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A plan to build a state-funded $108 million school in Bloomfield for Two Rivers Magnet High School has been scrapped amid budget concerns, the Capitol Region Education Council said Friday.

The 400-student, environmental-themed Two Rivers High in Hartford will also cease to exist next school year and students will instead be shuttled to New Britain to attend CREC's Academy of Science and Innovation, school officials said Friday.

CREC leaders blamed Connecticut's fiscal uncertainty and state enrollment caps for the shake-up. At an afternoon press conference, Executive Director Greg Florio said the state Department of Education and state construction officials confirmed to CREC this week that the Bloomfield project would be pulled.

A stunned Two Rivers High community was informed of the plans Thursday. The school is the first full-day magnet program that CREC plans to close and consolidate.

At least $8 million had already been spent on the Bloomfield construction project, including money to buy the land, according to CREC, a taxpayer-funded regional education agency that operates 17 magnet schools under the state's Sheff v. O'Neill desegregation agreement.

Town of Bloomfield records show that CREC planned to build a 880-student high school on 29 acres at 29 Griffin Road North, near the Farmington River and Farmington River Park. CREC bought the property in 2013 for $3.8 million; now the agency is working with the state to decide what to do with the land.

Martha Stone, an attorney for the Sheff plaintiffs, said she heard late in the week that the state was axing the Two Rivers High project. "You've broken promises to kids who have already had broken promises," Stone said. "You're closing schools in the face of thousands of students clamoring to get in? ...That is just wrong."

Two Rivers high school opened in 2012 and has been temporarily housed in an office building in the Colt Armory complex near CREC's Hartford headquarters. The agency renovated that U-shaped building for $6 million to house Two Rivers High, and CREC officials said Friday they were unsure what will happen with that space.

The $108 million price tag for Two Rivers' permanent home was pricey even for Sheff magnet-school standards. State lawmakers approved the project in 2013.

Hartford Rep. Angel Arce, whose district includes the school neighborhood, chastized CREC leadership for the abrupt notice on Two Rivers' demise. Arce interrupted the press conference to question Florio, saying that he and another Hartford state lawmaker just heard the news two hours earlier.

"My biggest concern is those students don't lose their seats," Arce said.

About one-third of Two Rivers' magnet high school students are from Hartford. The rest are suburban students. CREC also operates the gleaming Two Rivers Magnet Middle School in East Hartford, which attracts about 650 students from across the region.

Families that recently applied for admission to the high school through the state-run magnet school lottery will be able to re-submit their applications with new choices, CREC Superintendent of Schools Dina Crowl said. The regular deadline for the 2017-18 lottery already passed.

Florio talked about mounting financial pressures from the state. Between 2008 and 2010, he said, the state asked CREC to open 11 magnet schools to meet integration goals under the Sheff settlement. Hartford Public Schools is another major operator of the region's magnet schools.

But as school operating costs have increased over the years, the state's annual aid to CREC has remained a flat $10,443 per student. CREC and Hartford school officials have been worried that state magnet aid will be reduced this year. Cities and towns whose students attend CREC magnets are required to pay tuition to fill the gap, a growing burden for districts that are already anxious about their budgets.

And the state has capped CREC's enrollment at 8,240 students, with minor adjustments expected to accommodate new grades at a couple of existing schools, CREC said.

An enrollment cap means that Two Rivers' high school would be stuck with only 400 or so students for the foreseeable future, far short of plans to fill the 880-student Bloomfield building, Florio said.

Donald Harris, chairman of the CREC Council and the Bloomfield board of education, said he wasn't surprised when he heard the Two Rivers high school project was canceled. "For me," he said, "it's too bad. It's really too bad."

The decision was "a tough choice during a very tough budget season," Florio said. "Although consolidating the two schools is not the road we envisioned, it is the most cost-effective way of addressing these budgetary challenges without hurting the quality of education that CREC proudly provides."

Abbe Smith, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education, said in a statement Friday that CREC informed the state last month that they were considering merging Two Rivers High with another magnet program "to address the system's fiscal challenges."

CREC Academy of Science and Innovation, formerly known as the Medical Professions and Teacher Preparation Academy, "offers a strong, rigorous STEM-themed education in a brand-new state-of-the-art facility," Smith said.

Two Rivers Principal Robert McCain will become the principal of that consolidated school in New Britain, which will continue to focus on science, technology, engineering and math in the 2017-18 year. With the influx of Two Rivers students, CREC expects to fill the New Britain school to capacity with about 770 students, said Tim Sullivan, CREC's assistant superintendent for operations.

Students in a prekindergarten program at the Academy of Science and Innovation will be moved to other schools, Sullivan said.

Staff cuts are possible as details of the merger are figured out, Florio said.

See the article here:
CREC: State Cancels $108 Million Construction Project; Two Magnet Schools To Merge - Hartford Courant

In 2007, Nancy Crabill asked to have her house designated historic by the City of Coronado. Ten years later, that designation has come back to haunt her family as they try to fix up the long-neglected home.

In February, the city council voted to order Crabill to uninstall the modern sliding aluminum windows and to reinstall the old ones or pay to have new, historically accurate windows built and installed. The city fined her $400, but the estimated cost of putting in windows, removing them, and restoring them comes in at around $60,000.

Nancy Crabill doesn't know about that. At 98, she has severe dementia and lives with her daughter who takes care of her. Crabill's daughter, Carol Clark, has been overseeing the repairs to the home in the past year and a half, including a $16,000 roof, a bathroom remodel, and replacing the leaking windows. The family's plan is to rent the house for now.

"The casement windows were not secure," she explained. "We thought it would be better to have windows that would let people feel safe." But she ran afoul of past and current members of the Historic Resource Commission, who fought her down to the last window. Clark proposed to restore the street-facing windows and on both sides of the house but to leave the modern windows in the back of the house.

The windows included leaded glass in diamond patterns on casement windows and wood that had rotted so badly that the windows leaked water and cold air, said Clark. Crabill's neighbors include past historic commission members who wrote letters that began the investigation.

Calling the replacement windows "ugly," Ann Parish Boston a past member of the historic commission wrote to city officials, saying one of her neighbors had reported the new windows to the city. "Those timeless, beautiful windows were really the beauty and the highlight of the front of the home," she wrote.

A member of the historic commission who met with or called all but one member of the city council on the matter said that Crabill's parents had built the house. "My grandmother owned the house next door," said commission member Susan Keith. "If you allow the appeal to go through, you are setting such a bad example everyone else is going to do it."

But one past member, John O'Brien, says the city's order to undo and redo means enormous costs to Crabill's family after they spent $20,000 to $30,000 for the new windows that will be removed.

"I don't think there was any intent to break the rules," O'Brien said. "When I was on the commission, we saw our role as helping people take care of historic homes. We didn't take the role of policing people."

It was the first time the city had a code enforcement on a historically designated property, mayor Richard Bailey noted. The Crabill family was given a year to get proper permits and complete the work.

See the rest here:
"Ugly" windows replace historic in Coronado - San Diego Reader

Published on March 2 2017 8:24 pm Last Updated on March 2 2017 8:31 pm Written by Greg Sapp

A contract totaling $5,475,222 was awarded Thursday by the Effingham Unit 40 Board of Education to GRP Mechanical to oversee health and life safety work at Central Grade School and Effingham High School.

The award of the contract is contingent on the State Board of Education approving the list of proposed projects for health and life safety funding. That approval should come within the next week or so.

Our Greg Sapp talked with Unit 40 Superintendent Mark Doan after the meeting about what happens from here?...

The key decision for the Board beyond whether to proceed with the project was what type of roof should replace the existing roof on the high school building. The decision was to go with a fully adhered roof, although it will cost close to $200,000 more than another option considered.

Unit 40 Assistant Superintendent Rem Woodruff said, "If you're asking me what to do, if I had a vote, I'd go with the fully adhered roof." Woodruff said he researched the other roof option, and found it came recommended by others who have good reputations in the roofing business, but said he knows the fully adhered roof and that's what he recommended. The previous three roofs the district has placed on buildings have been the fully adhered roofs.

Board members Carol Ruffner and Jane Willenborg were in favor of saving money and using the other roof style, Ruffner saying she could see where else that $200,000 in savings could be used. The other members present, Todd Schafer, Steve Bone and Brian Wick, favored the fully adhered option, going with Woodruff's recommendation.

Other components of the project will include window replacement at Central, some flooring replacement at Central, replacement of the HVAC system at EHS and installation of air conditioning in the gyms at EHS.

Superintendent Mark Doan said substantial completion of the project is due September 15, meaning the project will be finished after the next school year begins, but the feeling is the situation can be worked out.

The district plans to sell its own bonds to finance the work, with the bonds being paid off once property tax revenue is received.

The Board Thursday also expelled three students; two through the end of the current school year, and one through the first semester of the 2017-18 school year. Ruffner and Willenborg voted No on one of the expulsions through the end of this year, and Ruffner abstained from the vote on the student expelled through the first semester of the 17-18 year.

The rest is here:
Unit 40 Board Contracts for Roof Work, Other Health/Life Safety Projects at Central, EHS - Effingham's News Leader

More than 100 units were affected by an early Saturday morning fire as 90 firefighters responded. Matt Stone, The Courier-Journal

Firefighters work to contain a blaze as well as billowing smoke at the Breakwater Apartments in New Albany Saturday. Heavy fire on the third floor was discovered by firefighters after calls around 5:11 a.m. Four fire departments -- New Albany, Jeffersonville, Clarksville and Georgetown Township -- were required. Around 90 firefighters helped contain the fire. Two firefighters fell through a floor while battling the fire but were not injured. The units damaged were under construction. An investigation is underway.(Photo: Matt Stone/The C-J)Buy Photo

The fire that damaged the majority of a soon-to-open luxury apartment complex in downtown New Albany burned for nearly 18 hours before it was reported by a neighbor and was likely started by a contract worker, investigators alleged.

In an incident report released Thursday, New Albany Fire investigators determined that The Breakwater Apartments blazeoriginated in the ceiling area above unit 217. The $26.5 million complex, located at 411 E. Spring St., had been scheduled to open by mid-March.

Joe Miller, a heating, ventilation and air condition installer with Del Monde Heating and Air Conditioning, said he sparked a fire while soldering a copper pipe in the mechanical area above the apartment, according to report. The insulation around the pipe ignited between 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 24.

Miller said he spent 45 minutes putting out the blaze by usingmultiple fire extinguishers. He also cut a 2-foot-by-2-foot hole to get the insulation out that was on fire.

"The HVAC installer indicated that he thought he had put the fire out," said the report, which was posted on the city's website.

Investigators alleged that multiple other contractors saw the fire but "at no time did anyone notify the fire department about the situation." A neighbor called 9-1-1 the following morning, and the New Albany Fire Department responded by 7 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 25, according to report.

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The Courier-Journal reported that about 90 firefighters from the New Albany, Jeffersonville, Georgetownand Clarksville departments were able to bring the fire under control.While inspecting the building, two firefighters fell through the third floor and were rescued. Noinjuries were reported.

Once again, Id like to reiterate how fortunate the city of New Albany is that, despite the amount of damage and the size of the fire, there were no injuries. Id also like to thank the New Albany Fire Department, New Albany Police Department, and all of our neighboring communities for their help in extinguishing the blaze and assisting at the scene, Mayor Jeff Gahan said in a release.

The unoccupied125-unit building had been scheduled to open by mid-March, said Jill Herron, senior vice president of property asset management forFlaherty & Collins Properties, which owns The Breakwater. The neighboring 66-unit building, which opened in January, houses about 45 residents. That building was not damaged and residents were uninjured, she said.

In a news release, Michael Collins, regional property manager for thecompany, said the sprinklers were not on because the building was incomplete and hasn't been issueda certificate of occupancy.The 206,000-square-foot project broke ground in December 2015 at thesite of the former Coyle Chevrolet.

We want to thank the New Albany Fire Department and other local fire departments who are providing help for their steadfast efforts," he said. "We will certainly work diligently to fix the damage to the building.

This story will be updated.

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Investigators: The Breakwater Apartments fire was caused by faulty HVAC installation - The Courier-Journal

Converting from fossil fuel heating systems to electric will help meet New York states climate goals and make home heating more affordable, according to a new study. The initial cost of installing electric systems is steep but the report says there are ways the state could help.

Institute for Energy and Environmental Research President Arjun Makhijani wrote the report that advocates for electric technologies like geothermal and cold climate heat pumps. The heat pumps reduce greenhouse gas emissions by using free energy from the ground and the air rather than burning fossil fuels. Makhijani said in the long-term, it will make home heating more affordable.

"When you install a geothermal heat pump, not only will you benefit, your neighbors will be benefiting, because you reduce the peak load on the electric grid during the summer," Makhijani said. "To meet the peak load you have to install gas turbines you have to install transmission and distribution systems. You're benefiting your neighbors and the utility and reducing everybody's costs."

But Makhijani said the challenge is the initial cost of installing these systems.

Part of the difficulty of making really efficient electric heating and cooling systems is that they are more expensive than natural gas and oil systems," Makhijani said. "Over the long term they save you money. How to reduce the cost is a big issue.

Makhijani said there are multiple ways to reduce the costs and the states Energy Research and Development Authority has addressed the issue.

One way to do it is to mandate efficient heating systems for public buildings, for new construction, so you create a market," Makhijani said. "Its a nascent market.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is also proposing a $15 million rebate plan for installing ground-source heat pumps.

Makhijani said a state policy limiting energy costs for low-income residents to six percent of their income is another reason to push for the switch to electric.

Then the cost of heating goes down and the amount of public assistance money needed to help low-income households will also go down, Makhijani said.

Plus, Makhijani said New York could be a leader in manufacturing heat pumps and parts, which could lead to new jobs.

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Report says NY should switch to electric heating systems to save money, environment - WRVO Public Media

Dave Chappelle is back -- a little sooner than we might've expected.

Dave Chappelle is back -- a little sooner than we might've expected.

Despite Tarek and Christina El Moussa's tumultuous divorce, HGTV is going all in on the Flip or Flop franchise. The network has ordered five -- yes, five -- spin-offs of the house flipping series, Us Weekly...

Despite Tarek and Christina El Moussa's tumultuous divorce, HGTV is going all in on the Flip or Flop franchise. The network has ordered five -- yes, five -- spin-offs of the house flipping series, Us Weekly reports.

RuPaul's Drag Race is movin' on up. Ahead of the Season 9 debut - which features Lady Gaga and "one of the most jaw-dropping moments" in Drag Race herstory...

RuPaul's Drag Race is movin' on up. Ahead of the Season 9 debut - which features Lady Gaga and "one of the most jaw-dropping moments" in Drag Race herstory...

Even after surviving the potentially deadly skin cancer melanoma, some people continue to go out in the summer sun without protection.

Even after surviving the potentially deadly skin cancer melanoma, some people continue to go out in the summer sun without protection.

An experimental drug may significantly reduce the itching and improve the appearance of moderate to severe eczema, a new, preliminary trial finds.

An experimental drug may significantly reduce the itching and improve the appearance of moderate to severe eczema, a new, preliminary trial finds.

From IRS.gov

Taxpayers who made certain energy efficient improvements to their home last year may qualify for a tax credit this year. Here are some key facts to know about home energy tax credits:

Non-Business Energy Property Credit

Residential Energy Efficient Property Credit

UseForm 5695, Residential Energy Credits, to claim these credits. For more information on this topic, refer to the forms instructions. Get IRS forms anytime onIRS.gov/forms.

Taxpayers should keep a copy of their tax return. Beginning in 2017, taxpayers using a software product for the first time may need their Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) amount from their prior-year tax return to verify their identity. Taxpayers can learn more about how to verify their identity and electronically sign tax returns atValidating Your Electronically Filed Tax Return.

Share this tip on social media -- Get Credit for Making a Home Energy Efficient.http://go.usa.gov/x9S6U#IRS

Remember that all of the web page addresses for the official IRS website, IRS.gov, begin with http://www.irs.gov. Don' t be confused or misled by Internet sites that end in .com, .net, .org or other designations instead of .gov. The address of the official IRS governmental Web site is http://www.irs.gov/.

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Get credit for making a home energy efficient - WBRC FOX6 News - WBRC.com

Construction has begun on a new Foothill-De Anza Community College District office.

The 24,000-square-foot, two-story building will be built on an existing piece of a parking lot at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills and is slated for completion in March 2018.

According to the district, the building is expected to cost $18 million and will serve as office space for about 70 district administrative employees, including the chancellor, human resources, business services, purchasing and the districts charitable foundation.

The new building will also house the districts monthly board of trustees meetings in a new boardroom that seats up to 215 people. Small meeting rooms and extra storage for records will also be built.

The districts administrative employees have been working in five temporary portable trailers since November 2013, the district said.

The employees were moved to the trailers in anticipation of a renovation of the district administrative offics that were originally built in the 1960s. The renovation was completed in 2015, but the district determined the site to be more appropriate for the colleges educational technology services department.

Kevin McElroy, the Foothill-De Anza Community College District vice chancellor of business services, said employees are eager to get into the new building.

Getting back under a single roof, into a facility with adequate storage space and convenient meeting spaces, will feel like a real privilege and truly improve both work flow and the natural osmosis between staff members, McElroy said in a press release.

Alten Construction is contracted to build the new district office.

Excerpt from:
New main office under construction for Foothill-De Anza college district - The Mercury News

Crain's Chicago Business

Farming tech firm picks larger office for new crop of hires Crain's Chicago Business ... moving to a larger Chicago office, where it plans to hire 40 to 60 employees in the next two years. The San Francisco-based company aims to move by November to just over 21,000 square feet in the Fulton West office building under construction at ...

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Farming tech firm picks larger office for new crop of hires - Crain's Chicago Business

Miami Herald

CocoWalk to get new office building | Miami Herald Miami Herald Just a few weeks after the announcement of a new office building planned for the Mayfair complex in Coconut Grove, a separate group of developers has ... Coconut Grove Office Market | CocoWalk RedevelopmentThe Real Deal Magazine all 2 news articles »

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CocoWalk to get new office building | Miami Herald - Miami Herald

Orlando Business Journal

Tavistock soon will build its second new Lake Nona Town Center ... Orlando Business Journal The city of Orlando issued a building permit on Feb. 23 for construction to start on the estimated $13 million office at 13485 Veterans Way as part of ... and more »

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Tavistock soon will build its second new Lake Nona Town Center ... - Orlando Business Journal