Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

When Shellie Faris was going to Hastings College in the 1990s, one of her classes wanted to celebrate the end of the semester with a coffee shop.

There werent any coffee shops in Hastings at the time. Local artist Dave Stewart offered his gallery space at First Street and Denver Avenue for the classs celebration.

Stewart was accommodating, and ready and willing to play host.

Now, nearly 30 years later Faris, her husband, Tim, and their children: Abbie, Max and Monte are transforming the space at into a different gathering area.

Shellie is a general surgeon with Mary Lanning Healthcare providing medical services through Central Nebraska General Surgery.

Working with local contractors, the Faris family is renovating the upper level into living space for their family and the ground floor into a board game caf entrance comes with a small day fee.

Dave was excited because its still somewhere where people can go hang out, Shellie said.

Stewart gave them a jigsaw puzzle he completed depicting different board games.

Our family likes to play board games a lot and we already had quite a large collection of them, Abbie said. We thought we might as well share it with people.

The Faris family now keeps its stacks of board games in the coolers of what was once Phelps Liquors. No longer used to cool beer, the large glass standing containers with shelves make a perfect storage space.

They family found and enjoyed board game cafs in other cities.

We want to be able to contribute something neat to Hastings, Tim said.

They look at the board game caf as a space for teenagers to hang out.

They plan to offer a limited food menu, but also allow food in from other restaurants.

Were trying to do something that adds to downtown and doesnt take away from whats already there, Tim said.

The Faris family has been working with the Community Redevelopment Authority to meet guidelines for renovated downtown spaces.

Construction crews are restoring the faade to its original appearance with tall windows.

The Faris family members relish any connection to the buildings past lives.

They chuckle when they are asked about their timeline.

Were hoping some of us are living here by March, Shellie said.

They hope for the board game caf to be open by the summer.

Their house sold in October 2019, so they have been living with Shellies parents in Hastings since then.

The Faris children have been working nights and weekends, pulling plaster and nails.

My aunts and uncles and parents have all been over here painting and scraping, Shellie said.

Tim joked that his children have learned how much fun brick scrubbing is.

Renovating the space that is just feet from the BNSF Railway and has had many uses over the last 100-plus years, the Faris family and construction crews have uncovered a lot of history.

They pulled out a letter from the wall written in 1894 in Danish.

The space was once home to the Hastings Hotel and Restaurant. A construction crew member found an old railroad security badge.

Its fun finding neat, old things, Tim said.

As work progressed on the living space they found layers of brick missing in the wall that created pockets for scaffolding.

As we got the plaster off the walls we exposed those holes, Shellie said.

Construction crews exposed a big wall mural when taking down drywall.

While the Faris family looked at other downtown spaces before deciding on 601 W. First St., there was never any question what neighborhood they would locate their board game caf or their new home.

Being within walking distance to the movie theater, coffee shops and restaurants was just too enticing.

The whole downtowns being revitalized, which is pretty nice and its nice to have a pizza place down the street, Tim said.

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A place to hang - Hastings Tribune

More overland flooding as seen in B.C. and other parts of Canada is a future reality and will pose risks to existing and future properties, infrastructure and community plans as climate change causes sea and river water levels to rise and increases precipitation and storm events.

Flooding is only going to intensify in coming years, said Veronica Owens, a presenter at this years Buildex Vancouver and project manager, sustainability and energy for WSP Vancouver, where she has managed multi-disciplinary climate resilience and adaptation projects with local municipalities.

Projected climate data for 50-80 years forward exists and sustains the threat of more flooding in areas at risk, she said. What is pretty critical to look at is how we are building today as these structures will be around for 75 years and be impacted directly by the future changes of climate change, she said.

While that data is available, she said, it is not something that contractors and developers are readily incorporating in their building design and plans. One of the shortfalls in the system, she said, is when looking at flood risk either through building codes or local municipal requirements, these are often based on past historical data which established the standards for how and where to build. These standards may fall short of future needs.

We know that historical data no longer applies. In the past we have had a stable climate there is instability in the climate now, she said, adding that scientific data collected based on emissions and weather changes realized are painting a new reality.

Owens said it is important that the construction and development industries look to this new projected data as it will impact all phases of construction from conception through to life of the building. It will also impact how municipalities view developments and their own infrastructure as well as the operational cost of buildings not designed to withstand the changes coming, insurance coverage, and the vulnerable or those people who must abandon their homes because of more and greater flooding.

Thats a good question, said Owens, when asked what level of government is responsible for ensuring that building standards reflect the coming impact of climate change. Owens said the provincial government maps flood plains and the municipalities provide construction standards, but the information provided may not be the most current.

It is this new projected data on flooding and its impact on the construction and development industries that Owens and associate Vincent Cormier will share at the Buildex session Resilience in the Built Environment and a Spotlight on Overland Flooding (W25) on Feb. 12 at the Vancouver Convention Centre West. Cormier is a lead hydro technical engineer for WSPs Power Group in Western Canada.

Currently, B.C. relies upon dykes along rivers and the coastal areas as a main line of defence for rising waters. Dykes can give a false sense of security, he said, as occurred in Quebec where a dyke breach led to major flooding.

Cormier said there are lessons to be learned from the Quebec City suburb Sainte-Marie which has been heavily hit by flooding both in 2014 and twice in 2019 causing 200 residents to be relocated and homes to be abandoned.

However, a factory did not want to relocate its warehouse in Sainte-Marie area. Cormier said the project now underway is building resilience into that warehouse to sustain future flooding and he will discuss some of the options in making structures more flood-resilient.

While Quebec, Alberta (2013 major flooding of the Bow River), Saskatchewan (2019 flash flooding) have all been hit by flooding, so have B.C. points such as Prince George, Grand Forks, Chilliwack, Osoyoos, Mission and Delta.

Owens said that knowing how climate change data will impact precipitation and water levels will also help municipalities in preparing their own infrastructure to deal with an emergency situation such as flash floods as well as plan their resources so that municipal staff can respond.

The session by Owens and Cormier will include structural and non-structural mitigation strategies and adaptive measures for high-risk developments as well as understanding when to retreat from an area.

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Overland flooding is a reality of future construction - Daily Commercial News

City of Melbourne officials, including Lord MayorSally Capp, have formally referred the paintbombing incident in the iconic Hosier Lane to police, as investigations into just who was behind the incident and why it was committed ramp up.

Earlier, footage of the paintbombing emerged, showing a group of men wearing masks descending on the iconic street art mecca and almost completely covering it with paint; the group using fire extinguishers loaded with paint to spray across the laneways walls while a small film crew captured their efforts.

The incident was also filmed by bystanders at around 7:30pm on Saturday evening, and has since been shared across social media.

In a short media press conference earlier this afternoon, Mayor Capp asserted that the City had registered a complaint with Victoria Police, claiming that damage done to the laneways cobblestone pavements was significant.

On social media, Capp went further, calling the incident an act of vandalism, and stated that the act was not in keeping with the spirit of Hosier Lane.

This afternoon, police officers were spotted exiting Culture Kings, which is located in the laneway itself. Police officials also confirmed via statement that an official investigation was underway.

The statement confirmed that a criminal damage incident was being investigated, and urged anyone who may have witnessed the incident to come forward.

Its worth noting here that this isnt the first time something like this has taken place. In 2013 artistAdrian Doylepainted the entire Rutledge Lane, which connects to Hosier Lane, in blue paint, in a project that was not only spurred on by the corporately-funded Street-At-As-Advertisement phenomena which has again become a more prominent feature of Hosier Lane in recent years, but in a project that actually had City Of Melbourne backing.

The project was designed as a reset of the laneways art culture, was aimed at encouraging new artists to step up and fill the suddenly blank spaces, and even included painting ground-level surfaces, including pavement and cobblestones.

This most recent act in Hosier Lane, however, is a much more sinister, criminal. At least as far as City of Melbourne officials who, unlike the 2013 project, did not permit it are concerned.

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City Of Melbourne Officials Have Called The Cops On The Hosier Lane Paintbombing - Pedestrian TV

Auckland Council spends millions each year removing graffiti from across the region nearly four times what Wellington and Christchurch councils spend combined.

That war on graffiti has stifled creativity and left a bland, soulless city in its wake, a prominent street artist says.

Auckland Council pays contractors about $4 million a year to get rid of graffiti, according to figures supplied under the Official Information Act.

RYAN ANDERSON/STUFF

An Artifex piece on the Mercury Theatre building in central Auckland.

Wellington City Council spent $450,000 in 2018 and in Christchurch, where a vibrant street art culture is emerging, the council spent $800,000.

READ MORE:*Auckland street artist says he could face criminal charges over K' Rd mural*Auckland Council's $20m spend on graffiti removal comes under fire*In pictures: Auckland street artist AresArtifexbrightens up the city*Emerging Mangawhai artist Mark Graham transcends his tagging past*New Zealand street art gets a global platform

Until July 2019, Auckland Council employed controversial private investigators Thompson & Clark the private eye firm atthe centre of a State Services Commission inquiry into their work spying on anti-government protesters to catch graffiti vandals, but had no idea how many were prosecuted.

The totalcost of that contract to the ratepayerwas $600,000.

North Shore street artist Jesse Jensen, 34,known under theartist name ofAresArtifex, said the policy made it hard for street artists to find places to paint.

"Art is proven to be one of the most effective measures at improving mental health, our city and suburbs could be way more beautiful and full of street art improving the quality of lives of all Aucklanders," he said.

Auckland Council told Stuff it differentiates graffiti from street art through permission status; if permission has not been sought from the buildingowner, the council considers it to be graffiti.

"We mitigate the risk of this by ensuring our contractors have an updated 'do not remove' list. We work with our contractors to take a common-sense approach to removal," it said in a statement.

"If the item is a mural or a work that appears to havesome artistic merit but does not appear on the 'do not remove list', we will then check with the asset owner to see if permission has been granted to that artwork or not."

MURRAY WILSON/STUFF

Street art movement: In Palmerston North, ten international artists and 40 local youth are painting 20 large scale murals around the city this month. Auckland artist Charles Williams works on his mural on the FMG building on Jersey Lane.

But Jensen said that was not what happens in practice; contractors are paid per removal and he has seen plenty of examples where contractors deface or paint over perfectly fine art.

According to council figures, contractors remove at least 40 worksof illegal graffiti for every incident that is reported, a 100 per cent increase from the contracts awarded before 2019.

While the council does not have an anti-graffiti policy, it does use the2018 Quality of Life survey as a reference.

That found 41 per cent of Aucklandersperceived graffiti as a problem in their area and 35 per cent of Aucklanders highlighted vandalism as being a problem.

To address the street art movement, the council said it connectedartists with business associations and sponsors work across the city.

It has supported youth-led organisations with materials and expertise to bring their work to life, in places such asthe 312 Hub in Onehunga and The Corner.

But Jensen said what was happening at street level was much different.

SUPPLIED/JESSE JENSEN

A wall in New Lynn, Auckland painted by Jesse Jensen and fellow street artist.

It costs $570 to make an application to the counciland young artists can't afford that, particularly whenthe common response is "no", he said.

Jensen wants the council to open up alleyways, water tanks and the thousands of concrete areas around the city that could cultivate art and expression.

"In so many great cities around the world, Sydney, Brisbane, Berlin, London, the council encourages public space to be colourful and an expression of the community they get it," he said.

"Wellington, Christchurch, Whangarei, Tauranga, are doing it, but Auckland isn't there yet.

"We will get there, it will take a bit more time but I've got hope I don't think old ideas can stay around forever."

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Auckland Council spends $4m on graffiti removal, but is that how our streets should look? - Stuff.co.nz

Idris Khan is riding the crest of a wave. Still only 41, the British contemporary artist has been displayed in institutions including the British Museum in London and the Whitworth in Manchester. In November, he unveiled a significant public sculpture, 65,000 Photographs, on Londons South Bank.

As well as being supported by two top dealers, Victoria Miro in London and Sean Kelly in New York, he received an OBE in 2017 a year after he unveiled a vast public war memorial in Abu Dhabi.

His personal life also looks rosy. Khan is married to the sculptor Annie Morris, with whom he has two young children, as well as sharing a gracious, white-walled studio in Newington Green, north-east London. Its there that we meet; Khan tall, lean and bearded in dark jeans and zip-up jumper walks me through Morriss studio, which is dotted with frail, vibrant towers of spheres, into his own space.

A surprise awaits. Khans one-dimensional works have traditionally been starkly monochrome, often shimmering with lines of tiny text. But these paintings are done in deep, glowing blues, sometimes alive with whirling gestural strokes. Here and there, black musical notes erupt on to the white space, as if determined to be heard over the abstract roar.

To my eyes, these works, entitled Large Rhythm Paintings, are as powerful as any Khan has made. Yet when I exclaim my appreciation, Khan responds with modesty. Im always learning, he says. I dont want to seem overconfident in what I do. He goes on: All these things are a progression.

A clutch of Khans blue paintings have already been seen at Sean Kellys New York space last May. Now they are to take centre stage in a solo booth with Victoria Miro at Frieze Los Angeles. The shift in style began when Khan started working on gesso panels, which he sanded back to create what he describes as a beautiful smooth surface.

Khan points to two paintings on the other side of the room, featuring black-blue panels plain at a distance but laden with illegible text when you draw near. Their intensity casts a spell over the space, as if Mark Rothko had found inspiration in a Renaissance Madonna.

The Large Rhythm Paintings emerged from Khans long-held fascination with musical scores. First, he colours scans of the scores with washes of watercolour paint, before photographing the results. Then he paints over each C-type print with an ultramarine oil stick, using fluid, gestural strokes a process he describes as writing over writing. Its as if Khan is speaking more freely from his unconscious than ever before.

As for the blue, Khan says at first that it was prompted by being married to a sculptor who used it all the time. But theres more to it than that. Having worked for so long in monochrome, Khan was finding himself increasingly frustrated, because we dont see in black and white. What he wanted to find, he says, was a colour that could give me that same feeling, that spiritual quality as his work in black and white.

Khans spiritual heritage is a significant strand in his work. Brought up a Muslim hes no longer observant he grew up in Walsall. His Pakistan-born father was an orthopaedic surgeon, his Welsh mother a nurse and amateur pianist. His Islamic roots manifest themselves in various ways.

Early on, Khan developed the idea of photographing the pages of texts he loved, such as Beethovens piano sonatas and Roland Barthes Camera Lucida, then compressing them into abstract images, layer upon layer. Then his father suggested he do the same with the Koran.

The work, made in 2004, won critical acclaim. When Khan took it to Karachi to show his family, he also showed it to religious leaders, who were taken by its beauty.

Khan says he enjoys being able to dip in and out of his heritage. Aware that he possesses the empathy to work with Islam, hes also conscious that his identity acts as a licence to make certain kinds of work.

He doubts that someone with a western name could have made the Koran piece, for example, or been commissioned, as Khan was, to build a memorial to the war dead of the United Arab Emirates. That sculpture, unveiled in 2016, is constructed from seven aluminium-encased steel tablets; 23m high, they are cast with poems by emirs of the UAE.

The country is known for its problematic record on human rights and treatment of migrant labourers, and also participated in the Saudi-led coalition that has led attacks against the Houthi population in Yemen, causing brutal civilian suffering since 2015. Did Khan have qualms about any of this?

He tells me that when he accepted the project, he was very aware of the countrys issues with human rights. But he was also intrigued by the challenge of creating a big sculpture the memorial comes in at a whopping 42,000 sq m and made every attempt to verify that the contractors working on his project received decent treatment. Ultimately, the artist hopes the work will be understood as a monument not just to the regions soldiers, but to anyone who has ever lost anyone.

Listen to the film-maker discuss love, divorce and how Netflix is changing movies in the new episode of our Culture Call podcast. Plus: the FTs film critic on everything you need to know about this years Academy Awards

The subject has a personal resonance. In 2010, Khan lost his mother when she was just 59 years old. A little afterwards, he and Morris suffered a miscarriage. It was like a loss and new life, and that was taken away from us as well, he reflects, sucking in his breath at the memory.

His work, which had expressed notions of erasure and impermenance, now took on a new, private intensity. I would come into the studio and write down all the feelings I was going through, he recalls. I started making rubber stamps of that text and stamping and stamping...he pauses. It was a cathartic process, like chanting.

Like any good abstract expressionism, the new paintings succeed in conveying profound human feeling while also refusing reductive explanations. Khan gestures at the pristine white paper sandwiched between the bands of colour: For me, the most present thing in the paintings became the spaces between the painting.

Follow @FTLifeArts on Twitter to find out about our latest stories first. Listen to our culture podcast, Culture Call, where editors Gris and Lilah dig into the trends shaping life in the 2020s, interview the people breaking new ground and bring you behind the scenes of FT Life & Arts journalism. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

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Idris Khan on his spiritual heritage and the power of colour - Financial Times

Missouri S&T will host the annual Missouri Concrete Conference May 5-6 in the Havener Center on the S&T campus. Conference registration is $160 per person.

Presentations at the conference are divided into four major categories: pavements, pavement construction, ready mix operations, and buildings and structures. Conference topics will include: avoiding common driveway issues, tilt-up construction, proper sawing techniques, paver vibrator problems and solutions, deicer-sealer compatibility, Missouri concrete overlay performance, compacted concrete pavement, sand and gravel availability, shrinkage compensating concrete, new admixtures, proper dosage and application of fibers, achieving rapid strength gain and durability, KCCMB/EMPC specifications, proper specification of concrete classes on a building project, special inspections of buildings, MoDOTs sand classification system, CP Tech Center update, I-435 design-build project, Bagnell Dam Rehabilitation project, and MoDOTs current research.

Participants could earn certificates for approximately 10 personal development hours.

Organizers say the conference will be of interest to building and paving contractors, public agencies, consulting engineers, testing labs, aggregate producers, ready mix, cement and admixture suppliers, and equipment technical representatives.

Additional information, including a complete listing of presentations, is available online at concrete.mst.edu. For registration and sponsor information, contact Missouri S&Ts office of professional and continuing education at 573-341-6576 or pce@mst.edu.

For technical information, contact Dr. David Richardson, associate professor emeritus of civil, architectural and environmental engineering at Missouri S&T, at 573-341-4487 or richardd@mst.edu.

Continued here:
Missouri S&T to hold Concrete Conference this spring - Missouri S&T News and Research

To the Editor:

In the story headlined Wartrace, resident spar over driveway by Terence Corrigan (Times-Gazette, Saturday, Feb. 1), concerning the Dec. 19 Wartrace town hall meeting, the paper stated Eddie Carroll disagrees with the Town of Wartrace over who should pay for repairs to his driveway. This matter had not been discussed with us.

Town Hall had set up a meeting with us for Feb. 20 to discuss this matter. If there was a spar going on, I did not know it. Town Hall had already admitted we had a big water problem and it was not our fault, and they would discuss the driveway on Feb. 20 at the meeting.

My wife and I are very upset at this time. Why were we not at the meeting? Especially with the press being there to speak for ourselves? The Mayor and Aldermen meet on the 4th Monday of the month.

The reference in the article made that I had been there on Dec. 19 and serenaded them in a rich baritone singing The Christmas Song made it seem as though I was sucking up. Everyone knows this is something I have done for years at banks, businesses and doctors offices. The article then makes it look as though the song was a prelude to my flattering Town Hall to repave driveway by reading: (Carroll) seemed pretty sure that the town was going to accept responsibility for the damage to his driveway.

Why was all this discussed and put in the paper without us getting to discuss or offer a rebuttal at the same time? Why schedule to meet with us almost a month later? Our town is in bad shape, is this what things have come to? I think that write up was awful in the way it was handled. Again, I was not aware of a spar but if that is what you want then OK.

Things like this are why there are so many dissatisfied people in the town of Wartrace. You have already admitted the water problem in our yard was the citys fault, why would the driveway not be? We have potholes, cracking, washing away of the pavement from the water running down the driveway from the road, and each side of us. This does the same thing to a driveway as water does to a highway.

Everett and Margaret Carroll

Wartrace

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Letter to the Editor: Wartrace driveway issue (2/7/20) - Shelbyville Times-Gazette

In 2007, water quality concerns in one lake among the (far) more than 10,000 that Minnesota is known for would become the spark that led to the largest stretch of permeable pavement in North America by 2009. Now, officials are hyping permeable pavement a type of pavement that lets water flow through it rather than pooling on top of it as a potential way to reduce ice without using road salt.

What started as one project to improve water quality in Lake Owasso in Shoreview, Minnesota, a Twin Cities suburb, has since blossomed into a more common practice in the city, landing Shoreview in the international permeable pavement spotlight.

It was designed to solve the stormwater management problem, says Mark Maloney, Shoreviews public works director. We collaborated with the University of Minnesota and private industry, which was a pretty amazing collaboration for the time. We learned that there were suggestions that permeable pavement in colder climates had the potential to be somewhat self-cleaning when it came to snow and ice accumulation.

While permeable pavement is more common in countries like Sweden and has been deployed to manage rain in cities like Portland, its a technology that has been less embraced to manage icy conditions thanks in large part to the extremely low cost of road salt only $70 per ton in Minnesota.

It may be inexpensive, says John Gulliver, a professor and researcher at the University of Minnesotas Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering who specializes in stormwater pollution prevention. What isnt considered, Gulliver says, is the downstream costs of chloride-based road salts, which rust cars and contribute to the erosion of bridges. That cost is up on the order of $1,400 per ton of rock salt, he says. The problem is that cost is distributed to other sources than those laying down the road salt.

While its unlikely permeable pavement will ever completely eliminate the need for road salt, Gulliver sees it as a viable option for expanded use outside of the parking lots, driveways, and other low traffic applications its often limited to in most Minnesota cities today. My opinion is that what were most worried about is ice. With permeable pavement, though, the water moves right through it so you may not have as many ice conditions as we have currently, he says while also advocating for other solutions such as applying heated sand as part of a diverse approach to winter road management.

There are places like Shoreview where they have been putting in a lot of permeable pavement and theyve realized that in some places they dont need costly infrastructure like stormwater sewer systems, Gulliver says.

Shoreview, thus far, is pleased with how its permeable pavement is holding up in winter. After four Minnesota winters of dramatically differing duration, precipitation, freeze-thaw cycles, soil moisture levels, and snowplow events, we are quite pleased with the performance of this pervious concrete roadway/drainage system. It is being used as intended with no unusual operational issues to date, Maloney wrote in 2013. The pervious concrete pavement in the Woodbridge Neighborhood is functioning as intended and still stands as the most successful example of the use of pervious concrete for public roadway infrastructure.

When asked why this project was so successful, Maloney first credits Shoreviews supportive political climate and a demand for environmental considerations among community members before reflecting on how the project was rolled out. One element that stands out in Maloneys mind was the outreach and education efforts the city engaged in.

Since adopting a winter road maintenance policy based on a model created by the St. Paul-based Freshwater Society in the early 2000s, we try to tell the public that we wont be managing your roads the way MNDOT manages freeways. They should expect clear pavement on the freeways, but in a cul-de-sac thats probably not necessary, Maloney says and the same goes for its six permeable pavement locations in residential areas scattered throughout the city.

After Shoreviews first permeable pavement project in 2009, the city sent out mailers to tell neighbors about their permeable streets and what they can do to help it function sustainably, like not blowing dirt into the street. Since then, the city has added five more stretches of permeable pavement as part of larger road reconstruction projects and demand is growing.

During the resident engagement process of a recent street reconstruction, neighbors approached me and said, We hear you did permeable pavement in a neighborhood like ours. Would you consider that here? Maloney recalls.

When it comes to ridding cities of damaging road salt, education can go a long way in Maloneys mind. A lot of local governments are responding with the education of elected officials. Were not too far removed from an age when no one saw any downside to salt.

Cinnamon Janzer is a freelance journalist based in Minneapolis. Her work has appeared National Geographic, U.S. News & World Report, Rewire.news, and more. She holds an MA in Social Design, with a specialization in intervention design, from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a BA in Cultural Anthropology and Fine Art from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

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How a Twin Cities Suburb Has Led The Way With Permeable Pavement - Next City

Its not just rain drops that wind up in our waterways. Stormwater runoff brings natural and human-made pollutants and deposits them in lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastal waters and ground waters. The Sophers of Farm Colony in Stanardsville tired of watching the muddy erosion on their property and in the past year their yard became the first Virginia Conservation Assistance Program (VCAP) project in Greene County.

It was a major gully washer every time it rained, just right through our backyard and it just stayed muddy, said Nancy Sopher. I heard from a neighbor about this program and contacted them and we have just been so pleased.

VCAP provides financial, technical and educational assistance to property owners in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed who install eligible stormwater control practices, according to Richard Jacobs, P.E., conservation specialist with the Culpeper Soil and Water Conservation District that serves Greene County.

It helps those chronic erosion or ponding areas or areas that you just cant get vegetation to grow, Jacobs said. The program provides cost share of up to 75% of the cost.

Eligible practices include conservation landscaping, impervious surface removal, rain gardens, dry swales, rainwater harvesting, vegetated conveyance systems, constructed wetlands, bioretention, infiltration, permeable pavement, green roof and living shorelines.

When we do construction and build our houses and driveways and parking areas, all that hard surface increases the amount of runoff and that increases the speed at which the water flows across the landscape, Jacobs said. So, we try to do the dry swales to slow down the water and minimize erosion. Erosion is going to occur when the waters moving faster than slower. And by slowing it down we allow the water to soak into the ground a bit more and if theres any sediment it helps settle those before they end up in our waterways.

The Sophers did some conservation landscaping using native plants to help stabilize areas so that things can grow along the slope to the side of their driveway.

Into the backyard from the slope, the project includes a dry swale which incorporates two small ponding areas as a way to slow down the water.

The Sophers did the dry swale in 2018 and the driveway slope in 2019.

Its had a noticeable difference, Nancy Sopher said. I mean, we could not walk across our yard because it just stayed muddy anytime it rained.

Bruce Sopher agreed, adding, The turf grass is starting to grow out back now.

Jacobs said before the project grass wasnt able to grow because the water would rush through there, washing the seed and the mulch into the creek below.

VCAP is a statewide program, funded through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through the states Department of Environmental Quality.

Last year we were able to get state funding, so the state took some of their funds from the water quality improvement fund and moved it over specifically for this program, Jacobs said. This year with the General Assembly starting were hoping to get the same amount if not a little bit more.

Nancy Sopher said Jacobs helped the couple choose the best plants for the area, as well.

We worked with a native plant nursery, she said. He provided a lot of good input.

For the dry swale, Jacobs said, they chose the water-loving plants that will tolerate the ponding, such as the Blue Flay Iris, which is a native Virginia plant. The purple and yellow irises are not native. For the steep bank, they included some terrace logs to help the plants get established there, including the New Jersey Tea, Golden Ragwort and Silver sedge.

Native plants typically can tolerate the native soil conditions and the native climate, Jacobs said.

The projects full cost was $15,500 and the cost-share grant covered $11,500.

While its the first project funded in Greene County, there have been about two dozen projects district-wide, which includes the counties of Madison, Orange, Greene, Culpeper and Rappahannock. VCAP is open to residential, commercial and government-owned property, Jacobs said.

If they have impervious surfaces contributing to an area thats having issues of erosion, periodic localized ponding or flooding and they cant keep any cover, any sort of vegetation in those areas, those would be areas that we would look at, Jacobs said.

Due to application deadlines, Jacobs said its not too early to start thinking about your own property now.

The availability of funds is based off of demand and we do have a ranking protocol, Jacobs said. If you dont get funded this time around, if its not an emergency, maybe it could be funded later, in the next round.

Jacobs said contractors interested in learning more about the program should contact him. He said hed like to do trainings here in Greene if there is demand.

Those who think the program is worthy of funding can contact their delegates and senators in the General Assembly now while theyre in session.

Its made all the difference, Nancy Sopher said. Certainly, we couldnt go from one side of our yard to the other without mud boots. You could just see the brown water washing down to the creek.

For more information about VCAP, visit http://www.vaswcd.org/vcap. To request a site visit, contact the district at (540) 825-8591 or email Jacobs at RichardJ@culpeperswcd.org.

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CSWCD helped Greene homeowners stop erosion and paid for 75% of it - The Daily Progress

Fed-up Solihull residents have complained that refuse crews are often leaving wheelie bins blocking the pavement or outside the wrong house.

Criticism about the number of containers left in the middle of walkways in the Lyndon area has prompted calls for council contractors to sharpen up their act.

Ward councillor Kathryn Thomas (Lib Dem) had taken up the issue at last week's Full Council meeting, saying many locals were getting frustrated at the haphazard way that the bins were returned after collections.

She cited a raft of recent complaints made on the Lyndon Residents' Association Facebook page and suggested that the issues brought up by more than a dozen householders fell short of the standards expected.

Resident Sin Davies said: "There are so many rules and regs regarding residents putting out rubbish, yet in our road we have to play hunt the wheelie bin after theyve been emptied. Could be anywhere."

Amanda Wood added: "My bins have been left two houses away from mine, left in the middle of the pavement and left blocking my driveway access on various collection days.

"Glass collection crates get cracked and broken because they throw them back, rather than placing them back."

And Elizabeth Rose said it had been a long-running problem.

"I've been emailed many times to say that supervisors will follow the crew to ensure bins are correctly returned. It lasts two/three weeks then we are back to their old ways again."

Cllr Thomas suggested that the cases highlighted went against the terms set out in the council's waste and recycling charter and asked what could be done to ensure a permanent improvement in standards.

"A safe and appropriate position is not strewn across the pavement, creating issues for people on mobility scooters, in wheelchairs, who are visually impaired or pushing prams or pushchairs," she said.

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"I supported a resident's complaint back in the summer about this very issue and I suspect I'm not alone in this chamber in having raised it."

Responding, Cllr Ken Hawkins, the cabinet member for the environment and highways, said: "It's worth noting that actually there are nine million collections every year in the borough.

"Now I'm not saying we should expect these kind of issues, but you've got to understand with that amount there are going to be some issues now and again."

He said that when concerns were raised, the council's waste and recycling contractor, Amey, would take action to investigate - going out to inspect routes where issues had been flagged up.

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'Hunt the wheelie bin' fury as they're left outside wrong houses in Solihull - Birmingham Live