LIBERTY HILL, Texas, Aug. 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Mike Byrum, owner of Docks and Decks, located at 15390 Hwy. 29, recently added UHaul truck and trailer rentals to the marina services business he has been operating since 1998.

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Families needing the finest in moving services now will have increased convenience and a shorter distance to travel when moving, which not only will make their move easier but also will have the positive effect of reducing the amount of carbon emissions released into the atmosphere. U-Haul partnering with business owners across North America to increase convenience for customers while helping our environment is just one of the programs that support U-Haul Company's Corporate Sustainability initiatives.

Docks and Decks can now offer its customers a variety of moving equipment and supplies designed specifically for moving household furnishings, including moving vans, open trailers, closed trailers, furniture pads, appliance dollies, furniture dollies, tow dollies and auto transports. Docks and Decks also will offer sales items to protect their customers' belongings and make moving easier, such as heavy-duty boxes, which are made of up to 90 percent recycled content and are available in a variety of sizes.

"We decided to add U-Haul rentals to our business because we knew that it would not only benefit our business but also would benefit the city of Liberty Hill as well as surrounding areas. We look forward to the future with U-Haul," Byrum said.

"U-Haul is proud to be partnering with a quality independent business such as Docks and Decks," exclaimed Gary Bouillion, president, U-Haul Company of Austin. "Mike is a great example of the type of successful business relationship UHaul has established in order to build and maintain a strong network of more than 15,000 independent dealers across North America."

For more information, or to rent your moving equipment today, call 512-565-9982. Business hours of operation are: Mon. Fri. 9 a.m. 5 p.m. and Sat. 9 a.m. 1 p.m.

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Docks and Decks in Liberty Hill, Texas Adds U-Haul Rentals

When solar panel manufacturer Solyndra Inc. filed for bankruptcy last year, thousands of employees were let go, dozens of vendors were left high and dry, hundreds of millions of dollars were lost and millions of glass tubes were abandoned in a San Jose warehouse.

Now some of those tubes, a signature design element of the company's cylindrical-shaped solar panels, have found a second life as modern art. Yet like so much about Solyndra, they've become another flash point in the controversy surrounding the Fremont, Calif., company.

Oakland architects Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello used 1,368 of the glass tubes to create "SOL Grotto," an architectural sculpture on display in the lush grounds of the UC Botanical Garden in Berkeley. The piece is part of a larger exhibit called Natural Discourse, which features work from a multidisciplinary group of artists, writers, architects and researchers.

But "SOL Grotto" has generated the most publicity as the source of a fresh wave of criticism by conservative commentators and House Republicans, who have long held up Solyndra, which had been awarded a $535-million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy, as a prime example of wasteful spending by the Obama administration. Some of those critics are now blasting SOL Grotto as the world's most expensive piece of taxpayer-funded artwork, even though a U.S. Bankruptcy Court determined that the glass tubes no longer had value.

"UC-Berkeley's Solyndra Artwork Would Shatter Record for World's Most Expensive Piece," read a recent news release from the Republican-dominated House Energy and Commerce Committee, which conducted an exhaustive investigation into Solyndra's loan guarantee. One Fox News commentator joked that "we could take a sledgehammer to it and call it performance art."

"SOL Grotto" was conceived not as a political flash point but as a take on the Walden Pond cabin of 18th century philosopher and naturalist Henry David Thoreau. The glass tubes, each of them 3 feet, 9 inches long, penetrate an entire wall of a small shed that has been built in the Botanical Garden on the banks of Strawberry Creek, allowing fresh air and natural light to fill the room. The sound of the creek's small waterfall is amplified by the glass.

"The best time to see it is in the early morning," said Rael, as he stood in the doorway to SOL Grotto. "It really changes throughout the day. When the morning fog breaks and the sun comes out, the glass glows brilliantly."

Rael got the glass tubes from JIT Transportation, a San Jose company that had a contract with Solyndra to transport and store the tubes, which were manufactured overseas. When Solyndra filed for bankruptcy, the company was stuck with about 8 million tubes stacked up on 4,800 pallets, as well as a hefty, unpaid invoice.

"Solyndra owes us about $300,000 for the cost of storing the materials, and they never paid us a penny," said Gene Ashley, president of JIT. "When I finally contacted the bankruptcy attorney, they had no clue that we even had Solyndra product."

Ashley is a registered Republican, and the whole experience made him bitter.

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Solyndra's glass tubes find new life as modern art

The white tapestries hanging from the high ceilings to the white Corian countertops, Sky Spa in Norwood has clients feeling like they are in the clouds.

Thats a feeling Xuan Thang intended with the architectural design of the Walpole Street spa.

When you first walk in to the spa, you dont expect it to have such tall ceilings, she said. The drapes make you feel like you are in the clouds.

Standing in the entryway of the spacious spa, which offers waxing, facials, manicures and pedicures, Xuan proudly pointed to rooms to her left and right. One side is the nail room, complete with stations for manicures and bench seating for pedicures.

All of the countertops are Corian, which helps reduce bacteria. Xuan said the style of countertop is smooth and very easy to clean. The nail room is open and perfect for larger groups or parties, she said.

On the other side of the building is the drying room. Bottles of the seasonal shades of OPI nail products are clustered on shelves like tiny colorful clouds on a solid white wall. The nail drying stations are custom made with a small shelf for personal items.

In the back of the spa are the facial and waxing rooms. Each room is designed for the client to feel relaxed, she said.

We just tried to put ourselves in the clients place, Xuan said on Monday, Aug. 27, just a few days before the grand opening on Sept. 1. We tried to think about what people might need and like. Then we put it in here.

Xuan and her husband, Hon, decided to open a spa a few years ago. Xuan joked that the industry runs in her family.

My sister, brother, and sister-in law they are all in the beauty industry, she said. So I got my mind into it. I wanted to make a spa something that weve always wanted.

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Sky Spa in Norwood to hold grand opening on Sept. 1

Penny Organic is paving the way with environmentally friendly plasticskateboards

Updated: August 30, 2012, 7:27 PM ET

Penny Skateboards of Australia makes skateboards because of their deep love and passion for skateboarding. When Penny founder Ben Mackay was five years old he got his first skateboard at a garage-sale. Once Mackay and his father cleaned the bearings and the plastic garage-sale board could roll -- he was hooked.

Penny Skateboards make traditional wooden decks and had invested heavily in research and development with fiberglass and titanium, but it was the introduction of the Penny plastic board that have become a benchmark for the manufacturer. With the design based off that first board Mackay got at the garage-sale, the plastic decks were a hit from the get go.

This month Penny Skateboards continues their impressive evolution by introducing the first biodegradable plastic skateboard from the Penny Organics line. Rumors of an environmentally friendly plastic deck have been buzzing around the internet for months, but it sounded like an oxymoron -- "environmentally friendly plastic" -- it seemed too good to be true. With the release of the four color ways by Penny Organics, the skeptics have been silenced.

Penny's U.S. General Manager, Nick Timms, speaks to the original intention, "We really wanted to debunk any myths associated with plastic skateboards. As a result, we explored different options and twelve or so months later, we were able to refine the product so that we were truly happy with it. The Penny Organic range will definitely have a permanent home as a staple part of our seasonal offerings."

This biodegradable deck is as strong and fun as the original Penny plastic decks. However, when you're ready for a new set-up, after removing the trucks, you dig a hole in the yard and bury the board. Through an additive, which has been combined with Penny's Super Secret Penny Plastic Injection Molded Formula, over time the board will decompose as the additive reacts with a naturally occurring enzyme in the soil.

Penny's founder Mackay proudly explains, "We're continually trying to raise the bar with our products and the Penny Organic range is no different. We've put a lot of time and energy into making sure the boards ride well, are durable and of course look good. The result is a product that really challenges what's possible with plastic skateboards."

A buried Penny Organic board will fully decompose within a short amount of time compared to plastic bottles and dinosuar bones, but you choose not to bury your deck it'll last as long as a standard Penny plastic deck. When asked if burying decks is now a job requirement, Timms replied, "Of course! We're constantly looking to improve our product line and if it means that we need bury a few decks to ensure that our boards are up to par, then so be it!"

Hopefully there'll be a Skate and Biodegrade shirt to go along with the decks.

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Aussie company launches biodegradable decks

Serie Architectsa young firm with offices in London, Mumbai, and Beijingis designing a museum dedicated to the art of Yan Zhenqing. Christopher C. M. Lee, one of Serie's founding partners, says his team is still developing the design but expects to break ground on the museum at the end of 2012 and finish construction roughly a year later. He says the client learned about his firm from its design proposals for the Xian International Horticultural Exposition and the Xintiandi Factory H in Hangzhou.

Image courtesy Serie Architects

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The museum is set on an 8,265-square-meter site in Linyi, Shandong Province. It will house a collection of works by the eighth-century AD Shandong calligrapher Yan Zhenqing, whose writing is known for its bold vertical and light horizontal strokes. Serie mimicked the vertical emphasis of the calligraphy in its detailing on the museums faades, which will likely be rendered in ceramic tile. In Series initial design scheme, these details were drawn as true verticals; in its more developed design, they are diagonal. The prominent verticals contrast with the lightness of the main horizontal elementscolonnades that serve as the main circulation through the site.

These rectangular colonnades frame a collection of low, square buildings. The seeming randomness of the buildings' locations suggests dice thrown into boxes. But Serie claims a different metaphorthe scholars garden. Like that ancient model, the Yan Zhenqing Museum occupies a remote hilly site allowing for a monastic retreat far from the city. And like the scholars garden, landscape is integral to the design. Eight buildings sit on three garden terraces that rise slightly above the ground plane. Visitors will move from inside to outside and back again as they tour the museum.

Lee says he and his team designed the architecture so it would not compete with Yan Zhenqings artwork. The simple orthogonal shapes and unassuming scale of the project are markedly different from the designs of many new museums. Most museums, even in China, are often seen as one large volume, often of convoluted forms, he says. Lee believes that such forms, while often touted as innovative, are completely status quo.

Lee professes a different idea about making architecture. According to Serie's website, The practice is fascinated by the evolution and mutation of building types in todays cities and the projection of these forms of intelligence into spatial solutions. The firms founding principals, Lee and Kapil Gupta, met at Londons Architectural Association, where Lee is currently director of the Projective Cities Programme. They established Serie Architects simultaneously in London and Mumbai in 2008 and opened a Beijing office in 2010. Lee says the firm took its name from the idea of working in a series. Its a conceptual framework that allows one to bring together things, architects, and buildings that share the same characteristics, he says. That is, you take the most common and make them special.

Series emphasis on a dominant type was the starting point for the design of the Yan Zhenqing Museum. According to Lee, the firm looked to the walled courtyard house type specific to northern China as a model for its work. It used three such courtyards to collect three building programs. Visitors will move through these courtyards both horizontally and vertically. They will start at an entry level with reception and shops, move up to a terrace with education and public facilities, and reach the exhibitions at the top level. It is not too dissimilar from the way in which spaces are organized within a traditional courtyard house, says Lee. The most precious object and the most private spaces are always placed at the deepest end of the project.

This processional route from level to level is the focus of drawings of the Yan Zhenqing Museum. Renderings of the project, on the other hand, are dominated by the skylights of the buildings. The technicalities of the skylights design are still being developed, but they will likely include vertical blinds in order to create completely dark rooms and give flexibility to the museums use. In Series first scheme, the skylights are drawn perpendicular to their shape, like the true verticals on the original faade. They currently have a more rhythmic appearance suggesting perhaps windswept pieces of paperan apt symbol for a collection of calligraphy.

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Serie Architects Designs Museum in China for Calligrapher's Art

MAURY COUNTY, Tenn. -

Detectives determined that a local roofing company had a role in illegally dumping trash on a piece of Maury County property.

Officials told Nashville's News 2 Investigates someone illegally dumped 16 loads of shingles and roofing materials on the property owned by the Rogers Company.

After going through the debris, detectives discovered paper work linked to a local roofer.

I'm going to say it is expensive to take this and dump it off, so I would say they found an access road where it is easily accessible," Detective Terry Chandler said.

Det. Chandler said he interviewed the man hired to drive debris to the landfill.

According to Chandler, the man admitted to dumping two of the loads illegally. He is now charged with criminal trespassing and littering.

Nashville's News 2 Investigates spoke with the roofing company owner on Thursday who said he sub-contracts with the man who was charged. He added that he should not be responsible for what the man did.

Investigators said Rogers Company is working with the parties responsible for the debris who have agreed to clean up the site so far.

However, the problem is there are federal mining requirements for cleaning up the debris left on Rogers' property.

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Detectives trace illegal dumping to roofing company

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County officials on Tuesday approved an agreement with a local roofing company to carry out a roofing project at the Cheboygan County Building. The Board of Commissioners approved the agreement with Doyle Roofing in the amount of $198,019 for roof membrane and insulation replacement. County Administrator Jeff Lawson said bids were opened Aug. 1 for a project to replace approximately two-thirds of the existing roof of the County Building, which is the first phase of needed improvements. Five bids were received. Great Lakes Roofing had the lowest bid initially, but they later asked to increase their bid amount after it was determined they had not completed roof core samples. As a result, their bid was disqualified. Lawson said Story Roofing had the next lowest bid at $188,426, followed by Tri-Star Industries at $190,900. However, a bid of $195,127 was submitted by Doyle Roofing, and because the countys purchasing policy allows for Cheboygan County-based companies to be considered if they are within 5 percent of the confirmed low bid, the architect was asked to qualify the local bid. The total amount of the agreement includes a performance and payment bond, which caused some discussion between the Board of Commissioners, some of whom questioned whether it was necessary for a reputable, local company. If we are already paying an extra 5 percent for a local contractor with a good reputation, I think we are just throwing money away (by also paying for a performance bond); its a waste, said Commissioner Cal Gouine, who suggested saving money by going through a title company. Although he has been involved with projects that did not require a performance and payment bond, Lawson said the countys civil counsel attorney recommended having it as a legal precaution, and said he felt it was the safest option. Lawson said work is estimated to begin mid-September and could be complete by mid-October, although the county has not yet received a schedule. In other business, the Board of Commissioners also heard an annual report from Probate Court Judge Robert Butts, and were introduced to the concept of a new Cheboygan County Juvenile Independence Court that is being implemented.

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Officials select Doyle Roofing for building work

By Wednesday, Brenda Gleason had a bad case of cabin fever.

Shes redone her closet, redone the kitchen, reorganized the countertops and put things in drawers, said Dan Gleason of his wife. Now shes going to work on my office.

Thats what happens when youre trapped in your cul-de-sac for four days. The Gleasons, who own a fire-engine red 2005 Ford Thunderbird, the 50th anniversary edition, calculated that the water in their Wycliffe neighborhood would swamp the low-slung sports car and maybe even tear off parts of the undercarriage.

Their home on a circle had what Dan Gleason called a moat by Monday, which was 14 inches deep at the worst and still around 10 inches deep Wednesday afternoon. Wycliffe Golf & Country Club is west of the intersection of U.S. 441 and Lake Worth Road.

At least two of the Gleasons neighbors tried and failed to get out. A brand-new Hyundai Genesis and a black Mercedes both stalled and had to wait for tow trucks.

So as the South Florida Water Management pumps chugged away Wednesday, Brenda Gleason, a judicial clerk at the 15th District Court, telecommuted to get her regular job done.

Dan Gleason, a consultant who works at home, has a plan to get her to work on Thursday.

Im going to drive on the golf cart path and get her out to the road. Shell be fine then, and Ill walk back to the house. Its not that far to walk, said Gleason.

Further west in the Acreage, the flooding occurred swiftly late Sunday and early Monday.

Boom, the water was just out of control, said Gary Tobias, who lives on 68th Street. Tobias can see Banyan, the nearest paved road, 300 feet from his house, but cant get to it.

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Western Palm Beach County residents go stir-crazy waiting for water to recede

Those cracked and leaky countertops in Des Plaines Public Library bathrooms will soon be replaced.

The library board voted Tuesday to approve a $37,600 bid from L & M Builders in Des Plaines to spruce up the downtown library buildings eight public restrooms, according to Heather Imhoff, head of public information.

Seven companies bid on the project to replace the countertops and back splashes. All also submitted an optional bid to replacing the existing stainless steel hand towel dispensers with hand dryers.

The budget for the countertop replacement was $25,000 and only L & M submitted a bid below that amount. They were also the lowest bid for the overall project, including the optional hand dryers.

Imhoff said the dryer installation will include patching walls, necessary wiring, and actually installing the dryers.

The existing laminate countertops in the bathrooms have become nasty, Imhoff said. They will be replaced with a solid surface that should not leak. The library is saving some money by refusing the faucets and tubing already in the bathrooms.

Work is expected to begin soon and should be done before the year is over.

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Library Countertops In Store For Replacement