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Big Homes Just Listed in the St. Louis Area - Lake Geneva Regional News

The interview was one thing, but now you have to impress everyone else at work during your first few weeks. Buzz60s Sean Dowling has more. Buzz60

Whether youre negotiating a business deal or making a new friend, theres a lot of value in getting someone to open up to you. We asked master interviewer and comedian Jay Leno, along with nine Advisors in The Oracles, for their best tips to do just that. Heres what they said.

1. Give the other person your full attention and be kind.

Approach life like you arent the smartest person in the room. Then youre more likely to shut up, listen, and pay attention. Too many people dont listen. They wait for others to stop talking so they can speak. Be genuinely interested in others, and give them your full attention.

Ill never forget talking to a friend who was a big celebrity at the time. When a fan approached him for an autograph, he gave it to them without even turning around to look at them. I saw the hatred on his fans face. When my friend told me that they were lucky to get an autograph, I responded that he was the lucky one to be asked because someday he wouldnt.

Jay Leno(Photo: The Oracles)

Those days are here, and hes no longer famous. Money and fame dont change people; they enhance whoever you are. So be kind. Kindness always wins. Jay Leno, one of the worlds most successful comedians, star of Jay Lenos Garage on CNBC, and former longtime host of NBCs The Tonight Show; follow Jay on Facebook and Instagram.

2. Be yourself and be curious.

First, you have to be yourself. Be authentic. Then its about being a curious person and a good listener. Remember that stories make people feel at ease, especially if you can show your vulnerabilities.

Kara Goldin, founder and CEO of Hint Inc.(Photo: The Oracles)

And a sense of humor is never a bad thing to help ensure that the conversation flows. Kara Goldin, founder and CEO of Hint Inc.; creator of The Kara Network, a digital resource for entrepreneurs; and host of the Unstoppable podcast; follow Kara on Twitter and Instagram.

3. Listen, watch body language, and dont overshare.

Im a full-time mom who home-schools while running several eight-figure companies and sitting on several boards.

I only have time for meaningful conversations. So I use these steps whenever meeting someone new even the cashier at the grocery store; you never know who will make the greatest impact in your world or who will find your interaction the most impactful.

Listen and then respond. Most people are preoccupied with what to say next, instead of listening theyre uncomfortable with silence. Once you talk less and listen more, your engagements immediately shift.

Reflect back what youve heard the person say, confirming that you are paying attention. Give and gain knowledge, turning the interaction into a teachable moment where both sides feel valued.

Watch their body language and nonverbal cues. Look for signs theyre either uncomfortable or excited and adjust; this helps avoid awkwardness and keeps the flow in a positive direction.

Jessica Mead, founder and CEO at BrandLync(Photo: The Oracles)

Look for commonalities and offer the right amount of self-disclosure to show youre invested in creating a relationship and its safe to share with you because youre reciprocating. However, dont overshare or make it all about you. Jessica Mead, founder and CEO at BrandLync; co-founder of Mead Holdings Group, The Epek Companies, and Grayson Pierce Capital; follow Jessica on Instagram.

4. Let yourself be vulnerable.

This question makes me think about something I learned from the teachings of the late Maya Angelou: People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Chris Winfield, co-founder and CEO of Super Connector Media(Photo: The Oracles)

If you want someone to open up to you, you have to make them feel safe.

Allow yourself to be vulnerable and real with them. Many people have told me, Ive never shared this with anyone before! Lots of them were people I just met. Why? Because Im not afraid to talk about my fears, insecurities, and failures. Chris Winfield, business relationship expert, co-founder and CEO of Super Connector Media, and host of Unfair Advantage Live, a premier publicity event connecting entrepreneurs to the media; follow Chris on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

5. Make eye contact.

Making eye contact is our most powerful physical ability and the most underutilized. As a society, were inherently taught that looking directly into someones eyes is intimidating and even vulnerable. But up to 80% of the messages and experiences we take in are filtered through our eyes. They lead to neural pathways in our brains that can help us form intense bonding connections of intuitive trust, which is also what gets people to open up.

Marina Mara, international media, brand, and reputation advisor(Photo: The Oracles)

In the media, this is how we build influence and shape our clients reputations through visual storytelling. When the person who is being photographed or filmed gazes intentionally into the camera lens, they look directly into the eyes of the viewer, which naturally prompts the viewer to open up, to listen more, read more, and remember more details.

If the intentional gaze delivers this effect through print or digital media, imagine what it can do in real life! You have nothing to hide, so start showing up fully in your raw authenticity.

Use eye contact to tell better stories, communicate more effectively, engage others deeply, and show the world who you really are. Do this and watch your interactions transform and blossom! Marina Mara, international media, brand, and reputation advisor; connect with Marina on LinkedIn and Instagram.

6. Ask questions.

When people ask you what you do, its easy to talk about yourself and give a short answer like, Im a marketer, and I own a call center. But instead, I answer the question with a question about the other persons work and life so I can learn about them and relate my answer to them.

Once they share what they do, I try to find friends in common. When I know the circles they run in, I can usually find a few mutual connections, which helps me gain credibility and trust.

Craig Handley, co-founder of ListenTrust(Photo: The Oracles)

Ask questions and care about the answers, then personally relate to them in some way. Try to avoid talking exclusively about work. Find out about their hobbies, family life, and trips they are planning or have taken.

If you want someone to open up, you must care about making a genuine connection, not a superficial one. Craig Handley, co-founder of ListenTrust and author of Hired to Quit, Inspired to Stay; read more about Handley: Why These Founders Train Their Employees to Quit.

7. Leave your phone in your pocket.

Smile often and make a conscious effort to be comfortable and relaxed. Try to relate to the person in front of you without sounding phony or pretentious. Find common ground or mutual interest, but not in a textbook way. For example, not everyone likes sports, and most people arent interested in seeing your family photos.

Alon Rajic, CEO of Review Home Warranties(Photo: The Oracles)

Leave your phone in your pocket so you can focus entirely on the moment, and dont take calls unless its a personal emergency. Dont overdress to impress either. You can look nice without appearing like you spent hours preparing. While alcohol helps people open up, it has to be under the right circumstances.

If youre meeting in a bar, find a cool spot with unique surroundings not a hotel bar. Finally, dont interrogate the other person. Remember, its OK to have a few moments of silence. Alon Rajic, CEO of Review Home Warranties, the worlds largest home warranty database covering more than 200 home warranty plans.

8. Show that you care.

Theres no substitute for authenticity. The best way to invite someone to open up is to show you really care about them. Everyone is fighting a battle theyre not wearing on their sleeve. If you listen carefully with the intention of deeply understanding them, you can learn a lot about a person.

We can all sense when someone shows genuine care and concern for our thoughts and feelings. When you make someone feel seen and heard, you make them feel safe to open up and share more. Its human nature. Nafis Nina Hodjat, Esq., founder and managing attorney of The SLS Firm.

Nafis Nina Hodjat, Esq., founder and managing attorney of The SLS Firm(Photo: The Oracles)

9. Treat them like theyre an old friend.

Make the other person feel comfortable and seek out common interests. Work them into the conversation, smile, and speak with a friendly demeanor. Watch their body language and mannerisms, and use those cues to adjust your style and tone. Ask open-ended questions so they can respond freely and dont feel like they have to answer a certain way. Encourage them to speak openly and share more details.

The bottom line is, treat others like they are old friends. In turn, they will begin to feel like one and open up to you. Its always easier to talk to a friend than a stranger; so the first step is becoming a friend and then the conversation will be easy. Guy Sheetrit, CEO of Over The Top SEO, which provides customized SEO marketing solutions for e-commerce, local, and Fortune 500 companies.

Guy Sheetrit, CEO of Over The Top SEO(Photo: The Oracles)

10. Smile and be humble.

Most people love a good conversation and often love to share their experiences. I try to always start with a smile. Smiling usually indicates openness and a willingness to engage. Be disarming, humble, and genuinely listen, and you will find people usually will gravitate to a topic of their interest. Ask questions, ones that pique interest, and take the answer and frame it in a context that both of you can relate to.

Body language is key as well. Keep an open posture, and keep eye contact not intense eye contact, but enough to really show your interest level and establish trust with your new friend!

Go into every interaction with the assumption that you and this person have the potential to build a relationship together. Tom Albert, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence expert, and founder and CEO of MeasuredRisk, a leading enterprise risk management company; connect with Tom on LinkedIn.

Tom Albert, founder and CEO of MeasuredRisk(Photo: The Oracles)

Want to share your insights in a future article? JoinTheOracles, a mastermind group oftheworlds leading entrepreneurs who sharetheir success strategies to help others growtheir businesses and build better lives.

For more free business insider advice, follow The Oracles on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/11/17/want-more-people-open-up-you-these-business-leaders-tell-us-how/4177705002/

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Kindness always wins: 10 successful people on how to get anyone to open up to you - USA TODAY

London Nov 23, 2019 (Thomson StreetEvents) -- Edited Transcript of HomeServe PLC earnings conference call or presentation Tuesday, November 19, 2019 at 9:00:00am GMT

* Thomas J. Rusin

UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - EMEA Equity Research Analyst of Support Services

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our half year results presentation. HomeServe had another very good 6 months. I'm looking forward to taking you through the highlights and giving you an update on our key growth initiatives. Joined this morning by David Bower, our CFO, who will take you through the financials. And Tom Rusin, Global CEO of the Membership business, who will talk you through Membership and HVAC. And I'll come back at the end and talk through progress on international development, Leakbot and Home Experts.

So let me just start by giving you the highlights. We've had another strong half, and we're pleased, not only with our financial performance, but also the progress that we're making strategically to deliver those growth initiatives. All of our Membership businesses performed well, and most notably, North America. Profits rose 24% and we added 0.5 million new customers. We saw good growth in the U.K. with significant efficiency gains.

In France, we had our biggest increase in customer numbers for 4 years. We've strengthened our foundations in Spain with a new billing arrangement for the Endesa back book and an agreement to carry out reactivation marketing under the Endesa brand. And we saw some new partnerships in the Claims business. Our HVAC buy and build strategy made good progress with 5 acquisitions in the first half. So we expect HVAC to become a meaningful business line. In Home Experts, revenue grew 31%, and we continue to test and learn and make progress with all 3 of our businesses, Checkatrade, Habitissimo and Home Experts France.

And I'm delighted this morning to announce the acquisition of elocal, which will give us profitable entry into the Home Experts market in our biggest territory, the U.S., and more opportunities to learn and grow. More on that later. Over to David for the finances.

Thank you, Richard, and good morning, everyone. So I'll start with our group financial summary. As Richard just said, reported revenue is up 13% to GBP 458 million, with adjusted operating profit up 2% to GBP 37.7 million. And this reflects a good operational performance across our Membership businesses, where adjusted operating profit is up [19%]. This is offset in part by our planned investments in both Home Experts and New Markets. As you can see on the Slide, these results were aided by sterling's weakness against the dollar and the EUR to the tune of about GBP 1.3 million of the adjusted operating profit level.

Given recent currency movements, however, if today's rates prevail, we wouldn't expect to see any further significant impact from currency movements for the balance of the year. Adjusted profit before tax was down 10%, driven by the increase in interest due to both a higher interest net debt balance of -- higher net debt balance of GBP 451 million, and our weighted-average interest cost.

Of the GBP 160 million increase in net debt since this time last year, GBP 57 million or roughly 1/3 of it is due to the inclusion of lease liabilities under IFRS 16, whilst the rest reflects our continued investment in growth initiatives. The increase in the interest rate is due to the fixed rate borrowings drawn in the second half of last year as we lengthened the maturity profile of our debt.

On a statutory basis, profit before tax was up 2%, reflecting 2 exceptional gains. Firstly, a gain of GBP 3.8 million, arising on our exit from Italy. And then secondly, a further GBP 3.6 million gain arising on the acquisition of the remaining 30% of Habitissimo. So below the adjusted operating profit level, the increase in interest expense and acquisition amortization were more than offset during the period by those exceptional gains. As is usual at this time of the year, I'll remind you that our operations remain highly seasonal with over 80% of our profits historically generated in the second half, though, our investments are more evenly spread throughout the year. The interim dividend is up 12% to 5.8p per share, and we expect our full year dividend to continue to grow in line with earnings.

So moving on to the divisional financial summary. In the U.K., total revenue was down 5% despite an increase of 2% in net policy income. This was as repair network revenue decreased as we carried out fewer jobs across the smaller policy base. And HVAC revenue also reduced slightly, as the U.K. business focused on higher margin work, completing fewer installs in total. By contrast, the U.K. adjusted operating profit grew very well at 38%, reflecting efficiency gains, which Tom will talk through shortly.

In North America, revenue grew 30% at constant currency, as the Membership business delivered 13% growth in customers and 5% growth in net income per customer. Key proof points for our growth path, we described on our Investor Day back in June. U.S. HVAC also grew well, driven by 3 profitable acquisitions in the second half of FY '19 and a further 2 in the first half of this year.

Adjusted operating profit in North America increased 24% at constant currency, reflecting continued growth in Membership and also the profit contributed albeit at a slightly lower margin by the HVAC business. France grew revenue and adjusted operating profit by 9% and 4%, respectively, at constant currency, driven by higher customer numbers as well as increased HVAC activity. And in Spain, revenue was up 5%, reflecting higher claims volumes and our growing HVAC business, but partially offset by the expected runoff of the Endesa policy book.

The adjusted operating profit in Spain was down 12% at constant currency due principally to increased investment in business development and claims and Membership management. The GBP 2.3 million reported loss in New Markets reflects losses in our Italian business prior to its divestment, the ongoing prospecting for further international opportunities and our investment in our Japanese joint venture.

And finally, in Home Experts. The increased net loss of GBP 8 million largely reflects investment in people, marketing and technology at Checkatrade. The net loss run rate reduces in the second half, given the higher revenue growth expected in that period.

So moving on to look at the cash flow. Our free cash flow remained very healthy at GBP 37.5 million, demonstrating that previous investments are paying off. The slide shows you all the movements in net debt since the year-end. The GBP 57.4 million associated with IFRS 16, increased our leverage by 0.1x at the half year. And for keen students of IFRS 16, there's a slide in the appendix which shows you all of the moving parts.

Apart from the IFRS 16 impact, the main drivers of the increase in our net debt were capital expenditure associated with technology transformation, partner payments and policy book M&A, an outflow of GBP 22.5 million, principally from HVAC acquisitions and the remaining 30% of Habitissimo and of course, the payment of our final full year dividend. Our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio 1.9x, was at the upper end of our target year-end range, but we do remain very comfortable with this.

Looking in more detail at our capital investments. We invested around GBP 67 million in capital items in the first half across 5 main categories. The capital investment required in relation to technology enhancements across our Membership business was higher at GBP 22.4 million in the period. This does include the unwind of GBP 5 million of year-end capital creditor. As the underlying investment activity in Membership has reduced in the period as expected due to the upgrades we've been working on to our CRM and claims handling systems nearing completion. Partner payments of GBP 7.7 million continue to reduce because we're no longer acquiring customers with Endesa in Spain. But in France, capital payments to partners in return for direct help with marketing remains highly effective and have remained broadly stable period-over-period.

Policy book acquisitions remain a surefire way to grow our business. And therefore, are one of our preferred types of capital investment. The GBP 6.9 million investment in the period, delivered 2 new policy books across our Membership businesses, both of which have been quickly and seamlessly integrated into the local operating businesses. As mentioned at the year-end, we are investing more in infrastructure Checkatrade, amounting to GBP 7 million this period. And while the business is inherently capital-light, we have a 2-year road map in place to transform our technology stack and build a state-of-the-art digital experience, for both trade and consumers.

Finally, M&A spend was GBP 22.5 million in the period, which included GBP 7.7 million to acquire the remaining 30% of Habitissimo and around GBP 12 million in relation to the execution of our HVAC buy-and-build strategy.

So let me finish by summarizing our guidance for the full year. You remember that at our full year results in May, we said that we expected further strong growth this year with increased P&L investment in Home Experts, financed by a strong performance in Membership, particularly in North America. Membership in HVAC are, in fact, performing at the top end of our expectations, which gives us scope to increase our net P&L investment in New Markets and our Home Experts businesses to around GBP 19 million from the initial expectation of GBP 12 million to GBP 15 million.

We expect this increased investment to fund the new commercial plan for Habitissimo being developed by the incoming CEO, Sarah Harmon, as well as the continued development of Home Experts in France and the activities of our international business development team. Taking into account the strong performance in Membership and HVAC and the increased investment in Home Experts and New Markets just mentioned, our overall outlook for the total operating result of those businesses remains unchanged. That said, the agreement to acquire elocal announced today, which Richard will talk about in little more detail shortly, is expected to add around $5 million to this year's adjusted operating profit and then a total of around $16 million to adjusted operating profit in FY '21. After transaction costs and the associated interest charges, this will then equate to an expected increase in adjusted profit before tax of around GBP 2 million in FY '20 and then around GBP 6 million in FY '21. So at a group level and below operating profit, including the interest associated with the elocal transaction, we expect interest to be at around GBP 18 million for the full year. The tax rate is likely to be slightly higher than last year's 22%, given our growth in the international markets, all of which have higher tax rates than in the U.K.

We don't expect any major change in working capital absorption compared to last year, and we continue to expect our technology and operating CapEx to trend down overtime. Cash conversion will continue to exceed 100%, and free cash flow will continue to grow. But given the recent M&A, including elocal, we would expect our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio to continue to be towards the upper end of our target range at the year-end. And on that note, I'll hand over to Tom.

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Thomas J. Rusin, HomeServe plc - Co-COO & Global CEO of HomeServe Membership & Executive Director [3]

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Thank you, David, and good morning, everyone. Before I talk through our individual businesses, I'll provide a quick summary of Membership and the HVAC business lines overall. As Richard has already said, we are pleased with the performance of all of our Membership businesses so far this year. Membership is an exciting business, which is proven and scalable. And it is great that our strong delivery is able to fund growth in Home Experts. Across Membership, we are taking a global approach to growth, while each country focuses on its best opportunities. So in North America, we are focused on maximizing the strong organic growth opportunity and is still largely untapped market.

In France and Spain, we are focused on diversifying our partners and our products to sustain our growth. And here in the U.K., we are leading the charge with continuous improvements in customer service and efficiency. Then best practices from all these initiatives are shared and implemented globally. HVAC installations, which is also run globally, is bringing a significant source of new revenue and profit improvement across all our membership territories. We have now acquired around a dozen businesses across our 4 geographies, and this is starting to represent a meaningful global business line.

Running HVAC, adjacent to our Membership business, means that we can focus on selling -- on cross-sell opportunities, like selling HVAC systems to our policyholders and policies to those who get installations and tune ups. We also obtained cost synergies through better utilization of the engineers we acquire with these HVAC businesses. So now let me spend just a little time on each country individually. In the U.K., our success has been in improving the operational efficiency of the business, which has driven a 38% increase in adjusted operating profit to GBP 14 million. We expect to deliver a full year increase, somewhat shy of this level, but impressive nonetheless. This is before profit growth moderates in the years to come. That said, we think we can continue to harness technology to deliver service and efficiency improvements, which will ensure sustainable levels of profit in the future despite a slightly smaller customer base.

There are two main drivers of this half's improvement: people and technology. With the capital investments, David described, really starting to deliver value. As we transform the way we work, we have been making organizational changes to match, in particular, slimming down our U.K. management structure. These changes are never easy, but our U.K. team has adapted very well and the results in terms of improved efficiency and more seamless customer service are really beginning to show through.

Our focus in the U.K. is on serving -- servicing our core customer base who value our services rather than chasing marginal customers through deep discounts. We think this approach chimes well with the recent FCA study on pricing practices. Within the general insurance industry, which calls for above all, transparency and fairness. We look forward to the publication of the final report in Q1 next year, but feel that we are well-aligned for its outcomes.

Overall, our U.K. business continues to do a great job for our core customers, with net income per customer up 18% and retention steady at 78%. Our customer satisfaction scores on Trust Pilot and Reevoo remained around all-time highs of 96% on Reevoo and 4.4 on Trust Pilot. And our 900 engineers completed 0.5 million jobs in the period. But what does the future hold? As far as customer service at HomeServe is concerned, the future is now, HomeServe now. And in -- and the U.K. is leading the way on this important project to revolutionize the way we serve our customers.

HomeServe now uses natural language processing and app-based technologies to connect customers quickly and directly to an available and local engineer who can fix their problem now. Overtime, HomeServe Now will help us provide a different class of service to our customers and enable us to use our engineering and customer service resources, much, much more efficiently. HomeServe Now has been successfully trialed for electrics, plumbing and drainage and gas claims in specific regions in the U.K. and will now be trialed in North America. We already have thousands of jobs done, and all the metrics that we look at to measure success, things like average job cost, speed of technician arrival, customer satisfaction all of these metrics are exceeding our expectations. And in the U.S. and the U.K., we've trialed Smart IVR and intelligent automated call handling. We've now done several hundred thousand calls with this new technology. And again, our expectation on success metrics have been exceeded. So we are working on rolling this out globally.

Next, let's have a look at France. I'm really excited to report the strongest customer growth for 4 years in our French business, up 5% and still with the strongest retention rate in the group at 89%. We are seeing growth in France from partners, old and new. With our oldest partner, Veolia, we are seeing good results from direct sales via Veolia's home friend initiative. We are expanding our direct sales with Saur, we are about to expand our branded marketing with Suez. But we aren't just seeing success in the water channel. France has done a great job expanding in the retail energy space. We're really pleased with the progress that we are making to open up with new partners at switching sites like JeChange and Papernest and with challenger energy companies like Mint and Hellowatt. And we have a solid pipeline of potential new retail energy partners. So let's move on to Spain.

The Spanish business continues to operate well. Our Spanish team has shown great dedication as it looks to forge new partnerships and drive growth across the existing Membership and Claims business and build its own business in HVAC. While still small, we have launched a variety of new partnerships in the retail and municipal channels. And again, still early days, but we are also seeing good results with our 3 new retail energy partners. And we've acquired a small policy book from (inaudible). Retention is up 81%, as the Endesa book matures. While we no longer have any front book marketing with Endesa, the relationship remains productive. And in July, we signed an agreement to secure the billing arrangements for the back book for another 5 years. This will continue to support the retention rate, but also provides us the opportunity for customer reactivation under the Endesa brand, which has always been a very strong channel in terms of response across all of HomeServe. Reactivation marketing with Endesa will begin this month. The profitability of the claims business reduced slightly in the period as we invested in business development and in the service levels we provide to our large bancassurer customers. Earlier this month, we signed a new partnership with Bansabadell Seguros Generales, which will deliver more job volume into the Claims network. Finally, in partnership with Habitissimo, our Spanish Home Experts business, we've seen early success with our on demand to policy offering. This is something we'll be expanding in Spain and working to take to our other membership countries.

Finally, on to North America. Our North American business continues to make excellent progress toward the milestone [2] target of $230 million of operating profit. The key driver of revenue and profit growth is the 13% growth in our customer numbers and crossing the landmark threshold of over 7 million policies. With around 150,000 new customers from tranche 2 of the Dominion policy book, the remainder of the growth over 9% comes from the success of our own organic marketing activity. We continue to sign new partnerships in the U.S. at the rate of 2 to 3 a week. And since the half year, our numbers have been boosted by the expansion of our agreements with CenterPoint and AEP, adding over 800,000 new households. We also have several active policy book acquisition discussions.

HVAC, also made a strong contribution to the revenue growth in the period, growing 83% to $15.6 million. Because the 5 businesses we've acquired so far are in areas of high policy density, we are able to use their engineers for Membership repairs and improve our overall efficiency, which, overtime, will bring down our underwriting costs and benefit our income per customer. We continue to expand our existing membership model in the U.S., but we also have a brand-new opportunity with Total Home Warranty.

Whole Home warranty is a large, fragmented market, whose target market includes younger homeowners who are used to rely upon subscription services. It is a market characterized by a much higher price point per customer than we're used to at HomeServe, but with patchy levels of customer service from the competition. So this is a market where we think our own high standards can make a significant difference, not least of all, by marketing Total Home Warranty via our network of over 750 utility partners, which is a channel that is unique to us.

Our acquisition of American Home Guardian brought 5,000 policies and considerable expertise into our business, particularly in the real estate channel. And I'm happy to announce today that we've made an additional acquisition of Nations Home Warranty that will add an additional 10,000 policies. It is a small strategic home warranty add-on that operates right in AHG's territory. As a result, it is an accretive deal with operational synergies. We are already seeing inbound requests from the real estate space who are looking for a Whole Home product that provides better service.

We've also signed Mike Rowe as a spokesperson to help us tell the story around our exceptional customer service. Mike was the host of a highly rated TV show on Discovery called Dirty Jobs. The show is nominated for 5 Prime Time Emmys, and Mike was called one of America's most trusted celebrities by Forbes Magazine. Now we had planned to do only Whole Home Warranty on TV with Mike, but he was so impressed with our core Membership products that we filmed spots for those too.

Our utility partners are also very excited about having Mike indoors HomeServe as they expect to see an increase in marketing response. So here's a taste of TV marketing U.S. style.

(presentation)

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Thomas J. Rusin, HomeServe plc - Co-COO & Global CEO of HomeServe Membership & Executive Director [4]

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We've also made progress with the HomeServe app which has now been downloaded by around 30,000 users who don't need to be existing HomeServe customers. The app helps homeowners do away with their paper appliance manuals and also shares product recall alerts, self-help guides and technician contacts. We get great user data and insight from downloads, which will help us develop an excellent new direct marketing channel. So all in all, I hope this gives you a picture of our healthy growth in North America and which that -- and with that, over to Richard.

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Richard David Harpin, HomeServe plc - Founder, CEO, Co-COO & Director [5]

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Thanks, Tom. So I'll round off the presentation with update on our international business development plans, next steps for Leakbot, and of course, Home Experts. You'll remember that back in February, we announced our joint venture with Mitsubishi Corporation in Japan, with each of us committed to an initial cash investment of GBP 2 million into the JV. The joint venture has started well, run by a team of Mitsubishi and HomeServe (inaudible), plus some new recruits.

Now one of Mitsubishi's key roles was to introduce the JV to energy utilities. We're targeting a first signing before Christmas to enable marketing to commence before the financial year-end.

We announced in July that we'd exited Italy. We saw limited opportunity for our membership business there, so we decided to sell our 49% shareholding to Edison. And that's very much in keeping with our discipline of focusing time and resources on our biggest opportunities. On Leakbot, after years of testing, we now have our first rollout deal here in the U.K. and that's with Hiscox, the high net-worth insurer, and that commences at the beginning of February. They'll be offering Leakbot but free to their 40,000 high net-worth customers, and they'll pay us a monthly fee for each Leakbot sent to their customer base. The benefit to Hiscox comes from reduced water damage claims because leaks are discovered early. The Leakbot team have also just got an agreement with the insurance broker, iGo4 to launch Leakbot as a black box device for customer acquisition and available on comparison websites where consumers get a reduced premium for fitting and using our Leakbot. And we've started testing Leakbot in the U.S. So we're now looking for a strategic partner, such as a large Internet of things or smart home player in the U.S. to help us quickly scale the Leakbot business over there. Last, but not least, Home Experts. In Home Experts, we've made substantial progress in the period in developing our business in 3 out of our 4 Membership territories.

Checkatrade and Habitissimo are both market leaders, they attract substantial numbers of website hits and are delivering encouraging revenue growth. Our increased net P&L investment of GBP 8 million in the first half was focused on people, technology and marketing at Checkatrade. In the second half, our investment will be across all 3 Home Experts businesses with increased focus on Habitissimo. At Habitissimo, we now have 100% ownership of the business. Sarah Harmon is putting in place a new, more ambitious commercial plan. We're going to continue to develop Habitissimo's lead generation model by looking at generating leads from affiliates and embedding large key accounts into our trade network. And alongside this, we'll launch our preferred Directory Extra model in Madrid next spring.

In our Home Experts trial in France, we are trialing out a different trade acquisition strategy to build the number of trades on the platform much more quickly, adding them to the platform free of charge after a basic set of checks. We then seek to upgrade them to full vetting on a monthly fee, once they've received the first customer contacts. We're attracting customers to the platform via leaflet directories and search engine marketing. And already, we're getting over 70,000 web visits a month in France. So we're pleased with our progress so far at building a Home Experts business from scratch in our French marketplace.

We're building Checkatrade like building a house with the foundations being trust, scalability and people. The 2 floors of our house are the right models for consumers and the right model for trades. The roof is a brand famous for being the best place to find checked and better trades, and we're making good progress on all of these. Not much of our learning has come from what we call our Mega City Trial. We started in the Grenada TV region, covering Liverpool and Manchester, and it's now been rolled out to 4 additional areas covering around half of U.K. households, including Checkatrade's traditional stronghold in the Southeast. And its geographical expansion, that's the key to getting 80% of our target for trade recruitment. So the extension of the trial is very significant. A key part of the Mega City Trial has been testing a new way to recruit trades involving a free trial and a rolling monthly contracts. That allows trades to dial up and down their subscription, depending upon how much work they actually need. And early results have been really good, a 32% uplift in the take-up rates in Granada with this recruitment model.

Now growth in trade numbers is the key driver towards our medium- to long-term target of GBP 45 million to GBP 90 million of operating profit. We saw a 21% increase in trades to 38,000 in the quieter first half, and that rate of acquisition has started to accelerate in the last few months. Average revenue per trade continues to build gradually and now stands at GBP 957 per year per trade.

On the consumer side, we've improved the user experience with the launch of Shortlist and Click to Call, which have had a very positive impact. Next improvement to launch will be matching a consumer to a trade with more availability to do their job and this will be live early in the new year. Checkatrade Now, for emergency jobs, is in the final stages of testing before its rollout. So we're making good progress towards implementing what we call our Directory Extra model.

We've also made a big step-up on brand awareness with the launch of our new TV ad in our Mega City regions and here in London. The ad focuses on Checkatrade's key differentiator, checked and better trades. So here it is.

(presentation)

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Richard David Harpin, HomeServe plc - Founder, CEO, Co-COO & Director [6]

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Moving on to the U.S., I'm really excited to be announcing this morning the acquisition of eLocal, which gives us an excellent foundation for our Home Experts business in our biggest market, the U.S. It's profitable, it's growing fast, and it's got a really interesting business model that we can learn from here in Europe. eLocal is a pay per lead platform, which is smart in the way that it generates the leads. It pays affiliate marketing partners per lead, which eliminates marketing risk. Trades pay for leads and sign up to a free directory model, which forms a really valuable prospect list and will be an excellent starting point for introducing our Directory Extra model in a year's time when we have the perfect model from all of our learning in the U.K., Spain and France.

Now consumers have 3 ways to use eLocal. They can be matched automatically with up to 4 trades, and that's the Habitissimo model or they call a hotline, and they're connected to a trade via IVR, very much like HomeServe now or they call a trade listed in the directory like Checkatrade. Now eLocal is already a substantial business. It's based in Philadelphia, but also has offices in New York and in California, with around 130 staff. It has a network of 11,600 paying trades and 3.2 million home services trades actually listed in their free directory.

Revenue this calendar year is expected to more than double to around $80 million, following an acquisition that they made last year, with organic growth within that of over 40%. And 2019 calendar year profits are expected to be around $14 million. As we integrate eLocal, we expect to add, as David said, $5 million adjusted operating profit in FY '20 and $16 million of adjusted operating profit next year in FY '21. As David said, after integration costs and interest, that's GBP 2 million of PBITA this year and GBP 6 million next year. Our ambition for eLocal is to continue to deliver high single-digit profit growth while also investing to scale and grow our Home Experts model in America. We paid around $140 million for; 79% stake, financed through our existing debt facilities. The other 21% of eLocal is owned by the management team and a private equity group who first invested back in 2017. The founders are going to stay with us to run and grow the business, and they will report directly to me, so that we can continue to share learning across all of our Home Experts businesses and avoid distracting our existing U.S. management team from their exciting Membership and HVAC growth.

So let me summarize. I'm delighted with the way HomeServe has performed in the last 6 months. Under Tom's leadership, all of our Membership and HVAC businesses are seeing constant innovation, be it in improving and transforming customer service, developing our partnerships or opening up new products and channels. We've continued to make good progress at Checkatrade. We've got renewed focus at Habitissimo in Spain. And we're building momentum following the launch of Home Experts, France. And with our acquisition of eLocal, we now have a Home Experts foothold in all of our existing Membership territories.

We're being really disciplined about where we invest our capital and where we choose to divest, as you've seen in Italy. And we're constantly investing in our teams to make sure that we've got the management capability for all of our growth initiatives. So I'd like to finish by thanking everyone at HomeServe and all of our stakeholders for your support and hard work in the last 6 months. The second half has got off to an excellent start, and I'm confident that we'll be able to report strong growth for the full year. So on that note, let me open up the meeting to your questions. Thank you.

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Questions and Answers

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Nicole Manion, UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - EMEA Equity Research Analyst of Support Services [1]

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It's Nicole from UBS. Just one question on Checkatrade and then one on HVAC, if that's okay. In fact, the first question, I suppose is more broadly about Home Experts. Increasingly, it looks like you're internationalizing the model, which is obviously great. But I wonder what that means for the trades target in Checkatrade and how you think about that and if that still makes sense? That's the first one. And the second one is just the profit run rate in HVAC. I think it was, sort of, low single-digit in the U.S. last year as an absolute number. Just where that's sort of moving towards and whether you've got anything sort of outside the U.S. now in terms of a profit number?

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Richard David Harpin, HomeServe plc - Founder, CEO, Co-COO & Director [2]

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Yes. So I'll take the first one, Checkatrade, ask David on the profit run rate for HVAC. So yes, absolutely confident in our medium to long-term target in Checkatrade, which was to get to between 150,000 and 200,000 trades. It will be a hockey stick effect. We're learning and optimizing. The model still on trade recruitment, and we will see continued growth this year and acceleration in future years.

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David Bower, HomeServe plc - Co-COO & Group CFO & Director [3]

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In terms of the HVAC profits in North America, we'd expect to see some good growth -- percentage growth on that U.S. number and then a broadly similar number in the whole of Europe for the full year.

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Joe Brent, Liberum Capital Limited, Research Division - Head of Research and Equity Analyst [4]

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Joe Brent at Liberum. Three questions, if I may. Firstly, eLocal, that's an exciting acquisition. Could you tell us how you expect to sort of invest in that business, grow it and what the road map is for North America Home Experts? Detailed financial question for David. On the revenues for eLocal, you've given us the calendar year '19 number. I think there's an annualization effect from the acquisition. Could you give us some indication of what the FY '21 revenue might be in that business? And thirdly, in Checkatrade U.K., could you tell us how successful you're being at utilizing the tradesmen network, which, I think, in the past, has been a bit of a challenge that 80% of the jobs have gone to 20% of the trades. Are you managing to get an even flow of work to a broader number of tradesmen?

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Richard David Harpin, HomeServe plc - Founder, CEO, Co-COO & Director [5]

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Okay. Yes. So the first one of those was investing and growing eLocal. So the focus is, they've got a great model, lots of stuff that we can learn from. Ping and post, which is their equivalent of HomeServe now that we can learn from. So they're taking leads from around 200 affiliates, go through largely telephone calls into an automated IVR and then passing them out to trades that are pre-registered to buy a number of leads. So the key bit actually is in taking the learning, continuing their attractive growth rate. And then once we've perfected the Directory Extra model over the next 12 months in Europe, we can then -- they can start to put that into their already established free directory model, which will mean doing vetting and checking in the way that we do here. So I think really exciting growth plan and able to do it while continuing to grow single-digit profitability of that eLocal business in our largest territory.

Revenues for eLocal?

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David Bower, HomeServe plc - Co-COO & Group CFO & Director [6]

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In terms of the full year annualized run rate revenue, probably expect to see around about the [100 million mark in dollars], in FY '21.

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Richard David Harpin, HomeServe plc - Founder, CEO, Co-COO & Director [7]

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And there was one further question that Joe had on Checkatrade. About 20% of the trades are getting 50% of the work today. So we're working on continuing to make sure that we've got fair distribution of that work relative to how much the trades are paying and making sure that new trades coming on board, particularly in the newer areas are getting work so that we achieve good levels of retention.

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Edited Transcript of HSV.L earnings conference call or presentation 19-Nov-19 9:00am GMT - Yahoo Finance

TORONTO -- An Ontario family who was forced to move out of their new home when they discovered it was infested with toxic black mould will be able to afford a rebuild after the provinces home warranty program stepped in.

In June 2018, Bridget Austin, her husband Mike, and their two young daughters moved from Grimsby, Ont. into what they believed would be their dream home in Port Sydney, Ont., located about a two-hour drive north of Toronto.

However, within the first few weeks of living in the home, the couples two young daughters developed consistent fevers and one of them was diagnosed with strep throat.

Soon after, the family uncovered what appeared to be mould lurking beneath their floorboards when they were renovating the kitchen. They also found the fungus growing in the basement ceiling, behind the baseboards, and even in the cold air return.

A specialist confirmed their suspicions after taking samples from the home. The results revealed the home was infested with stachybotrys, or toxic black mould, and it was unsafe to live in.

They basically deemed our house a tear-down, Bridget Austin told CTVNews.ca in June. They said that there is no amount of remediation that can be done to fix this home.

After they moved into a rental unit in nearby Huntsville, Austin said they learned the home was not as new as they were led to believe. Neighbours in Port Sydney said construction on the home had started in 2006 not 2016 as the Austins were told.

According to neighbours, the partially completed home had sat for years exposed to the elements without any siding.

Bridget Austin said their insurance denied them coverage because the mould was present in the home before they bought it. She said they had a home inspection completed before the sale, but the mould wasnt discovered then.

With little other recourse, the Austins filed a lawsuit against the builder accusing him of covering up the mould in order to sell the home.

CTVNews.ca has attempted to contact the builder, but he has not responded to requests for comment.

In the ensuing months, the family struggled to make ends meet as they paid rent and utilities for their current home while they also paid the mortgage, utilities, and property taxes on the house with the mould. Even the $8,000 in donations they received from a GoFundMe campaign werent enough to cover their expenses, Austin said.

By November, Bridget Austin said they were only a month or two away from declaring bankruptcy.

Wed pretty much be losing everything, she said on Saturday. We would have lost our property had we claimed bankruptcy.

'A MIRACLE'

Finally in early November, the Austin family received a piece of good news.

Tarion Warranty Corporation, a private, non-profit organization created by the Ontario government in the 1970s to regulate builders and protect homebuyers, told the Austins they had accepted their warranty claim.

Once we became aware of the situation, we did an investigation and determined that the home was under warranty, Melanie Kearns, director of strategic communications for Tarion, said in an emailed statement to CTVNews.ca.

Mould claims of the extent seen in their house are pretty rare, but when they happen they are serious. Ensuring a home is fit for habitation is part of the builders warranty. In this case the builder has refused to remedy the situation so we have stepped in to work with the family directly.

Austin said the home warranty organization launched an investigation and fast-tracked their case after CTV News reported the story in June.

While Tarion wouldnt disclose the extent or form of compensation, Bridget Austin said they were told they would receive the maximum payout of $300,000.

Were ecstatic. Were so thrilled, she said. Its a miracle, really. Them stepping up and helping us when were at rock bottom and have nowhere else to turn.

She added that Tarion determined the cost to fix the home would be about the same as tearing it down and rebuilding. She said they decided to rebuild so they could be sure the mould wouldnt return and to avoid any lingering stigma associated with the home should they try to sell it in the future.

Everybody knows about the mould so we would never even be able to turn around, even if it was remediated, to sell it, she said. Youd be stuck in this mould toxin-ridden home.

While the $300,000 should be enough to cover the costs of demolishing the house and rebuilding the main portion, Austin said they were quoted $475,000 to complete the project.

For example, Austin said they had a 600-square-foot garage they wont be able to rebuild right away. She said they hope to recover the outstanding funds from the pending lawsuit.

The family has, however, received generous donations from local businesses in the community. Austin said they have been given a brand new HVAC system, flooring offered at cost and discounts on excavation and electrical work.

Austin said they plan to begin construction in the spring. And while the home will be the same square footage as the old one, she said it wont resemble it.

That to me would just be like a nightmare walking back into it every day, she said. It would just be a constant reminder of what we went through.

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Family who bought mould-infested 'dream home' to receive $300K for rebuild - CTV News

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WELD COUNTY, Colo. -- A massive cottonwood holding a bald eagle's nest has been torn down in Weld County, frustrating neighbors.

The tree, off County Road 13 and County Road 34, was torn down by the property owner Thursday.

"I was driving down this road this morning, and their tree is gone, the nest gone. And it just makes me heartbroken," one woman who lives in the area said. "As I saw that, I started to cry because it's an American icon. I don't know why you would take anything away from an animal like that."

The news created angst on Weld County social media pages, with some questioning the legality of the move.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a rancher applied for and received a permit, allowing him to remove the tree as part of an irrigation project.

It's illegal under federal law to harm or disturb a bald eagle or its nest without a permit.

"In this case, we issued a permit for removal of a nest that was not being used by eagles for nesting," said Kevin Kritz, a wildlife biologist with Fish and Wildlife. "That's because it's outside the nesting season."

Kritz says he personally visited the property over the summer and signed off on the permit.

He says while some eagles remain in Colorado over the winter, they are not actively using the nests this time of year.

He says the eagles should have no problem relocating to another tree before breeding season begins in January.

"There's other trees present there that could still serve as potential nests trees," Kritz said. "That's basically what they're going through now, because the one they were in last year is gone."

More:
Weld County tree with eagle nest torn down; officials say its legal - FOX 31 Denver

BAY CITY, MI - One local couple is giving a special gift to the Bay City community for this holiday season.

Gerald and Patricia Pett are donating their beloved blue spruce tree as the Christmas tree in Wenonah Park this year. The tree will be set up by Dave and Sally Clements, who are in their fourth year of finding and decorating a Christmas tree for Bay City.

The Clements seek out trees each year that are beautiful but need removal for one reason or another. Gerald Pett said his 35-foot blue spruce is damaging their patio system and the roots are heading for the house foundation.

But the tree has sentimental value for the Petts. Theyve had the tree for approximately half of their 50-year marriage. In 1995, Gerald was approached by a neighbor who had bought a nearby lot and was looking to get rid of two small pine trees.

Gerald Pett took one of the trees and planted it in his yard. Nearly 25 years later, the tree is a full and healthy specimen. Gerald said that he took care of the tree year after year, constantly trimming it and fertilizing it when needed.

Over the years, the tree grew alongside the couple. Gerald Pett made a cutout in the tree for the two to enjoy a swinging bench beneath it. The tree was decorated for the holidays, with bright lights and large ornaments as long as it was feasible to do so.

In the last five years, however, the tree got too big for the Petts to handle decorating. So they donated the tree to the Bay City community. The couple released a statement that said, In honor of our upcoming 50th wedding anniversary on January 23, 2020, we donate this tree and wish a merry Christmas to all.

Dave and Sally Clements made arrangements to have the tree picked on Monday, Nov. 25 and transported to Wenonah Park.

Moving the tree to Wenonah Park is no easy task. Because of its location, it will have to be lifted over their neighbors fence and navigated onto a flatbed trailer. Gerald Pett said.

The tree will be then decorated with festive decorations and nearly a mile of string lights.

The tree will be lit during the fourth annual tree lighting ceremony in Wenonah Park on Friday, Nov. 29.

The Petts are attending the ceremony to bid farewell to their tree. They will get to witness the tree that stood guard over their house for over half of their marriage bring delight to hundreds of children and their families.

I hope I dont cry, said Patricia Pett.

The lighting ceremony and the celebration of Santas arrival starts at 7 p.m. on Nov. 29. Santa Claus will put on a special performance before meeting area children and Miss Bay County will also sign books after the tree lighting. Refreshments will be provided by St. Laurent Brothers and McDonalds and food trucks will also be on location.

Carriage rides are available for $5 as well as free ice skating at the pavilion.

Children are asked to bring flashlights to help welcome Santa Claus to Wenonah Park.

The Santa and reindeer light display that was rescued from the roof of the F.P. Horak building before the building was demolished will also be lit at this time. The display was installed atop the Bay County Museum on Thursday, Nov. 21.

Related news:

Santa and his reindeer light display to shine over Bay City once again

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Bazaars, performances and other holiday season events in mid-Michigan

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Bay Citys 2019 Christmas tree honors couples 50th wedding anniversary - MLive.com

Proposed changes to parking and landscaping at Hillside Village. (Photo by Jaime Dunaway.)

A zoning change application at the Hillside Village Shopping Center aims to update parking and replace landscaping that was cut down in 2018, according to documents filed with the City of Dallas in early November.

Hillside Village is zoned under Planned Development No. 79. It was established in 1975 for the construction of the center under Shopping District regulations, which set building height and landscaping standards. Parking standards in PD 79 follow rules set in the defunct 1960 Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance, which does not allow shared parking.

The purpose of the zoning change application is to amend PD 79 and update the base zoning to a Commercial Retail District, which would allow mix-use parking, according to the application.

The current zoning treats the three buildings in the southeast corner of the shopping center as three separate entities with their own separate parking lots. That creates problems when new tenants want to lease a space because city officials believe theres not enough parking. The zoning change asks the City of Dallas to treat the property as a single lot for parking purposes, so when new tenants move in, there will be sufficient parking.

Parking spaces will not be added or removed, nor will they be narrowed or widened. The only difference neighbors will see is additional tree planters in the parking lot, said Rob Baldwin, principal of the zoning consultant company Baldwin Associates.

The incentive is to increase flexibility to draw more tenants to the space to keep it vibrant and full, Baldwin said.

The amendment also includes an updated landscape plan. The application calls for adequately sized landscape islands for large trees and the replacement of trees on the east and south side of the building, where a tree buffer had been cut down.

Neighbors reported that the trees came down in 2018 near the intersection of Hillside Drive and Winton Street. The trees blocked the view of the shopping center and created a noise buffer from the traffic.

Chief arborist Philip Erwin said in an email at the time that he did not see a tree removal permit for the property on file.

Landscaping along Hillside Drive requires a minimum number of certain trees along the east and west screening walls, and the trees must be supplemented with numerous shrubs, according to PD 79. All landscaped areas must be properly maintained and kept in a healthy condition, with replacement plants for those that die.

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Without the trees, rain runoff increases and flows across the parking lot into surrounding neighborhoods.

More than 20 homeowners near BlueFair Lake submitted comments at a public meeting Tuesday that said the runoff settles in their backyards and the pond. The volume of water from the parking lot has also increased the erosion of the creek that flows into White Rock Lake, they said.

We are opposed to changes that contribute to the increase of trash and pollutants caused by increased parking, according to a written statement.

Continue reading here:
Will the trees cut down at Hillside Village finally be replaced? - Advocate Media

ASCUTNEY The state will delay plans to cut down a beleaguered tree and pay for a second opinion from an arborist as town and state officials seek solutions for a century-old maple that has stirred calls for preservation as the last visible remnant of a farm owned by the late Romaine Tenney.

Selectboard members and state officials with the Vermont Agency of Transportation agreed Monday night that Interim Weathersfield Town Manager Sven Fedorow would contact area arborists and send those names to the state, which would then decide whom to hire for another examination of the tree.

VTrans has agreed to postpone removing the tree until further evaluation, and we will also work with the town on a historical marker (for Tenney), Andrea Wright, the right of way and environmental program manager with the Agency of Transportation, said Tuesday.

The concession to community outcry may help the state stem a controversy that paralleled the events before Tenneys death in 1964. Despite repeated Tenneys repeated refusal to sell the farm, the state seized his property to make way for Interstate 91, after which Tenney burned his farmhouse and took his own life.

Those wounds were reopened for some in the community earlier this year, when an arborist hired by the state determined that the maple tree, which sits on the edge of the park and ride off Exit 8, was mostly dead and could not be saved.

With the pending removal of the last piece of Tenneys farm, a public meeting late last month that was supposed to be about a memorial for Tenney instead became a demand from many residents to save the tree. That was followed by a formal request from the Selectboard to hold off cutting down the tree and an invitation to state officials to come to Mondays meeting, which led to the agreement for a second arborist.

On Tuesday, Selectboard member Dave Fuller, who joined others at the October meeting demanding the tree be saved, said he has softened his position somewhat and has recognized that eventually it will have to come down. About 10 years ago, cables were installed to stabilize the tree, which is more than 100 years old and 80 feet tall.

When it does come down, Fuller and others said, they hope the trees base, about 8 to 10 feet below a large cavity, can be saved. One idea Fuller mentioned Tuesday was an eternal flame placed in a carved-out section of the trunk with a small window.

It could signify Romaine Tenney never left, Fuller said.

The board also discussed removing some of the limbs and branches that pose a danger to vehicles and pedestrians in the park and ride and will have the arborist consider that as well. Fedorow said if nothing is done the state would likely close off about seven parking spaces at the heavily used park and ride to limit its liability.

Losing seven spaces could be problematic, Fedorow said.

Patrick OGrady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.

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State delays cutting down Tenney farm tree, will get second opinion on its health - Valley News

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Lakehead residents said they were concerned about this tree damaging nearby Pacific Gas and Electric Co. power lines.(Photo: Damon Arthur/Record Searchlight)

For the past year, Janeen Pepper has watched a large pine across the street from her Lakehead home slowly die as the needlesturned from green to brown.

So last month, Pepper's neighbor, Brad Church, finally called Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to tell them the tree was dead and may need to be removed because it was near electrical lines and a transformer.

Pepper said she was unable to find out when the tree was going to be removed. With winter approaching, it worried her that wind and snow could break branches off the tree and knock out power to the neighborhood.

"It's dead. Look at it, the limbs are going to start falling off and the snows are going to start coming," Pepper said.

"There's been power outages because of the wind and this is one more dead tree close to a transformer," she said

Pepper said she had been unable to find out when crews planned to remove the tree, but on Tuesday, PG&E spokesman Paul Moreno said the company it hired to remove trees plans to cut down the tree within the next couple weeks.

He said the tree did not pose an immediate threat.

"If we had indeed identified it as a hazard tree it would have been removed that day," Moreno said.

Earlier in the year, the tree was inspected and it still had enough green canopy that it didn't warrant removal, Moreno said.

"But after the customer called us we re-examined the tree," he said."Although we found it to have enough green canopy left, we decided to have it removed due to customer concern and the possibility its condition could eventually make it eligible for removal in the future."

Lakehead residents said they were concerned about this tree damaging nearby Pacific Gas and Electric Co. power lines.(Photo: Damon Arthur/Record Searchlight)

PG&E is concerned about more than just trees in Lakehead this week. The company announced Monday that up to 300,000 customers in 25 counties, including Shasta County, could lose electricity on Wednesday due to high winds forecast for that day.

"Worsening dry conditions and expected high wind gusts pose an increased risk for damage and sparks on the electric system that have the potential to ignite fires in areas with dry vegetation," a PG&E news release said.

However, by Tuesday, PG&E said the number of customers affected by the public safety power outages was downgraded and would likely be around 181,000 people in 16 counties.

In Shasta County, PG&E is estimating 8,940 customers in Anderson, Cottonwood, Igo, Millville and Palo Cedro will be affected by the outages.

The outage will also affect some people living around Redding, PG&E said. However, most Redding residents get their electricity provided by Redding Electric Utility.

Damon Arthur is the Record Searchlights resources and environmentreporter. He is among the first on the scene at breaking news incidents, reporting real time on Twitter at@damonarthur_RS. Damon is part of a dedicated team of journalists who investigate wrongdoing and find the unheard voices to tell the stories of the North State. He welcomes story tips at 530-225-8226 and damon.arthur@redding.com. Help local journalism thrive bysubscribing today!

Read or Share this story: https://www.redding.com/story/news/2019/11/19/wind-way-lakehead-residents-worry-dead-tree/4233339002/

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With wind on the way Lakehead residents worry about dead tree near power lines - Record Searchlight

HUNTINGDON VALLEY, Pa., Nov. 18, 2019 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) Researchers are still learning about the Spotted Lanternfly, an invasive insect attacking trees and causing property damage across Pennsylvania. Penn State, along with the PA Department of Agriculture and the USDA, has been researching the habits and life cycle of Spotted Lanternfly since it first appeared in Berks County in 2014.

One thing is certain: the Ailanthus Tree (or Tree of Heaven) is a magnet for these pests. The experts at Giroud Tree and Lawn explain why if homeowners have an Ailanthus tree on the property, removal may be the best way to avoid an invasion of Spotted Lanternfly.

Why Is Spotted Lanternfly Spreading So Fast?Spotted Lanternfly came from Asia, where natural predators keep the species from multiplying too quickly. Unfortunately, here in the United States, its spreading rapidly because those known predators arent around to keep it in check.

What Can Homeowners Do toControl Spotted Lanternfly?Although this insects population is growing exponentially each year, there are many things homeowners can do to control it:

What is an Ailanthus Tree?The main host tree for Spotted Lanternfly is the Ailanthus Altissima, or Tree of Heaven. Ailanthus trees came to the U.S. fromChina around the 1780s. Classified as weed trees, they reproduce by both seed and root sprouts. Shoots can sprout from the trees roots from as far away as 5o feet around the tree!

Ailanthus trees can grow up to 100 feet tall and the trunk can be nearly 6 feet in diameter. They have a great canopy and often thrive easily in conditions other trees dont. In fact, an Ailanthus tree may be viewed as an important part of the yard and homeowners may be hesitant to remove them. However, if there are any other valuable trees on the property, the Ailanthus will attract Spotted Lanternfly and the insects could also swarm other trees.

Spotted Lanternfly have been known to attack other types of trees, including Black Walnuts, Maples, Birches, Willows, and many more.According to the PA Department of Agriculture,they feed from more than 70 species of trees, and 25 of them are found in Pennsylvania. Keeping an Ailanthus tree is like inviting Spotted Lanternfly to a buffet in the backyard!

How to Remove Ailanthus TreesIf homeowners have an Ailanthus tree or are not sure if a tree is an Ailanthus, they should call an ISA Certified Arborist to evaluate the tree look for signs of Spotted Lanternfly. Giroud Tree and Lawn recommends removing Ailanthus trees and grinding the stumps down as deeply as possible.

After removing the Ailanthus tree and stump, sprouts may still pop up on the property.The good news is they are easy to remove! Grab the shoot by its base and pull upward gently to remove the young tree and all of its roots. To see how to identify and remove an Ailanthus tree, watch this video with Giroud Tree and Lawns ISA Certified Arborist, Mike Chenail.

Giroud Tree and Lawn specializes in tree service, lawn care and mosquito and tick control programs that make customers love doing business with the company since 1974. Serving Bucks, Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties, the company offers professional tree and lawn evaluation, tree pruning, tree removal, insect and disease control, fertilizing, stump removal, traditional and 100% organic lawn programs and mosquito and tick control.

Giroud Arborists are certified by the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) and have the knowledge and experience required to properly diagnose, treat and maintain trees and lawn health. The company is Accredited by the Tree Care Industry Association and Better Business Bureau. Giroud has also been awarded the Angies List Super Service Award every year since 2005. The Giroud Treework for Charity program donates free tree care services to parks, historical sites and other non-profit organizations located in the Companys service area.

For more information, visit the company website at http://www.giroudtree.com or call 215-682-7704.

News Source: Giroud Tree and Lawn

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Giroud Tree and Lawn explains homeowners should remove Ailanthus trees, the host plant for Spotted Lanternfly - Send2Press Newswire