moved from Leominster to Mount Laurel Circle in Shirley, it installed nearly 400 solar panels on the roof of its headquarters. The panels are expected to provide all power needed at the office.

SHIRLEY -- A local construction company with an emphasis on reducing its carbon footprint went one step further last month.

NorthStar Construction Services installed nearly 400 solar panels on the roof of its 20,400-square-foot headquarters.

NorthStar, a roofing contractor, moved to Shirley in May to allow for growth, according to its president and founder, John LaStella. At its previous facility in Leominster, solar panels provided 30 percent of the its electricity.

The panels on the current facility are expected to provide 100 percent of the company's energy needs, LaStella said.

In addition to the solar panels, LaStella said, the company had an energy audit that led to a change in lighting with new bulbs and motion-sensor switches.

"We also installed a new high-efficiency HVAC system, we participate in the Energy Star Program, we recycle all waste including as much as possible from job sites, and we operate our own fueling station to better manage fuel consumption and costs," he said.

The panels were installed by SouthPoint Solar of Leominster. Mike LaStella, SouthPoint's president and John's brother, said the estimated annual production for the system is 103,000 kilowatt hours, which would cover NorthStar's annual energy usage.

He said the cost of electricity is about 16 cents per kilowatt and the company would produce $16,500 of generated usage each year.

"The payback on this system will be four years, which includes

the full roof replacement," Mike LaStella said.

NorthStar Construction Services has received the Firestone Master Contractor status since 1998, the Inner Circle Quality Award and the Associated Builders and Contractors STEP Safety Award for the past 10 years.

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Roofing firm goes all-solar

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BRISTOL City boss Derek McInnes wants to further strengthen his starting line-up when the window reopens for loan signings next week.

McInnes recruited Stephen Pearson and Richard Foster on permanent deals from Derby County and Aberdeen and signed striker Chris Wood on loan from West Bromwich Albion before the January transfer window closed earlier this week.

Bristol City boss Derek McInnes.

But the incomings are unlikely to end there, with City's manager talking openly of adding another couple of players in the coming weeks.

And he is looking to strengthen his starting 11 rather than bringing in squad players.

McInnes has made public his desire to sign a short-term replacement for striker Nicky Maynard and is also in the market for a defender.

He said: "We are always looking and there were one or two things that might have happened before the deadline.

"But you have to understand a lot of clubs would rather sell players than loan them out in January. Now the January window has passed, there will still be players who are not getting a game and will be available for loan, while others are free agents.

"In the end, we did not get anything done before Tuesday, but as we were looking at loans anyway, it did not matter.

"But with the opportunity to get loans in from next Tuesday, we still have time to do something.

"I think it's important we add to the squad. We've lost Nicky Maynard and I think we're still short in a couple of areas.

"I'm trying to build the semblance of a squad that can serve us going forward and I think there are a couple of places that still need to be filled.

"We'll do all we can to bring these people to the club and, whether it's next week or the one after, we'll certainly look to do a bit of business."

Meanwhile, Liam Fontaine has made a quicker-than-expected recovery from the knee injury that has sidelined him since Christmas and is in line to face Leeds United in this afternoon's npower Championship clash at Ashton Gate.

McInnes said: "Liam has made a good recovery and has been training with the rest of the squad this week.

"He is available for selection and fit to play if called upon."

Midfield powerhouse Marvin Elliott was also expected to return to the squad after recovering from a hamstring strain.

"The medical staff have worked hard with Marvin and he was able to train with the other lads on Thursday and Friday," said McInnes.

Blackburn new boy Bradley Orr has no doubt Rovers' squad is up to the task of avoiding relegation from the Barclays Premier League this season.

The former Bristol City full-back joined Steve Kean's side on transfer deadline day after a frustrating lack of opportunities with QPR this season and could make his debut in today's trip to Arsenal. Orr watched his new team lose 2-0 to Newcastle at Ewood Park on Wednesday, a result that left them two points from safety, but the defender saw more than enough to be encouraged about their chances of survival.

He said: "It's really exciting. It's a very good opportunity for me to come to such a great club like Blackburn.

"After watching the lads perform, it's even more exciting because I thought they played really well and were really unfortunate not to get a win, never mind a result.

"It's a great new chapter for me and something I want to grab with both hands.

"I'm very optimistic about the remainder of the season."

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Bristol Evening Post commented Bristol City boss Derek Boss McInnes eager to tap loan market

THE NEIGHBORHOOD: Uptown, a historic district bounded roughly by South Claiborne Avenue on the north, Tchoupitoulas Street on the south, Toledano Street on the east and Lowerline Street on the west. It's such a huge area with so many distinct cultures that it includes neighborhoods such as Freret and Milan, Bouligny and Touro-Bouligny, Hurstville, Rickerville and more.

I choose a portion to explore near the intersection of Freret Street and Napoleon Avenue.

THE BLOCK: The 4400 block of Loyola Avenue on the odd-numbered, or north, side of the street, between Napoleon Avenue on the east and Jena Street on the west.

The Napoleon end of the block faces Samuel Square, one of the planned green spaces in Faubourg West Bouligny, developed by Samuel Kohn (hence the name of the square) and Laurent Millaudon (whose namesake is Laurence Square at Napoleon and Magazine Street).

I am just three blocks from Freret Street and tempted to call the neighborhood "Freret," but a couple of websites tell me I am just outside of its boundaries.

THE HOUSES: Five distinctive houses from the early years of the 20th century. Four are large, two-story homes in the Neo-Classical Revival style that dwarf the petite shotgun at the corner of Jena.

********

Freret Street has become such a stylish destination for dining, yoga, art, drinking and shopping that it's almost hard to remember that the Freret Market and annual Freret Street Festival used to be the main draws to the area.

But no matter how many burgers are grilled, pizzas are baked and cocktails are poured, the market -- from noon to 5 p.m. today -- remains an irresistible draw.

With yummy food offerings and dozens of artists' booths, it's a great way to enjoy the La Nina weather in early February. If you're there and in the mood for a walkabout, Samuel Square lies just three blocks away.

Anatomy of the block

The first stop, at the corner of Jena and Loyola, is a meticulously renovated shotgun with a side porch and entry shaded by a pretty pergola. The design is thoughtful: Pale-colored shutters on the front porch, the same over the side door; a criss-cross pattern over the panels on the front, the same for the wood railing on the side. A jolt of color from the entry door -- it's an unabashed tangerine -- provides the exclamation point to the understated composition.

Its immediate neighbor is a grand home with Neo-Classical Revival details. I can't say for certain whether the home is a single unit, but the single front door tells me that it was when it was built. A covered porch at the first level, and uncovered porch at the second, invite sitting, facilitated by the grouping of chairs I spot. On the first floor, Tuscan columns support the porch above; on the second, a balustrade stretches between short box posts with recessed panels. My favorite feature: the bold dormer on the hipped roof, extending forward from the roof ridge almost to the eave, and featuring a diamond-pattern window framed by millwork.

A lemon-buttercream confection appears on the right, a kissing cousin of its neighbor and replete with Neo-Classical Revival details. Common elements include the two-level porches, the second-floor balustrade, deep eaves and dormer windows. But it's the well-articulated gable on this house that distinguishes it. Forming a triangle of impressive portions and embellished with modillions, the roofline serves as a fitting crown to this beauty.

If only I had my hedge trimmers with me (and the permission of the owners) to prune away the greenery blocking the view of the green house I encounter next. It's tricky but, by maneuvering, I am able to catch glimpses of the home's glorious details and stitch them together into a coherent image. The house is a double, and each half has access to both the downstairs and the upstairs porches. To individualize each unit, roof features differ from one side to the other. On the left, I spot a gable with stucco and millwork strips. On the right, a hipped roof with a dormer. No imagination was spared here, from the square-within-square pattern of the porch railings, to the stained-glass dormer window, to the wonderful configuration of the glass panes in the transoms over the downstairs doors and windows -- all was done with the utmost attention to detail.

If the first three two-story houses were large, the fourth is a behemoth. I study it for awhile trying to figure out why it seems larger than its neighbors and realize that it is at least 50 percent wider. Whereas each unit in the double house on the left is one room wide, judging from the placement of windows and doors, here each unit has a hallway in addition to the one-room-wide living space. The plan is similar to that of a sidehall shotgun or a double-gallery townhouse. Although the tall, narrow, stained-glass window on the roof dormer enchants me, I find the dual front porches -- their roofs supported by a colonnade of Tuscan columns -- to be the home's most appealing feature.

Life on the street

In my years of Street Walking, I have met preachers, bowling alley owners, sultry singers and any number of fascinating people who make life in this city so astonishingly captivating. But today is a first.

Rebecca Taylor-Perryman is sitting on the front porch of the buttercream house, yellow hibiscus shrubs blooming in the yard in front of her. She is seeking solitude with her iPad but is too nice to send me packing when I begin barraging her with questions.

"I have only lived in this house since December, but I like it," she tells me, then explains that she was drawn here by love. "I moved in with my boyfriend."

A California native, she came to New Orleans for graduate school and will graduate in December. Her course of study? Archaeology, specifically the Upper Paleolithic.

Hmmm... does Paleolithic mean Stone Age?

"That's right," she tells me. "The Upper Paleolithic is late Stone Age, from 10,000 to 40,000 B.P." ("Before the Present.")

Her excavation site is in southwest France and is called "Peyre Blanque."

"White rock, for the flint that was used," she explains. "The site dates to about 14,000 B.P. and is contemporaneous with many of the cave paintings."

I ask her to spell everything for me so I can get it right.

"You don't need to write it down?" she asks. "You must have a very good memory."

Not really. But receiving an impromptu lesson on the Upper Paleolithic from an archaeology student while on an Uptown Street Walk is a rather memorable experience, wouldn't you say?

********

R. Stephanie Bruno can be reached at housewatcher@hotmail.com.

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Uptown homes are lovely on Loyola Avenue

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