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The Ministry of Education is being urged to put sprinkler systems in all schools after a suspected arson destroyed four classrooms and a library on the Kapiti Coast.

The fire gutted a Paraparaumu School block on Sunday night. All its old photos and archives went up in flames just as it was planning a 125th anniversary in November.

Three teenage girls have been arrested in relation to the fire, which is believed to have been started in a rubbish bin next to the building.

Retired New Zealand Fire Service national fire safety director Kevin Henderson said a sprinkler system would have saved the building.

"Even as arson, one or two [sprinkler] heads would have gone off and done the job. The tragedy is that it could have only been a minor incident. We will carry on losing schools and lives until the message gets through."

Sprinklers cost 3 per cent of a total building cost, he said, but there was a gap between building designers and senior government about appreciating their value.

Paraparaumu School principal Steven Caldwell said there were smoke detectors in the gutted block, but no sprinkler system.

"There is a case to be made for the Ministry of Education to fit and retrofit all schools with sprinkler systems.

"It may not have stopped our fire.

"We put our funding into educational resources . . . we are told how to spend our money. Why not make a blanket policy that all schools have sprinkler systems?"

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Call to fit sprinklers in schools

SPRINGVILLE -- An active sprinkler system at Cott Beverages, near Wing Enterprises in Springville, kept a fire in check Tuesday evening and allowed firefighters to knock down the flames quickly before further damage occurred.

The call came in about 7 p.m. When firefighters responded no one was in the building, but Springville Fire Captain Allen Duke said an employee was using a welder two hours earlier in the shop.

Investigators are unsure if that was the cause of the fire, but Springville Fire Chief Henry Clinton has ruled the fire accidental.

The structural damage is minimal, Clinton said. The sprinkler system deployed and kept the fire in check.

"A work bench for welding, shelving and some product around the shelves were lost in the fire, but the structure itself is intact.

The fire was contained to a shop in the front area of the warehouse.

Initially, Clinton had Provo Fire respond to the scene to help with vertical ventilation, but he said by the time the additional firefighters had arrived the sprinklers had kept the fire contained and they were able to use horizontal ventilation.

It is hard to ventilate a warehouse, Clinton said. We had zero visibility and thick black smoke.

"These are what I call big-box fires, and I dont enjoy them at all. They can be really dangerous with the threat of the ceiling caving in on you.

Twenty-three firefighters from Springville and Provo helped put out the blaze in about 45 minutes. Crews had to use positive pressure blowers to clear the building of smoke throughout the evening.

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Warehouse fire in Springville causes minimal damage

SALINE--From the moment one steps through the white board fence surrounding the Weber Blaess One-Room School, you can enjoy homemade ice cream with a variety of toppings as ladies with white gloves and parasols leisurely stroll the grounds from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 17.

Grilled hot dogs will also be served. Musical entertainment a will join the festivities as this fundraising event will be hosted by the Saline Area Schools Historic Preservation Foundation or SASHPF, and also provides an opportunity for young and old to experience turn of the century life.

Classroom re-enactments of a typical day in a one-room school will give insight into the teachings and discipline of a young maiden teacher to her students using the McGuffey Readers and slateboards. Children will enjoy playing the games that a 1900s recess would have included such as hopscotch, graces, stilts and many more. A craft area will also be available. The Saline Area Fire Department will conduct a bucket brigade to demonstrate an 1800s firefighting way of transporting water to put out a blaze. All of these activities have no admission charge.

A new addition to the 2014 ice cream social will be balloon artist, Matt Luedtke providing entertainment.

Old-time activities like croquet, watermelon seed spitting, walking on stilts and Bag-O will also be competitively challenged between the Saline Area School Board of Education, Saline Area Schools and the Saline City Council and staff. The middle school principal challenges anyone to beat his 2012 record for walking on stilts as does Dave Rhoades, City Council member, who will take on all challengers in croquet. The public is welcome to participate in these activities also.

Proceeds from this event will provide for maintenance of the building inside and out. The front entrance addition was recently repainted and a railing added for easier entrance. The doors have also been refinished on the front. Trees and shrubs are needed to add shade on the property. Curriculum needs are not extensive but with more than 1800 children visiting the school on an annual basis, materials are needed for their projects and activities.

The Saline Area Schools Historic Preservation Foundation, founded in 2001, has a mission to support the history of Saline schools with emphasis on the one-room school era. More than 1100 students visit the school annually supporting the second, third and fourth-grade social studies standards. During their day at the school, students experience a typical day of the 1870-1920s in these schools by learning the lessons, eating the lunches and playing the games that rural children experienced. This interactive museum is a highly effective learning tool for all types of students.

Its a summertime treat for the whole family as we celebrate a traditional activity on a Sunday in August. Admission is free to the public. Come join the fun.

Grilled hot dogs will also be served. Musical entertainment a will join the festivities as this fundraising event will be hosted by the Saline Area Schools Historic Preservation Foundation or SASHPF, and also provides an opportunity for young and old to experience turn of the century life.

Classroom re-enactments of a typical day in a one-room school will give insight into the teachings and discipline of a young maiden teacher to her students using the McGuffey Readers and slateboards. Children will enjoy playing the games that a 1900s recess would have included such as hopscotch, graces, stilts and many more. A craft area will also be available. The Saline Area Fire Department will conduct a bucket brigade to demonstrate an 1800s firefighting way of transporting water to put out a blaze. All of these activities have no admission charge.

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Old-fashioned ice cream social slated for Aug. 17 at the Weber Blaess one-room school

The owners of the next restaurant to open in Allentown want patrons to get the idea that walking through the doors will give you license to be just a little naughty.

Paying homage to Prohibition-era restaurants, Don and Diane Saylor, the longtime proprietors of The Shanty restaurant in Allentown's West End, have decided to call their new restaurant Roar Social House.

Set to open in early September, the upscale restaurant featuring American cuisine at 732 Hamilton St. will also have a speak-easy called Hush with a separate rear entrance.

"We love Allentown and are so excited to launch Roar and Hush amidst the new roar of PPL Center, the city's construction and the re-energized downtown," Don Saylor said. "We have had so much interest and support in this new venture from former customers and soon-to-be customers alike. We are proud to bring new vitality to this historic building."

Saylor named Chris Noonan as executive chef for Roar and Hush. Noonan was executive chef for the Big Burrito Restaurant Group in Pittsburgh, and was chosen to open and develop the restaurant and banquet programs at the Andy Warhol Museum and Pittsburgh's historic Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden.

"Being born in Arkansas and raised in Texas, Connecticut, Indiana and Pennsylvania gave me a love of American and regional ethnic food," Noonan said. "My philosophy for craft cooking is to bring delicious, simple and classic flavors to life and let the food speak for itself."

The three-story Civil War-era building is being restored by City Center Investment Corp, which is building several downtown office buildings, a hotel, an apartment complex, retail shops and several restaurants costing a total of more than $400 million.

Across the street from the $177 million PPL Center hockey arena due to open Sept. 12 in the city's 127-acre tax incentive district, the restaurant will be in the building that was last occupied by the House of Chen restaurant.

It will feature three-story ceilings, loft dining, brick walls and wood beams highlighted by two light features surrounding the mezzanine. Roar will seat about 100 people for lunch and dinner in a setting that pays homage to the 1920s-era style restaurants during the Prohibition era.

Hush will seat up to 30 people, with an additional entrance on Maple Street. An open kitchen will separate Roar and Hush, Saylor said.

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Former Shanty owners plan Prohibition-influenced eatery in downtown Allentown

Deborah Nickelson, of Antioch, is the new owner of Scends Deux restaurant in Antioch, Calif., on Monday, Aug. 4, 2014. Nickelson is taking over the Bases Loaded restaurant at the corner of G street and West 4th street. The original Scends restaurant is located in Emeryville and has been in business for more than 18 years. Nickelson will have a grand opening on Aug. 30th. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

ANTIOCH -- A new restaurant is on deck to open at the former Bases Loaded location in downtown Antioch, with a new operator who believes her family's time-tested menu and experience in the industry will be the recipe for success that has so far eluded this spot.

Debora Nickelson's Cajun-soul food eatery, Scends Deux, is slated for a soft opening on Saturday and a grand opening on Aug. 30.

No stranger to the Bay Area food scene, Nickelson is naming her new venture after her family's successful Emeryville restaurant, Scends, which her grandmother opened in 1957.

"I'm bringing the kitchen with me," she said recently, describing the chicken wings, fried catfish and red beans and rice that have kept diners satisfied for decades.

The Bases Loaded restaurant is under new ownership and will now be called Scends Deux in Antioch, Calif., on Monday, Aug. 4, 2014. Deborah Nickelson, of Antioch, is taking over the Bases Loaded restaurant at the corner of G street and West 4th street. The original Scends restaurant is located in Emeryville and has been in business for more than 18 years. Nickelson will have a grand opening on Aug. 30th. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

The menu is a change from the pub fare and smoked meats that previous operators had served at Bases Loaded, and it's a type of food Nickelson said she has had a tough time finding since moving to Antioch earlier this year.

And apparently she's not the only one: Nickelson said Scends has many loyal patrons who make the trek to Emeryville from Antioch, Pittsburg and Brentwood to dine there, and she is confident that Scends Deux already has a local customer base.

"The reception we've been getting -- this place is going to be busy, busy, busy," she said recently, seated at one of the plush booths that remains in the nearly turnkey building.

Nickelson had already been scouting for a restaurant space in East County when the most recent Bases Loaded operators, John and Penny Hicks, closed their doors in May. It was then that Antioch officials connected her with the property's owner and first occupant, Terry Karp, who was eager to lease to a new tenant.

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New Antioch restaurant tries to find winning recipe

Local regulators have cleared the way for construction of another nationally known franchise restaurant between the two shopping malls along Oakland Avenue.

A final site plan for Chipotle Mexican Grill gained approval Tuesday from the White Township planning commission.

The restaurant will be one of a national chain with dozens of locations in Pennsylvania, where food orders are prepared in assembly-line fashion as diners give their custom orders for burritos, tacos and salads.

The restaurant will be built by Oak Ave Ind LLC, a development group set up by Joe Smiley and several partners.

Smiley, of the Columbus, Ohio, area, said he has built three other restaurants for Chipotle in Ohio and Kentucky, and decided Indiana is suitable for introduction of a Chipotle Mexican Grill after spending time in the community while visiting his daughter, a student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Under ideal circumstances, Smiley said, the tentative plan calls for starting construction in September and finishing the building in 90 to 120 days. But the schedule can easily change with the weather, further permitting issues and the Chipotle corporations detailed plans for interior design.

The Chipotle restaurant has been granted exceptions from White Township land regulations to make it a practical project, township officials said.

The planning panel will allow the face of the new building to extend 11 feet closer to Oakland Avenue than rules allow, but keeping it in line with the fronts of other neighboring businesses that were granted the same exceptions.

The plan shows a similar extension beyond the setback requirement at the back of the building along Willis Drive and on the side along Laurel Street.

Assistant Township Manager Chris Anderson said the design provides 26 parking spaces, which is five fewer than required because of the odd shape and size of the lot.

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WHITE TOWNSHIP: Chipotle gets OK for local restaurant

Some Winonans have big dreams for the new bridge: a staircase zigzagging down from the new bridge to Second Street where pedestrians can quickly get from Levee Park to Latsch Island and three blocks of brand new parkland running from Fourth and Huff streets to the river. However, the city of Winona and the Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) are planning for the possibility that neither entity will be willing to pay for some of those dreams specifically the staircase and that the city may seek to redevelop the land between Huff Street and the bridge, according to emails obtained by the Winona Post.

After Mn/DOT selected the least expensive design for the new bridge the concrete box girder amid complaints by some city leaders and citizens that the design was unsightly, the state agency formed a group of local citizens dubbed the Visual Quality Committee (VQC) to guide efforts to improve the bridge's visual appeal. The VQC made recommendations on details from bridge color to lighting, and on bigger design elements including pier design, lookouts, parklike landscaping and trails beneath the bridge, and staircase descending from the new bridge's bicycle and pedestrian lane.

Mn/DOT announced in February that the city would need to pay for many of the recommendations. Since then, Winona City Manager Judy Bodway, Mn/DOT Project Manager Terry Ward, and their respective staffs have met several times to negotiate design details and a cost-share agreement. While many of the VQC recommendations are expected to be incorporated into the final design, city staff will have plenty of say, as well.

"We're working with city staff and their desires at a staff level," Ward said of the bridge design details in an interview. "We've done very little final design work on the site plans and we're still making sure what's going into final design is going to hit the mark," he added, referring to the area beneath and beside the bridge.

Bodway and Ward met to discuss cost sharing and the VQC recommendations for the first time on April 14 for about an hour. In an email, Ward explained the purpose of the meeting to Bodway, "I have some preliminary cost estimates of site amenities and bridge items, just to start to get a feel for where the city (you) would like to take things. High-level conceptual costs for now."

In May, Ward emailed to arrange another meeting. "Our final design team is starting to work on the site plans underneath the existing and new bridge. Before we get too [far] along, would you like to have a meeting with your team to make sure we are headed in the right direction? If so, we could also provide an overview of our drainage and storm water management."

Storm water ponds reflect potential city development plans

Mn/DOT must install a series of storm water ponds beneath the new bridge to accommodate runoff from the structure. City leaders have expressed some interest in the opportunity to redevelop temporary right-of-way, properties that Mn/DOT will seize or buy for the project and then sell back to their original owners at market value, or if the owners decline to the city for a dollar. A consultant for the city included plans for a 100,000-square foot river interpretative center and a large parking lot to be installed next to the storm water ponds as part of the Levee Park Vision Plan. Mayor Mark Peterson's Levee Park Committee discussed the possibility of a new office building and interpretive center for the Fish and Wildlife Service near or in Levee Park during a nonpublic meeting last fall. At a meeting before the City Council in February, Ward hinted that if the city had any interest in building beside the bridge, Mn/DOT's storm water ponds could be enlarged to accommodate runoff from additional development in the area.

Ward and Bodway finally met again in late June. After the meeting, Ward sent a follow-up email detailing the design changes Mn/DOT planners were working on based on the city feedback, including changes to the ponds and "other site landscape options with and without maximization of redevelopment areas."

Design option to nix staircase follows meeting

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Fate of new bridge staircase uncertain

San Diego, CA (PRWEB) August 13, 2014

The Bill Howe Family of Companies has been a part of the local community since 1980. Beginning with just one plumber offering simple drain cleanings in Pacific Beach, they have added additional divisions in restoration & flood, heating & air as well as growing into one of the premier San Diego plumbers. Part of their success has been an unwavering dedication to cultivating a pay-it-forward spirit in their business, community and family.

The San Diego plumber has been a long-time supporter of the American Heart Association. Since 2010, they have been hosting a 90-day Howe Healthy is Your Heart drawing contest, which reaches out to children ages 5-12 and their families to promote healthy and active lifestyles. Entrants can win the grand prize, a $250 gift card to Toys R Us, and four runners up also receive $100 gift cards. The company also sponsors the AHA Beach Ball each year with a donation of $25,000 annually. Additionally, they will be taking part for the 3rd year in the AHA Heart Walk this September.

The AHA raises funds throughout the year with several different events including the 23rd annual Walk, the Associations premiere national walking event, which will take place on Saturday September 13 at Balboa Park. The Heart Walk promotes an active lifestyle and heart health, while also celebrating heart disease and stroke survivors. Individuals or teams raise funds, which go directly to lifesaving efforts in San Diego helping to fund stroke and cardiovascular research and education programs. The Bill Howe Family of Companies will be participating for the third time in 2014 and have raised their own fundraising goal to $5000 (the goal in 2013 was $2400) as well as inviting the entire company and their families to participate.

We are especially excited for the Heart Walk this year, said Tina Howe, Vice President of the Bill Howe Family of Companies. We are entering into our third year of the Bill Howe wellness program and really seeing the impact of positive messaging and promotion of healthy active lifestyles in our own company.

The event will be held on Saturday, September 13, 2014. Opening ceremonies begin early at 6:50 in the morning at Balboa Park. The event is pet and family friendly, and includes the Miracle Mile, a one-mile Survivor walk to honor all those who have been affected by heart disease and stroke. If you would like to make a donation to help San Diego plumber, Bill Howe, the Bill Howe Team, or wish to join Howes Got Heart Heart Walk Team, visit their AHA Team Page at heartwalk.org.

For more information about the San Diego plumbers community involvement, visit http://www.billhowe.com, or to speak with Bill or Tina Howe regarding this announcement, contact Bill Howe Marketing Director, Julie Riddle at Julie(at)billhowe(dot)com.

About Bill Howe Family of Companies Bill Howe Family of Companies is comprised of Bill Howe Plumbing, Inc.; Bill Howe Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc.; Bill Howe Restoration & Flood Services, Inc. The family-owned and operated company began in 1980 with the plumbing division and has grown into San Diego Countys largest low-cost one-stop-shop for service, repairs and installation, offering both residential and commercial services. 9085 Aero Drive, Suite B, San Diego CA 92123. Call 1-800-BILL-HOWE because We Know Howe! ###

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The Bill Howe Family of Companies Walking to Save Hearts with the AHA

Do-It-Yourself Pest Control | The Dollar Stretcher
We #39;ve all fought pests around our home. Sometimes we called in a pest control company. But many of us would rather it be a DIY project. That #39;s why we invited Michael Gossling of http://www.DoMyOwnP...

By: The Dollar Stretcher

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Do-It-Yourself Pest Control | The Dollar Stretcher - Video

A Virginia Tech researcher looking for ways to improve pest control techniques in public housing projects turned to the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority. She found fertile ground for her tests.

We found the largest, most spectacular infestations I have seen in my career. There are sanitation problems, water issues, clutter and the cockroaches have a lot of access to food, Dr. Dini Miller, a professor of urban entomology, told Pest Control Technology Magazine for their annual cockroach issue, published last month.

RRHA houses 10,000 people in 4,000 units. Before testing new application techniques, Miller used glue traps to determine each apartment had an average of 464 cockroaches.

The cockroach populations were flourishing and the infestations have been there for a long time, Miller said. We found cockroaches everywhere in the storage units, living in a deck of cards, on walls, in the sink in the cooking oil.

Millers work revealed the number of cockroaches could be cut by 90 to 95 percent by simply deploying more cockroach bait.

The problem, Miller told Style, is that the RRHA relies on low-bid contracts for pest control. The result is that the company that wins by offering the lower bid keeps its costs low by simply doing inadequate work, spending less than five minutes on each unit. She said it should take at least 15 minutes per unit.

Miller said she worked with RRHA to rewrite their pest control contracts. She declined to name the specific housing projects she studied because she said she didn't want to upset the housing authority.

She says pest control companies and property management companies typically blame infestations on cleanliness of residents, but her study proves that adequate treatment is the bigger issue.

Its very hard for people who have no background in pest control to write that contract, Miller said. Imagine asking your mother to do it. She wouldnt know where to start.

(h/t Reddit)

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Counting Cockroaches