Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

CLEVELAND (PRWEB) March 04, 2020

Universal Windows Direct, the nations fastest-growing replacement window company, recently hired a new Director of Media. Christine Wills brings a vast amount of media experience to the team, including working for WEWS TV5 and WKYC TV3 for 14 years combined. Wills experience is an essential addition to the corporate team at Universal Windows Direct as she oversees initiatives such as TV, radio, and other media.

My goal is to change the media landscape for Universal Windows Direct across all markets, said Wills. I look forward to the journey as we embark to bring all media in-house.

Wills was born and raised in the suburbs of Cleveland, spending the majority of her life in Brecksville and Broadview Heights. She has a BBA in Marketing from Kent State University as well as a real estate license. Her well-rounded background and excitement for the Director of Media position made her the perfect candidate for the role.

I was so excited and feel so blessed to have been chosen for the position of Director of Media, said Wills. I took this job because I saw how this company was changing and growing, and I wanted to be a part of that growth and change.

Universal Windows Direct is currently at spot number 10 in the nation on Qualified Remodelers Top 500. It also achieved spot number 870 on Inc.s 5000. The company experienced revenue growth of 489% over the last year and it opened numerous new locations around the country.

The mission of Universal Windows Direct is constant and never-ending improvement, providing its employees with a challenging workplace to grow professionally and personally. On the customer side, the company provides exterior remodeling products that improve the quality of homes and lives, all at the best market prices.

With a new Director of Media on staff, Universal Windows Direct looks forward to blazing trails in the industry throughout 2020 and beyond.

About Universal Windows DirectUniversal Windows Direct is an exterior renovation company based out of Cleveland, Ohio. It was founded in 2002 by William Barr and Michael Strmac, who had a mission to provide the highest quality home improvement products at the best market prices possible. Today, Universal Windows Direct is one of the fastest-growing home improvement companies in the country. The company offers exclusive UniShield replacement windows, UniShield vinyl siding, entry doors, and roofing.

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Universal Windows Direct Hires New Director of Media - PR Web

When is a historic old building not a historic old building? When its a historic new building.

The 1907 Tin Building, one of two surviving major structures of the celebrated Fulton Fish Market and the only one of the pair within a designated historic district, was painstakingly disassembled in 2018 and is now being recreated 32 feet east of its original location.

Thirteen years after the fish market was shuttered and moved to Hunts Point in the Bronx, more than 300 pieces of the utilitarian, neoclassical marketplace were salvaged and cataloged for reference or reuse by the Howard Hughes Corporation, the leaseholder of Pier 17 at South Street Seaport.

From the early 1800s until its closing in 2005, the bustling, odoriferous Fulton Fish Market was an integral part of the working East River waterfront that helped make New York City the powerhouse mercantile center of the United States. With fish arriving first by schooner and sloop and later by refrigerated truck, the venerable wholesale market grew to be the largest of its kind in the country, its nocturnal fishmongers hawking their wares through the wee hours as workers with hand trucks wended their way among alternating pockets of light and shadow on South Street.

After a complete reconstruction of Pier 17, a building of the same size and profile as the Tin Building is currently taking shape there. Yet this three-story edifice is not the reassembled Tin Building but rather a brand-new structure a meticulous replica that incorporates 92 salvaged elements of the storied relic but is otherwise composed of new materials on a new site, with a new interior configuration and new entrances on its eastern facade. In addition to being moved eastward, the building has also been raised six and a half feet to protect it from flooding. It is more Son of the Tin Building than the Tin Building itself.

Its a brand-new building with some historic detailing left that harkens back to what it was originally, said Cory Rouillard, an associate partner at Jan Hird Pokorny Associates, a historic preservation consultant on the project. She added that some of the salvaged pieces that were not reused in the new structure provided valuable information for the fabricators manufacturing replicated elements.

The Tin Building, an unfussy fish distribution center clad in corrugated metal and crowned by three ornamented pediments, was the fourth fish market building to occupy the stretch of waterfront between Beekman and Fulton Streets, bounded by what came to be called Piers 17 and 18.

The first was a one-story wooden shed built after an 1834 petition before the citys board of aldermen. The second, also a shed, stood upright by virtue of a few iron nails and a liberal plaster of fish oils, according to the seaport historian Ellen Rosebrock. The third, constructed in 1869 by the newly formed Fulton Market Fishmongers Association, was a two-story and loft structure topped with a spiffy cupola and a brass weather vane on which a bluefish swam the air currents.

When the Tin Building an archaic misnomer, as the market was actually sheathed in galvanized steel replaced it, the efficiency of the new structures design was greeted with giddy celebration by the fishmonger cognoscenti. For perfection of sanitary arrangements, shipping facilities and conveniences of all kinds, declared The Fishing Gazette, there is no market of any kind in the world which is quite its equal.

In the last 25 years, the resilient old building came under repeated assault from three of the four elements: fire, water and air. A 1995 blaze ravaged it, and after a partial restoration and the fish markets departure in 2005 for the Bronx, the vacated structure was flooded in 2012 during Hurricane Sandy.

The Tin Building also weathered controversial development proposals. One, pushed by General Growth Properties, Pier 17s previous leaseholder, and rebuffed in 2008 by the Landmarks Preservation Commission amid fierce neighborhood opposition, would have moved the old structure to the eastern end of the pier in favor of a new mixed-use complex that included a 42-story tower just outside the historic district. A later plan that also foundered and was put forth by Howard Hughes, included a 50-story condominium tower, later shaved to 43 stories, at the foot of Beekman Street that iteration also would have reconstructed the Tin Building some 30 feet east of its original site.

The current Tin Building project has not been free of controversy. Indeed, depending on ones views on the citys eternal struggle between development and preservation, the new Tin Building represents either the keystone of a revitalized Pier 17 and South Street Seaport district or the loss of an important physical vestige of the citys thriving past as a maritime commercial center. Or both.

The Tin Building is really the linchpin for the seaport, connecting the historic district and this historic building out to Pier 17, said Saul Scherl, the president of the New York tristate region for Howard Hughes. Its completing the missing hole in the middle. The historic district boundary runs jigsaw fashion through the pier, with the Tin Building lying within the protected area.

In 2013, Howard Hughes demolished the touristy Pier 17 shopping mall and replaced it with a sleek new four-story Pier 17 Building designed by SHoP Architects, which opened in 2018. Intended to attract New Yorkers, including the many nearby millennial residents, the 212,000-square-foot structure contains a rooftop event space, broadcast studios and restaurants like the Fulton by Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

The new Tin Building, also designed by SHoP, will be a 53,000-square-foot marketplace under Mr. Vongerichtens direction. In a nod to the fishmonger days, seafood will be purveyed, along with meats, cheese and produce, on the first two floors, which will be connected by an escalator. The third floor will be the commissary, where foods are prepared and stored.

The original Tin Building had long hunkered in the shadow of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive viaduct, which in 1954 was built rather rudely just two feet above the market buildings cast-iron-and-steel canopy on South Street. The developers main rationale for constructing the new Tin Building nearly 11 yards from the site of its progenitor was to raise the structure one foot above the 100-year floodplain, which would have been impossible on the original site because of the looming obstruction of the F.D.R. Drive above it. The move also opened up views of the Brooklyn Bridge from the East River esplanade.

Preservation groups were divided on the projects merits.

Although most of the buildings original fabric had been lost over the decades, the Municipal Art Society maintained that the structure should have been restored in situ using as much of the original material or surviving vintage replacement material as possible.

Whats happened over all over the decades in the seaport is a commodification and Disneyfication of its history, and the market continuing as a functioning fish market till 2005 can communicate some of that history to a visitor, said Tara Kelly, the groups vice president of policy and programs. Moving the market was a real loss to that neighborhood, and then moving the Tin Building is death by a thousand cuts.

The dismantling of the Tin Building and its replication on a new site has been a rare and extreme intervention for a structure within a historic district. Previously, only one other building relocation in such a district had been permitted by the landmarks commission. In 2008, the Hamilton Grange was moved within the Hamilton Heights Historic District from an awkward site on Convent Avenue to St. Nicholas Park.

In the case of the Tin Building, the commission determined that its relocation and elevation would substantially improve the resiliency of the reconstructed building and its site, and support its long-term preservation, said Zodet Negrn, a commission spokeswoman.

But Ms. Kelly maintained that the bar for relocation should be higher for buildings in historic districts. A building like the Tin Building within the context of the South Street Seaport Historic District in its location is important to maintain and protect because we have collectively all decided that its special by giving it this recognition, she said. So its not like any other building whose context can change and whose physical components can change without a very thorough and intentional process.

Alex Herrera, the director of preservation services at the New York Landmarks Conservancy, said that given all the damage the long-suffering Tin Building had endured, its a miracle it survived at all.

In a departure from the conservancys usual opposition to relocating historic buildings, the group supported the Tin Building project because it believed that the serious deterioration of the underlying pier had required the market structures disassembly.

This building has been built and rebuilt and rebuilt many times, so at this point the history aspect is the memory of it, Mr. Herrera said. Its redolent of the maritime commerce that the South Street Seaport was all about.

The original Tin Building was built by the Berlin Construction Company of Berlin, Conn., on a platform pier abutting the land. The full blocklong frontage of its ground floor was open to South Street during business hours, while rear doors on the water side gave access to fish cars, floating wooden containers where live fish were kept. (In 1945, the cars were replaced by a refrigerated shed, and in the 1980s a new, wider Pier 17 was built between what had been Piers 17 and 18, cutting off the buildings direct connection to the river.)

From earliest morn until after three oclock in the afternoon, wagons are stacked up in front of the market so deep that it is almost impossible to gain a passage through the tangle, reported the Fishing Gazette in 1907. There are heavy trucks bringing loads of fish from the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts and the Great Lakes of this country and Canada, and express wagons taking loads of fish which are shipped to all parts of the compass.

The market building was supported by a grid of slender cast-iron columns. The columns running east to west on the high-ceilinged ground floor separated the 18 fishmongers stalls, and each dealer had an office on a mezzanine at the rear. The second floor was used for dressing rooms and the third for storage of barrels and boxes.

In 1939, the fish market was expanded into a New Market Building northeast of the Tin Building. While great quantities of fish had been delivered by boat during the Tin Buildings early years, a report commissioned by the city noted that by 1953 some 90 percent arrived by truck.

Naima Rauam, a painter who from 1997 to 2005 kept a studio in the Tin Building in a second-floor storage space that she sublet from the Blue Ribbon Fish Company, made a close study of the structure.

During off hours it had this deep, dark mood, and it had a very refined feel, spare but graceful, said Ms. Rauam, who was the buildings only tenant not working in the fish trade. But five nights a week, from around midnight to dawn, it was a sea of blazingly bright lights, brighter than Times Square, so guys could work and commerce could take place.

In latter years, the columns of the selling floor were painted red, which Ms. Rauam said lent them a certain joyousness.

The buildings distinctive canopy, under which mini forklifts called hi-los deposited pallets of fish, was neither straight nor strong during the Fulton Fish Markets twilight years.

It had a gentle S-curve, Ms. Rauam said. There was a sense of stoic tiredness to it from a century of sheltering the fish from rain and snow.

Most of the cast-iron columns of that original canopy, as well as its steel beams and trusses, were salvaged and later reassembled, making that overhang the most intact historical component of the new Tin Building.

The cataloging of the salvaged columns helped the design team understand the typology of this gritty commercial building, with its 19 rows of columns running six deep from front to back. Of the 114 original columns, 32 have been incorporated into the new building. Behind the row of mostly original canopy columns, a second row was arranged by alternating the rough-surfaced original cast-iron columns with smooth steel replications.

At the rear of the ground floor, a mock mezzanine with a row of windows will recall the historic look of the old fish dealers offices.

By and large, the new Tin Building uses new materials. Whereas the original edifice was supported by steel beams atop the cast-iron columns, the new one is a modern steel-framed building with structural steel studs.

The corrugated exterior panels were originally made of galvanized steel, and a 2007 survey estimated that perhaps 30 percent survived. But rather than retain that material, the developer chose to replicate the siding in more durable aluminum.

What was fascinating is taking a building that was never precious in the first place and being really careful about what was there so we can hang on to that knowledge, said Ms. Rouillard, the preservation consultant.

Though much of the corrugated exterior was covered with new paneling after the 1995 fire, Ms. Rouillard said that her team found little time capsules of the original cladding behind the 1940s refrigeration unit that had been built along the eastern exterior wall. Documenting these relics helped the team replicate the amplitude and frequency of the corrugations. To estimate the panel widths, they consulted an 1890 trade catalog.

Most of the fabric of the original galvanized-steel pilasters survived, but these too were put aside and meticulously replicated in aluminum, as were the pediments and the cornice, which had been lost in the fire and replaced by fiberglass facsimiles. The intricate pediment ornamentation was recreated from stamped zinc, as on the original building.

A 2021 opening is planned, and as it happens, this is not the first time that a fish market structure has been moved from the site fronting South Street that the Tin Building occupied for more than a century. To make way for the Tin Building, its predecessor was temporarily relocated nearby in the late 1800s, and scheduled for demolition upon its successors completion.

When the Tin Building opened its doors in 1907, a man named Windy Donnelly mused about the doomed old market building in the pages of The Evening Post: The guy who wrote Destroy not the ancient landmark, will have a fit when he sees that old building, to the north of this new shack, a week from today.

But the case of the new marketplace under construction this winter on Pier 17 is more complex. It is anybodys guess whether that preservationist of yore would have considered the current Tin Building project the destruction of an ancient landmark or simply a happy reincarnation.

For weekly email updates on residential real estate news, sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @nytrealestate.

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A Slice of the Fulton Fish Market Gets A New Life - The New York Times

INDIANAPOLIS A bill aimed at promoting the use of mobile and modular houses passed through the House of Representatives over the concerns of some calling it support of an industry disguised as a solution to affordable housing.

SB 148, authored by Sen. Blake Doriot, allows modular houses to be placed in licensed manufactured housing communities but allows for local regulations and homeowners associations to create their own restrictions. The bill also prohibits placing manufactured housing in designated areas, such as historic districts.

In committee last week, Doriot, R-Syracuse, said that zoning related to manufactured housing has moved slower than other zoning laws, especially as older units aged out. As communities closed, older homes couldnt be moved without adequate notice, so the bill makes park owners give homeowners a 180-day notice.

Lets be honest, they werent as nice, they werent built to the standards that we have today, Doriot said in last weeks committee. If were going to close a park, we need to give notice so people can arrange to get their homes out.

This was the concern of Rep. Justin Moed, D-Indianapolis, on the floor Tuesday.

He said a mobile home park closed in his district containing mostly units from the 1970s and 1980s that couldnt be moved and he witnessed a family tearing down the home for scrap metal.

This will continue to happen as districts age out, Moed said. For some families, this is the best that they can do, the best to keep them from being homeless.

House sponsor Rep. Doug Miller, R-Elkhart, said that 22 million Americans live in manufactured housing.

In last weeks committee hearing, Ronald Breymier, the executive director of the Indiana Manufactured Housing Association, said the companies that built 11,000 manufactured houses in Indiana last year employ 10,000 Hoosiers. He said the construction of manufactured houses cost $50 per square foot compared to $120 per square foot for site-built houses.

You cannot tell the difference with our new mobile homes that are designed just like site-built homes, Breymier boasted. Its going to be very exciting for consumers because theyre going to have something they can afford.

Breymier said Ben Carson, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, is a fan of manufactured housing as a potential solution to the countrys affordable housing crisis.

Everyone in this room knows about our affordable housing crisis and todays manufactured homes are indeed a solution to affordable housing, Breymier said last week. The 2019 federal appropriations (bill) includes a provision for manufactured housing with local planning commissions (and) says that manufactured housing should be a part of that plan.

On Tuesday, Miller connected the shortage of housing with Indianas workforce, saying manufactured houses would be inspected at construction and comply with federal construction code.

Weve got an affordable home crisis in this state and its difficult to attract workers here if we cant provide affordable housing, Miller said.

Miller received opposition from Rep. Chuck Moseley, D-Portage, who questioned if municipalities wanted the legislation.

Did your cities, towns and counties come to you with this or are you carrying this for the mobile home industry? Moseley asked.

Miller said that he hadnt been approached by local government but hadnt received pushback from municipalities in his district either.

The bill now heads to the governors desk.

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Bill easing placement of manufactured houses approved by Indiana General Assembly - Goshen News

NEW YORK (CNN) In recent years, scientists have noticed an increased frequency of tornadoes in the Southeast, carving a deadly path in what's called Dixie Alley.

This region includes portions of eastern Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. Tornado Alley includes the area from central Texas stretching north to Iowa, and from central Kansas and Nebraska east to western Ohio, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

While Tornado Alley in the Great Plains still leads in the number of tornadoes, more are appearing in the South. And tornadoes shifting to this region can take a devastating toll.

Unlike the Plains, where a tornado can be seen coming from miles away, the South has more rugged terrain and more trees, making it more difficult to spot a tornado. Many tornadoes that occur in this area are "rain-wrapped," so they are less visible to the naked eye, CNN meteorologists say.

More heavily forested areas in the South leads to more trees being toppled by storms or turned into projectiles as well.

Tornadoes in the South tend to stay on the ground longer and move faster. Many storms in Dixie Alley are pushed by a stronger jet stream, which results in faster-moving storms.

It's not uncommon for a tornado in the Southeast to travel faster than 50 mph (80 kph). This puts more pressure on forecasters to get a tornado warning out in enough time for the public to react, CNN meteorologists say. Nashville residents had only minutes of lead time ahead of the deadly tornado that struck there Tuesday just after midnight.

Many of the storms occur overnight, when most people are sleeping and unaware that a tornado is approaching. Many homes in the Southeast lack a basement or underground shelter. In 2008, the US Census Bureau reported that only 10% of new homes included a basement whereas 75% of new homes in the Northeast and Midwest had a basement.

It's not an anomaly that tornadoes appear in the Southeast every year, but they present different vulnerabilities, Victor Gensini, a professor of meteorology at Northern Illinois University, told CNN last year.

"As you move east from Kansas to Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, the population density increases rapidly and we also have an issue in the Southeast of more mobile homes," he said. "If you get hit in a mobile home from a tornado, you're much more likely to be killed. You just have a really unique exposure and vulnerability problem."

Gensini was co-author on a study that started tracking tornadoes in 1979 and they observed a shift towards the Southeast around 2008.

Even though there are fewer tornadoes in Dixie Alley than in Tornado Alley, there have been more deaths in the Mid-South/Southeast region. That's because now they're occurring in more populated areas.

The average tornado fatalities were highest in Alabama with 14 deaths per year followed by Missouri, eight, and Tennessee with six deaths per year, according to the National Weather Service data from 1985 to 2014.

Although those states led in the average number of tornado fatalities, they were not the states with the most tornadoes. The highest annual average number of tornadoes were reported in Texas with 140, Kansas with 80, and Florida with 59, according to the weather service. Meanwhile, Alabama averaged about 42 tornadoes per year.

The-CNN-Wire & 2018 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

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Tornadoes in the Southeast are getting worse and they're often the deadliest - KSL.com

A violent and destructive tornado took a path nearly 50 miles long through downtown Nashville and its surrounding suburbs early Tuesday morning. Tornadoes are one of the most unpredictable natural disasters.

There is also a lot of misinformation and wives tales attached to tornadoes, which can put you or your family in harms way.

As we head into spring and summer where severe weather is a huge threat, we compiled a list of safety tips. Below you'll be find safety tips that lay out what to do before, during and after a tornado. WHAS11 News is also listed some facts about tornadoes from the National Weather Center.

What to do based on where you are:

House/Stand-alone building:

Mobile Home:

Apartment:

Car:

Miscellaneous Tips for Keeping Safe in a Tornado:

FICTION:Lakes, rivers, and mountains protect areas from tornadoes.

FACT:No geographic location is safe from tornadoes. A tornado near Yellowstone National Park left a path of destruction up and down a 10,000 foot mountain.

FICTION: A tornado causes buildings to explode as the tornado passes overhead.

FACT: Violent winds and debris slamming into buildings cause the most structural damage.

FICTION: Open windows before a tornado approaches to equalize pressure and minimize damage.

FACT: Virtually all buildings leak. Leave the windows closed. Take shelter immediately. An underground shelter, basement or safe room are the safest places. If none of those options are available, go to a windowless interior room or hallway.

FICTION:Highway overpasses provide safe shelter from tornadoes.

FACT:The area under a highway overpass is very dangerous in a tornado. If you are in a vehicle, you should immediately seek shelter in a sturdy building. As a last resort, you can either: stay in the car with the seat belt on. Put your head down below the windows, covering with your hands and a blanket if possible, OR if you can safely get noticeably lower than the level of the roadway, exit your car and lie in that area, covering your head with your hands. Your choice should be driven by your specific circumstances.

FICTION:It is safe to take shelter in the bathroom, hallway, or closet of a mobile home.

FACT: Mobile homes are not safe during tornadoes! Abandon your mobile home to seek shelter in a sturdy building immediately. If you live in a mobile home, ensure you have a plan in place that identifies the closest sturdy buildings.

Continued here:
Tornado Safety | Here's what you should do before, during and after a tornado to keep you and your family safe - WHAS11.com

Delhi, NY -- (ReleaseWire) -- 03/04/2020 -- The Robert O. Mable Agency is a popular and prominent New York-based insurance agency. This prestigious full-service insurance agency is especially renowned for offering home, business, and auto insurance in Hobart and Oneonta New York. The Robert O. Mable Agency is staffed with experienced and well-trained agents. These professionals try their best to ensure that their clients can avail of the best risk management solutions available.

The house is where people live with their whole family and create memories of a lifetime. It is also the place where they keep their most cherished and vital items. Hence, people must take the necessary steps to protect this valuable asset from significant risks. Investing in a home insurance plan is an integral aspect of doing so. Through Robert O. Mable Agency, people can typically invest in the most comprehensive plans for home insurance in Hobart and Walton New York. In addition to the typical primary, secondary, and seasonal homeowners' policies, through this company, people can also seek out risk management solutions for rental properties, mobile homes, vacant homes, and even homes under construction.

The experienced and efficient staff members belonging to the Robert O. Mable Agency have the competency needed to design any home insurance policy that fits any house in Delaware County. The professionals belonging to this agency take time to orderly know their clients and understand their requirements to offer the insurance solutions that are perfect for them. These professionals always enjoy meeting the diverse needs of their discerning customers, which includes reviewing their policies and providing them recommendations on where they can save money.

To contact the Robert O. Mable Agency to know more about the insurance plans offered by them, people can easily give a call at 607-746-2354.

About Robert O. Mable AgencyRobert O. Mable Agency offers premium risk management solutions to the people of New York. This company largely caters to the people of Delhi, Margaretville, Oneonta, and many of its nearby regions.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/robert-o-mable-agency-offers-cost-effective-plans-for-home-insurance-in-hobart-and-walton-new-york-1279910.htm

Press ManagerTelephone: 1-607-746-2354Email: Click to Email Press ManagerWeb: https://www.mableagency.com/

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Robert O. Mable Agency Offers Cost-Effective Plans for Home Insurance in Hobart and Walton New York - Insurance News Net

"At ten after one (a.m.) our phones went off, and we responded. I was the officer on call, so I responded [with] all my Red Deer district crew, and we got water and crew from Blackfalds and a crew from Sylvan Lake, and a Red Deer water tanker as well," said Fire Inspector for Red Deer County Scott Tuton.

At approximately 2:30 p.m. on Friday, Tuton said crews were officially underway in their investigation to see if they could determine a cause for the blaze.

"Our crews responded, we set up attack. We focused on the two adjoining structures, to save them but they were fully involved when I arrived on scene. We were able to save one, and the other [structure] we couldn't save, even with aninterior attack," Tuton said.

From the Blackfalds RCMP:

On Feb. 28, 2020, at 2 a.m., Blackfalds RCMP received a 911 call of multiple mobile homes on fire in Less Trailer Park located in Red Deer County, Alta.

Three mobile homes were on fire and Red Deer County Fire Services responded and evacuated neighbouring properties. Emergency medical services transported four personsan adult male, adult female and two male childrento hospital with injuries, including life-threatening injuries.

Red Deer County Fire Services continued to manage the fires until they were completely extinguished.

A search of one of the mobile homes was conducted at approximately 9 a.m., when the fire was completely extinguished.

RCMP were advised by fire personnel that one occupant, believed to be a 7-year-old female child, was located deceased. A search of the structures continues.

Blackfalds RCMP continue to investigate this incident with the assistance of investigators from the Red Deer County Fire Services.

No further information is available at this time.

Continued here:
Fire at mobile homes in Red Deer County claims the life of 7-year-old girl - LacombeOnline.com

One of the most prevalent human characteristics is to fit in, to be a part of something. The realms of fitting in can range from the immediate family life to giving in to peer pressure or societal expectations.

Trends have played a pivotal influence in the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, from attire to behavior to lifestyles. There are the rich and famous whose lifestyles we may envy, there are those whose home life may have forced them into alternative lifestyles not always condoned by society.

The evolution of music is testimony to the trends that have shaped and changed our lives. Elvis' lower body movements during his performances were always controversial - so much that his first television appearance showed only his waist up. The Beatles arrived in America and brought a mass evolution to the music world and are still considered the role model for the light-hearted rock and roll to the intellectual messages of a world in revolution and wish for world peace. Then came the heavy metal and acid rock of the 1970s to disco, classic rock, rap, reggae, alternative rock, alternative Christian, a new wave of traditional country music to the lighter rock and roll sounds that often were labeled cross over.

Last week's column addressed many of the fashion trends that have changed or been revised, updated and renamed over the years. Another trend was body decorating - otherwise known as tattoos. Tattoos were once considered taboo for anyone other than a sailor, but now it is rare to meet someone under 55 who hasn't fallen to boasting a permanent ink design on some part of their body. Who needs jewelry to offset their outfit when their entire body has designs to view and question?

Then body piercing came into the forefront of body decorations. Body piercing requires jewelry, of course, to highlight the holes in the eyebrows, nose, tongue, lips, ears and other body parts not needed named. Depending on the site of the particular piercing, the process requires specialized jewelry that certified body piercers are more than willing to offer. While ear piercing has been acceptable for many years, the latest trend is to put a hole in the ear, then insert a large ring that stretches the ear lobe and usually leaves a large hole if the ear adornment is ever removed just seems painful.

Even the transportation world has undergone its trends. The rise of gas prices launched the creation of smaller vehicles, the rise of NASCAR brought the muscle cars, the creation of all wheel drive and four wheel drives gave us the SUVs. Now we have multiple choices of environmentally safe vehicles ranging from electric cars, crossovers, controlled parking and sensors to warn if an object is too close. It's amazing that with all the new technology with the transportation world, automobile insurance continually rises based on the number of accidents in your particular area of the country rather than based on your personal driving record. Then came the popularity of ATVs and sporting areas to accommodate those die-hard adventurists who dared to go off the beaten path and make their own.

Trailers, otherwise referred to as mobile homes, spread to double wides and have now evolved into modular or manufactured homes that feature far more extravagant fixtures than many houses in that price range, and don't have the steep depreciation formerly associated with mobile homes of the past. The latest trend is the little houses that can used for a two-person family or as a separate living unit for single people and dealers that spring up in every vacant lot in the local area.

Reality TV has dominated the home viewers' selections of shows, launched by "Survivor" and copied in many other themed shows that offer an evening of bliss for adventurers and endless nights of monotone narrators and actors whose orchestrated discoveries lay the groundwork for season after season. Talent testing shows have also risen and fallen over the past years, with some lasting and some fading silently into the network's history books.

The world has undergone a multitude of changes since the Baby Boomer generation - some trends that have lasted, some that have made their debut and faded away almost as fast. Some trends have paved the way for future exploration and development, while others have simply marked "the signs of the times."

But regardless of the trend, I will always uphold two things in the fashion world - 1. Jeans, regardless of whether they cost $5 in a thrift store or carry a $500 price tag from a designer, are just that - jeans. Paired with a suit jacket or an expensive top or a $500 pair of boots, they are casual wear and are not dressy in the business world, and 2. Tennis shoes are tennis shoes and will never make the "Best Dressed" list with dresses, suits, and NEVER EVER with a tuxedo!

Nita Johnson is a staff writer at the Sentinel-Echo. She can be contacted njohnson@sentinel-echo.com.

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MY POINT IS... The Trouble with Trends, Part 2 - The Sentinel-Echo

PAGE COUNTY, Va. (WHSV) The Page County Sheriff's Office and Shenandoah County Sheriff's Office are each asking for information from people about a suspicious man driving a white work van.

A van was spotted in a Page County neighborhood Tuesday morning and reports have come in about two incidents in which a suspicious man approached children in Shenandoah County.

Report in Page County

According to the Page County Sheriff's Office, deputies got a report on March 4 that a white panel work van with the words "Free Candy" written on the side was seen on March 3.

A parent said that her children were outside playing when they spotted the van not far from their home, found it suspicious, and ran back inside.

The sheriff's office says the report came from the area of Luray Mobile Homes on Rt. 340 North, just north of Luray.

Deputies are planning to increase patrols in the area to ensure everyone's safety and are also working with Page County Public Schools so faculty can be vigilant as well.

But that's not the only area where a suspicious van has been spotted.

Reports in Shenandoah County

According to the Shenandoah County Sheriff's Office, they've gotten two reports of incidents involving a suspicious white man driving a white work van and approaching children.

Deputies say the first incident happened at a child care center, where a man was seen outside of the center, where children were playing. An employee approached the man and asked him to leave. At that point, deputies say he walked to a backfield near the center and continued to watch everyone that was outside. The child care center employees brought all the children inside and reported the man to law enforcement.

A second incident involved children playing outside near their homes when a man approached them, asking if he could play too, and then asked if they would want to leave with him to get a drink.

All of the children declined the man's request and instead ran to their parents or guardians, who then reported the incident to law enforcement.

The only description available for the man is that he's reportedly a white man between 45 and 50 years old, possibly driving a white work van and possibly with a white dog. Deputies have no further details to provide at this point.

Officials have not confirmed if these incidents were connected to the van seen in Page County.

What to do

Anyone with information about the van is asked to contact the Page County Sheriff's Office or Shenandoah County Sheriff's Office.

Law enforcement also wants to remind the public of the classic "see something, say something" mantra If you spot suspicious activity in your neighborhood, you're encouraged to report it as soon as possible. And speak to your children about recognizing suspicious behaviors.

Read more:
Deputies increasing patrols after reports of suspicious man in northern Valley - WHSV

As families, friends and a community looked and listened intently, the choir of Providence Baptist Church sang the gospel melody, Im Gonna Make It.

Through so many dangers and toils of this life, I have already come, the choir sang. But He keeps on giving the grace and the strength to just keep pressing on.

Families gathered who had loved for years and lost in only minutes. Families whose lives were forever changed by the events of a tragic day one year ago. These were the families of Beauregard and Smiths Station, Alabama, and they came together for a night of remembrance on March 3.

Twenty-three people from those two communities died on March 3, 2019, after an EF4 tornado tore across Lee County. So, people gathered in memory to honor those they cherished through spirit, speech and song.

Good to see you, said Rusty Sowell, senior pastor of Providence Baptist Church, as he shook hands of families seated in the front row of chairs filling the chapel.

People came to help us when we couldnt help ourselves, Sowell said after taking the podium at 6 p.m. before the congregation and first responders. Were here tonight to honor victims, to grieve families and to celebrate lives.

Earlier that evening at 5 p.m., they did so by breaking ground on a new memorial in front of the chapel. The memorial will commemorate the 23 victims, each with a black granite impression circling around a cross. Families of the victims dug 23 shovels into the ground as their names were called to perform the ceremony.

Its a symbol of the whole time moving through the recovery effort and people who came to help us, Sowell said. Its three tiers. The first tier has etchings of the victims names, dates of birth, date of death. The second tier has an expression of appreciation to all the volunteer fire departments and career units that came that day. The top tier has Beauregard Strong and the shadow of the cross.

The church is also seeking to build what will be called the Four Childrens Library, named after the four children who passed. It would be a repurposed train caboose or dining car, Sowell said, and would be a library promoting literacy among local kids.

Later, as Sowell opened the service, he welcomed the Rev. Laura Eason before the audience, who has been involved in the recovery effort since the day after the disaster. She began by allowing each affected family to light their own candle to pay tribute to their loss. Sniffles throughout the room preceded each lighting followed by thoughtful smiles after.

Please know your community is here to help you heal, Eason, chaplain of East Alabama Medical Center, said as she addressed the crowd. We live in an incredible place with an incredibly generous community.

As an EAMC employee, Eason was one of the communitys first responders, and she soon learned that 241 homes were destroyed, 140 were damaged and around 100 people were injured.

One of our first tasks, the hardest task by far, we coordinated with County Coroner Bill Harris, she recalled. [We] negotiate[d] with all of the funeral homes to make sure all of the 23 funeral expenses were covered, and we were even able to pay for the cemetery headstones and grave markers for all the victims.

Eason and other EAMC employees established MEND two days after the tornadoes, initially a hospital committee to handle immediate effects of the disaster that evolved into more of an organization that aims to rebuild Lee County, one life at a time.

What started as the hospitals way of helping with communication and coordination of recovery efforts so as not to have duplication morphed into a community-wide effort to bring hope and healing to our hurting neighbors, she said.

The group eventually reached out to 80 faith groups, various nonprofit organizations such as the American Red Cross and Team Rubicon and religious charities like Samaritans Purse and the Billy Graham Association. Eason said its strongest partner, however, was the Chattahoochee Fuller Center.

We partnered with the Chattahoochee Fuller Center to build 16 new homes, she said.

MEND is continually constructing new homes with the center, as well as with Samaritans Purse, which gifted 13 mobile homes in the area and built one house. MENDs goal is to have 32 houses built by the end of April. Some groups contributed to housing needs in other ways, such as the 10th Street Church of Christ, which provided furniture for new homes at a cost of about $3,500 per family, according to Eason.

We figured out that it cost $50,000 for the materials, and we used a lot of volunteer labor, Eason said. The professionals HVAC, plumbing and electrical we used the professionals to come in and do that, and they were able to do it at cost or donate their time.

All of this came free to displaced residents, who did not have to pay a mortgage because of the Fuller Center, she said. But Eason attributed much of her gratitude to the centers director, Kim Roberts, who followed Eason in sharing her stories of involvement in Beauregard and Smiths Station.

We built 11 houses in the hottest week of the year, Roberts told the congregation. That was a joy building all those homes in the midst of the heat.

The Fuller Center had some experience building homes from previous relief efforts, but the March 3, 2019, recovery brought on some all-new challenges. MEND requested that the organization initially build three houses in a month, when the most it had built before was four in a year.

Three houses went to six, six houses went to eight, eight houses went to 16, Roberts said. 16 sponsors came forward and paid for every house.

She added that 320 volunteers from 24 states assisted in the construction process.

Following these updates, Rick Lance, executive director of the Alabama State Board of Missions, appeared to provide encouraging words to the community. His speech consisted of describing to listeners what you do when you dont know what to do, a feeling he connected with losing his father at age 18.

He said this made him learn to cry as someone who was told avoid crying growing up.

I think, and this is presumptuous, if the 23 people who passed could be here tonight, they would be very proud, Lance said.

Those in the audience who were directly affected by last years events said they were grateful for the evenings proceedings.

Things are still kind of hard. They dont get easy at all, said Sara Crisp, who lost someone close on March 3, 2019. With ceremonies like this that happen, everyone involved is still recovering.

First responders faced their own considerable adversity in taking immediate action in the wake of the tornadoes. Mike Holden, fire chief for the Beauregard Volunteer Fire Department, said his team was thankful for their recognition but feel the families are priority.

No amount of training, no amount of planning could ever prepare you for what we walked into, he said.

I hope this has brought closure for a lot of the families, Holden said. I know its been hard on a lot of them.

The Providence Baptist Church choir concluded by singing another gospel piece, No More Night, in front of a now reassured gathering of people on what was a difficult day to remember.

No more night, no more pain, the choir sang. No more tears. Never crying again.

Here are the names of those who were remembered:

Jonathan Marquis Bowen (2009)

Vicki Joyce Braswell (1949)

Sheila Ann Creech (1959)Marshall Lynn Grimes (1960)

David Roaddog Dean (1965)

Armando Aguilar AJ Hernandez, Jr. (2012)

Emmaniel Jones (1965)

Jimmie Jones (1929)

Mary Lois Jones (1935)

Mamie Elizabeth Koon (1950)

Charlotte Ann Miller (1959)

Irma Del Carmen Gomez Moran (1977)

Ryan Wesley Pence (1997)

Maggie Delight Robinson (1961)

Raymond Robinson, Jr. (1955)

Teresa Griffin Robinson (1956)

Eric Jamaal Stenson (1980)

Florel Tate Stenson (1956)

Henry Lewis Stenson (1953)

James Henry Tate (1932)

Taylor Lillian Thornton (2008)

Mykhayla Latrice Waldon (2010)

Felicia Renee Woodall (1996)

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'Healing': Beauregard mourns lives lost in tornadoes last year - The Auburn Plainsman