Allen has launched a new online map that allows residents to keep track of the new businesses and developments coming to their neighborhood. A look at the lineup of projects on the map now shows, among other projects, the citys new recreation center, HTeaO and a 17,291-square-foot retail development.

The map separates projects based on how far along they are in development: proposed, approved, in construction and completed. Each individual project can be selected for further details.

The 12 projects shown as under construction in the city are:

The 13 proposed projects displayed on the map include:

Projects that have been approved but arent yet underway include a remodeling of the Suncreek United Methodist Church and work on the Allen Tech Hub, which will feature a four-story office building with a three-story parking garage.

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See what new construction projects are in your Allen neighborhood: hotel, dog park or tea shop? - The Dallas Morning News

When Gordianus Setio Lelono served as a neighborhood community chief several years ago, he had a recurring dream.

He saw himself standing in the pulpit of his parish church in Bekasi, in Indonesias West Java province, telling the congregation about the importance of having a sense of belonging to a parish.

St. Michael Catholic Church in the Kranji district of the town was considered illegal because it did not have a building permit.

The parish was established in May 1991 in a province regarded by many as the most intolerant in Indonesia and home to various radical and extremist Muslim groups.

Parishioners were unable to obtain a building permit fortheir church due to strong objections from these hardline groups until one day in 2000 when the parish priest asked Lelono, a local Catholic businessman, to look into the problem.

Catholicism in 21st Century China Read the Mission in Asia Essays

He formed a small team called Team 9 and tried to find out the exact reasons behind the objections to the building permit.

We found the root of the problem within three months. It was simply because parishioners separated themselves from others and did not mix as they automatically thought that they were a minority being rejected by the majority. It seemed a ridiculous situation to me, he said.

A few years later, at the parish priests suggestion, he set up a parish body called the Committee of St. Michael Catholic Church Complex Construction, which had about 60 members.

The idea was for the parish to actively seek to build a church, a residence for priests and buildings for charity work, such as a clinic.

The first thing the panel did was to study a joint ministerial decree first issued in 1969 on places of worship.

Issued by the religious affairs and home affairs ministries, the regulation lays out onerous requirements to obtain a permit to build a place of worship.

Church officials must provide a list of the names and signatures of 90 worshipers and get signed support from at least 100 local residents and approval by a village head.

Along with the committees members, Lelono started to visit residents. He also met all neighborhood leaders to try and garner peoples support to allow a building permit to be issued.

I tried to present our case in an open and friendly manner, he says.

Tough challenge

It was not easy, though. Protestations often came from outsiders or hardline Islamic groups that simply continued to reject the existence of churches in the town, claimingthe aim was proselytization.

Despite the obstacles, however, Lelono and his committee succeeded in obtaining a building permit for a church in September 2004 after getting the more than 100 signatures needed from residents, mostly Muslims.

However, soon after that, a stranger came to his house calling him to a meeting with a group of people wanting to speak with him.

I called a few parishioners and asked them to go with me. But they all refused. I was not afraid. I just wanted to have some witnesses, he says.

At the meeting, he was threatened and assaulted and told the parish church must not be built.

I knelt before them, pleading with them to let my parish build a church. I assured them that no proselytization would ever take place, he says.

But they insisted it must not be built and even threatened to kill me if I did not tear up the building permit.

Despite the threat, the parish began construction work and in November 2008 the church was consecrated.

He said he hasnt heard from those who threatened him since.

Another fight

Word of Lelonos success spread. In 2010, a priest from St. Clara Parish, also in Bekasi, asked him for help in obtaining a building permit for a church.

St. Clara Parish was established in August 1998 and, like Lelonos, was facing strong opposition from hardline Islamic groups over building a church.

The two parishes had a similar problem. So, I used the same approach as before. I was lucky that the mayor, Rahmat Effendi, was very understanding. He always says he wants to serve all people in Bekasi no matter their religious background, Lelono said.

St. Clara Parish finally obtained a building permit in July 2015 but opposition from hardliners refused to go away.

Small protests often happened but there were two huge rallies, Lelono said.

The first one took place a month after the parish obtained the permit. More than 1,000 gathered, claiming the parish got it through improper means.

The same claim was made at the second and that the site for the church was in an area where pious Muslims resided which should bar any churches being built in the area.

But local residents were good about it. The opposition was coming from outsiders, which often happens in such cases, he said.

Last year he was asked by another priest to help obtain a permit for a church at St. John Paul II Mission Station in Rawalumbu, also in Bekasi.

This went more smoothly. It only took a year to get, Lelono said.

The mission station got the permit in February this year. The groundbreaking ceremony for the churchs construction will take place in January 2021.

Lelono, who recently received an award from the Union of Christian Media Journalists for his efforts, said that although he has been successful in helping parishes, he had to spend a lot of time, energyand money doing so.

But the whole problem these parishes had to face just for a simple permit concerned me a great deal. I did not do it for an award. I am 67 years old now. I do not consider myself a good person and, believe me, I have sinned. Maybe it was part of a plan God has for me. He wants me to do good things.

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'God just wants me to do good things' - UCAN

TAYLORSVILLE, Utah The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints officially signaled the start of construction for its upcoming temple in Taylorsville during a groundbreaking ceremony Saturday morning.

The temple will be built on a 7.5-acre site at 2603 W 4700 S. The plans for the temple call for a three-story, 70,000-square foot structure with a center spire.

Local COVID-19 restrictions prohibited a large-scale gathering, but church leaders hosted "local leaders representing the communities in the temple district along Utahs Jordan River corridor, including Kearns, West Valley City, Taylorsville, Bennion, Murray and Cottonwood," a news release from the Latter-day Saint church said.

Latter-day Saint Church president Russell M. Nelson first announced the temple in October 2019. Utah currently has 17 operating temples and several others either announced or under construction.

"In addition to Taylorsville, temples have been announced in Lindon, Syracuse, Tooele Valley and Washington County (Red Cliffs). Temples in Layton, Orem and Saratoga Springs are currently under construction," the news release said.

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Latter-day Saint Church breaks ground for construction of Taylorsville temple - fox13now.com

OTTAWA Lines of vehicles snaked around the Ottawa Fire Station on North Agner Street, as the public turned out Sunday in droves to help SS. Peter & Paul Catholic Parish with its annual fall festival.

Due to COVID and also with our construction, we have very little space in there with the classrooms, were spreading everyone out, said co-organizer Pat Maag We just couldnt do our big meals, and with us bringing in so many people inside and with the COVID, we decided to go this route this year.

The festival turned into a carry-out dinner only event, featuring chicken and pork chop dinners.

Organizers prepared 2,000 meals for the event; 1,500 of those were chicken and 500 were pork chop dinners. It was a change from its traditional meal of roasted beef, dressing, mashed potatoes and homemade noodles, served family-style.

This is what brings us together. We have people that come from all over. We have people who come from Toledo, Maag said. They like how we make the dressing from scratch. We have the noodles, just the whole homestyle meal, Maag said.

Instead, Sundays meal included chicken or pork chops, au gratin potatoes, green beans, a roll and cookies donated by parishioners.

Even without COVID-19 looming, it might have been difficult to hold the annual fall festival at the school because of the construction.

Theyre adding eight new classrooms and a gymnasium. As far as we know, theyre right on target, and we hope to be in (the new building) at the beginning of the school year for next year, said Jan Karhoff, co-organizer of the fall parish festival.

The Ottawa Fire Station #100 was ideally suited to handle the traffic generated by the event.

Without the fire department this year, we would not have been able to pull this meal off. They opened their facility to us, which was awesome and theyre all helping, said Karhoff.

Usually, the event brings in $28,000. This year theyre hoping for close to $25,000.

The money raised from the carry-out meals will go to the general fund of the parish to help both the school and church.

This is a fundraiser weve always done, and we typically didnt want to give it up, Karhoff said. It would be a huge hit if we didnt have it. So with our new pastor Father Scott (Kramer), we sat down, had a meeting with him and said if we did nothing, we made nothing. If we did something, we would bring in something. So we decided to run with it.

Construction at SS. Peter & Paul School and the coronavirus pandemic helped push the annual fall parish festival into a pork chop and chicken carryout at the Ottawa Fire Department.

Hundreds of people came out to the Ottawa Fire Station to support SS. Peter & Paul Catholic Parish on Sunday. Instead of the usual fall parish festival with a sit-down dinner, organizers held a chicken and pork chop carry-out to help raise money for the church.

Reach Sam Shriver at 567-242-0409.

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Catholic carry-out brings out the masses - LimaOhio.com

COVINGTON, Ga. Preliminary plans for more than 300 new apartments and 153 new lots in two single-family subdivisions have gained Newton County Planning Commission approval.

Planning commission members also voted on Oct. 27 to recommend the county board of commissioners approve a new daycare center inside a church near the site of the new Eastside High School on Ga. Hwy. 142.

The new apartments will be in a new complex named Cobblestone on a site adjacent to the new Ginn Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge-Ram dealership on Access Road west of Covington.

The planning commission on Oct. 27 approved a concept plan for the complex with 318 units in 11 buildings on a 35-acre site at 3655 Fairview Road.

The site is undeveloped despite being zoned to allow multi-family development for almost 40 years, according to planning officials. Other neighboring developments include Silver Ridge Farms subdivision, a single-family residential development, on the south side; other single-family residential uses on the west side; and undeveloped land on the east side.

It will have frontage on a proposed new road called Cobblestone Lane and access to Fairview Road and Access Road, according to a staff report.

One-, two- and three-bedroom apartments are planned, along with a clubhouse, fitness center, car wash area and dog park, said Chris Harrell of Summit Engineering Consultants.

Apartment sizes will range from 650 square feet for a one-bedroom unit, to 1,000 square feet for a three-bedroom unit, Monthly rents will range from $1,100 to $1,500 and will not be government subsidized, he said.

"These will be renters by choice," Harrell said.

Zoning requirements include 50-foot buffer areas between the complex and adjacent properties.

In other action at the Oct. 27 meeting, the planning commission voted to recommend the Newton County Board of Commissioners approve a conditional use permit for a daycare center inside Covington Christian Church at 141 Highway 142.

The nonprofit Living Grace will operate the facility from 2:45 p.m. to 6 p.m. five days a week, said applicant Lisa Madaris of Jackson, Georgia.

She said the facility will accommodate between 30 and 50 children up to age 13.

The planning commission can approve daycare centers with six or fewer children but only makes a recommendation on a conditional use permit if more children are planned. The county commission gives final approval and will consider it at its December meeting, staff members said.

Also at the Oct. 27 meeting, county planning commissioners voted to approve a preliminary plat for a fifth phase of Riverwalk Farms subdivision on Dearing Road near Covington's southeast city limits.

The plan includes 134 lots on 51 acres and has been revised from an earlier configuration to create a third entrance to the development, said Richard Cooper of Atlanta-based The Pacific Group.

Cooper said Riverwalk has been developed in phases since 2002 and includes 450 homes. The 51 acres in the fifth phase is the last undeveloped part, he said.

Homes are planned to be around 1,550 square feet each, he said.

County planning commissioners also approved a preliminary plat for Rocky Chase subdivision off Rocky Plains Road near the Yellow River in southern Newton County.

Rocky Chase's plan calls for 19 lots on a 21-acre site already partially developed as part of a subdivision in 2005 before its construction was abandoned by an earlier developer, the planning staff told commissioners.

John Wayne Maddox, representing the new developer, said homes would be a maximum of 1,550 square feet.

"I don't think people will buy bigger houses there," Maddox said.

He said the surrounding area includes two scrap yards and a trailer park.

Development Services Director Judy Johnson said the planning commission is not scheduled to meet again until January when it likely will see plans for a new truck plaza at I-20 and Ga. Hwy. 11 near Social Circle.

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Newton board OKs early plans for 300 apartments and 150 home lots - Covington News

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Ron Westercamp arrived at his polling place on Tuesday about 45 minutes before the polls opened. A blue camping chair in hand, he staked out a spot on the sidewalk, chatting with other voters as he sat down, prepared to wait as long as it would take to cast his vote in person.

Quickly, the line behind him grewto about 300 people, stretching through the parking lot and onto a residential street behind Ankeny First United Methodist Church.

Despite the surging COVID-19 pandemic, the story was the same throughout Polk County and across Iowa on Election Day, as voters lined up early to cast their ballots in an election that already had set statewide early voting records.In Council Bluffs, a 2-hour wait was reported at one polling station.

Within 2hoursTuesday,32,344 voters had cast ballots in person in Polk County, according to auditor Jamie Fitzgerald.

By 3:30 p.m. the number had reached 80,000.

A final statewide count was not due until late Tuesday, but Secretary of State Paul Pate said he expected a record turnout.

Precinct worker Terri Gideon of Indianola lays out I Voted stickers at the Annett Nature Center in Indianola on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020.(Photo: Bryon Houlgrave/The Register)

One Des Moines precinct captain said voting officials hadtold herit wouldn't be a busy day since so many people already had voted early. Instead, Sherry Folwell said, Tuesday broughtlong lines, a lot of newly registeredvotersand a vote-counting machine that broke down twice before noon because itsballot feeder was off-kilter.

"This is 2020 nothing is normal," she said.

Westercamp, 67, said he expected there to be a line, which is why he showed up early he needed to get voting out of the way before reporting to his jobas an appliance repairman. The Trump supportersaid there was no question he would cast his ballot in person this year, as he has every year.

"That's the way I've always done it," he said. "And I feel like it's more secure."

Other Iowans who voted in person voiced similar sentiments, saying they wanted to be there in person to see their votes fed into the automated counting machinesamid national concerns that mail-in ballots would not arrive in time to be counted if at all. President Donald Trump himself had discouraged mail-in voting, citing unverified reports of voter fraud, while former Vice President Joe Biden has encouraged Americans to vote however they feel comfortable.

Witnessing their vote being counted was of such importance to Traci Richison and Dawn Garrett that, when thevote counterat First Church of the Open Bible in Des Moines went down,they decided to wait an hour and 10 minutes for it to be fixed so they could personallyfeed their ballots into the machine.

Voters line up to cast ballots at the Jester Park Outdoor Recreation & Wellness Center in Granger, Iowa, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020.(Photo: Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Register)

Poll workers directed voters to place their ballots ina box, and said the votes would be recorded once the machine was workingagain.ButRichisonandGarrett wanted to do it themselves.

"I just feel like I want to make sure that it's in there. You know, you're skeptical,"Richison said."And I'd just much rather wait for it to get fixed so I know that it's fed and counted."

"I completely agree," Garrett added. "I mean, this is an important election and I don't want to leave it up to chance."

Danielle Baumler, 23, waited about 45 minutes in an estimated 100-person line at Lutheran Church of Hope in Ankeny before checking in to vote. She arrived right as the polls opened at 7 a.m.

"I came in expecting to wait an hour or 2hours, so it'sgoing faster than I thought it was going to," she said.

Baumler, who is in the middle of wedding planning, said she was too busy to cast a vote early.She said that with her wedding scheduled later this month, she's been paying attention to the rising COVID-19 cases in Iowa, but felt confident voting in person was safe, givenU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance.

Mask wearing in the line, which stretched throughout the parking lot, was sporadic. Masks were not required in Iowa polling places on Election Day, and Baumler herself was not wearing one.

Precinct captain Emilee Stripe wipes down a table at the West Des Moines law enforcement center on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020.(Photo: Bryon Houlgrave/The Register)

Poll workers were supposed to sanitize voting stations between each use,and hand sanitizer was provided near ballot counting machines and the "I Voted"stickers.

That proved to be a problem in some precincts, where the sanitizer gunkedup machines. In some instances, machines were rejecting ballots that had too much hand sanitizer on them a problemthe CDC warned about in its votingguidance.

Most voters the Des Moines Register surveyed said they felt safe in the lines, where voters generally maintained safe social distance.

But James Welty said once he was inside his precinct at the Fort Des Moines United Methodist Church on Des Moines' south side, all spacing went out the window. He said about 25 people waiting for a voting booth to open were "jammed into a very tight space."

He described the situation as "super spreader to the max."

But for some, the pandemic was the No. 1 reason to show up and vote. Chloe Gamble, a 29-year-old Des Moines resident who voted for Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris, said she lost two jobs on the same day, March 17, when Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds ordered businesses across the state to shut down in an effort to limit the spread of COVID-19.She had worked in the hospitality industry and at a podiatry clinic, but now is struggling to make ends meet.

Chloe Gamble after voting Tuesday afternoon at Polk County River Place.(Photo: Rood, Lee)

"For me, it's primarily about the handling of the coronavirus. The lack of a second stimulus bill has really impacted my life and the lives of many of my friends," she said.

"People out there just need help."

Radenko Stanisk, a retired construction worker who came to Iowa from Bosnia 23 years ago,said he decided to vote for Trump this year after supporting Democrats in the past.

Although people complain about the pandemic, Stanisk said, the country and the economy had been on a better track with Trump.

"I voted for (President Barack) Obama, and he didn't help the middle class," he said. "In fact,I paid a penalty because I had no health insurance when I was a construction worker."

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Kim Norvell covers growth and development for the Register. Reach her at knorvell@dmreg.com or 515-284-8259. Follow her on Twitter @KimNorvellDMR.

Lee Rood's Reader's Watchdog column helps Iowans get answers and accountability from public officials, the justice system, businesses and nonprofits. Reach her atlrood@registermedia.com, at 515-284-8549, on Twitter at@leeroodor on Facebook atFacebook.com/readerswatchdog.

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Despite record-setting early balloting, Iowans encounter long lines as they vote in person on Election Day - Des Moines Register

A new feature-length documentary film profiling the meticulous, Harboe Architects-led restoration of Frank Lloyd Wrights Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois, will be available to stream for a limited time on Vimeo starting October 30. This special preview screening/fundraising period will conclude on November 15 with a panel discussion hosted by filmmaker Lauren Levine discussing the documentary and the momentous effort to preserve one of Wrights most iconic early works for future generations. Virtual tickets for the film, titled Unity Temple: Frank Lloyd Wrights Modern Masterpiece, cost $20 and include access to the Zoom-based panel.

Proceeds from ticket sales will help support four additional Wright sites in addition to Unity Temple: Taliesin, Taliesin West, Fallingwater, and the Hollyhock House in Los Angeles. (Despite being geographically disparate, all five of these works collectively comprise a single UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with the Frederick C. Robie House, the Herbert and Katherine Jacobs House, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.)

Narrated by Brad Pitt, Unity Temple: Frank Lloyd Wrights Modern Masterpiece dives into the rich history of the reinforced concrete (a then-audacious choice) house of worship. Commissioned in 1905, Unity Temple was completed in 1908 following a string of construction delays, modifications, technical difficulties, and cost overruns.

Wright, 41-years-old at the time of the churchs completion, had settled in Oak Park, a growing suburb directly west of Chicago, in the late 1880s. Wright took on numerous residential projects in and around Oak Park during the beginning of the 20th century including early Prairie-style homes. Wildly experimental for its time, Unity Temple was not only Wrights first major public buildingits also widely considered his most significant work and a vastly influential forebear of the modern architecture movement. Unity Temple makes an entirely new architectureand is the first expression of it. That is my contribution to modern architecture, Wright later said.

The project was also a deeply personal commission for the young architect, who was a member of the Unitarian Universalist congregation that the church was built to serve. (Unity Temples predecessor, the Oak Park Unity Church, was destroyed in a fire in 1905.)

Over the decades, Unity Temple has suffered from various structural problems and maintenance woes, namely water damage. Early efforts to safeguard the church led to the formation of the Unity Temple Restoration Foundation (UTRF) in 1970, a secular, preservation-minded organization that, thirty years later, began devising a comprehensive restoration master plan in partnership with the church. Unity Temple was named both a National Historic Landmark and added to the National Register of Historic Places the same year UTRF was established.

Fast-forward nearly four wear, tear, and leak-filled decades later to 2009 when the UTRFs push to preserve the ailing church became all the more urgentand widely-publicizedwith its inclusion on the National Trust for Historic Preservations 11 Most Endangered Historic Places List. In 2015, Unity Temple closed to the public and restoration work kicked off in earnest. The multi-year, $25 million effort, which involved painstaking interior and exterior work including on the buildings art glass windows and multitude of leak-prone flat roofs, was completed and reopened in the summer of 2017 for both worship andguided public tours led by the Chicago-based Frank Lloyd Wright Trust. The restoration was met with widespread acclaim and much like with the churchs drawn-out construction, the patience of all involved certainly paid off.

Over the course of the documentarys 55-minute run time, Levine chronicles the reawakening of Unity Temple with input and insight from the restoration team including lead architect Gunny Harboe, members of the Unity Temple congregation, and a range of architectural historians and critics including Paul Goldberger and Blair Kamin. As for Pitt, he steps in to narrate the architects philosophies, according to a press release.

I hoped to convey a window into Wrights mind, beyond the often repeated autobiographical mainstream material, so that we could better understand Wrights guiding philosophy and intent that his buildings reflect the people who use them, said Levine. It was important to capture both the tremendous task and details of the restoration itself as well as the spirit, diversity and commitment of the congregation who continue to bring the building to life.

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A Brad Pitt-narrated documentary about restoring the Unity Temple will soon be available for streaming - The Architect's Newspaper

The earthquake struck in seconds, but three years later restorers still face a monumental task: about half of the 2,340 colonial-era buildings and churches damaged in the 2017 Mexico quake still need to be repaired, restored or partially rebuilt.

It is a titanic challenge: crumbling old stone and lime mortar walls and domes, without an ounce of cement or rebar, have to be built back with the same ancient materials

But that doesnt mean the work is primitive. At the Nuestra Seora de Los Angeles church near downtown Mexico City the restoration work has a space-age feel: towering curved metal support structures are delicately lowered into place by huge cranes, to support the half-collapsed dome of the church. Meanwhile, the other, standing half of the 100-ton dome looms 80 feet (25 meters) above workers.

There is always a sensation of risk being in there, of course, because you sense that pieces could come falling down at any time, said Antonio Mondragn, the architect at the National Institute of Anthropology and History who leads the restoration effort. Any material that comes flying down from 25 meters (yards) would be very dangerous. There is always a risk, and we know we cant stay inside very long.

Mondragn has gained a respect for the old church a chapel built in the late 1500s stood here, of which only a portion of one wall remains, while the collapsed dome was built between 1740 and 1884 calling it noble. The dome didnt collapse at the moment of the quake, but rather five days later, leaving time to get people and precious objects out.

It is so dangerous to stand beneath the remains of the dome that the tons of steel structures are made off-site and then gingerly lowered into the crater at the center where the dome once stood; the steel beams simultaneously brace the remaining walls of the cupula, provide a work platform just under the dome and the arch over the top, to provide trusses for a temporary metal roof.

The experts working on projects like this across Mexico face some of the same issues confronting restorers everywhere, like Frances re-building of the Notre Dame Cathedral: are the materials and craftsmen's skills of centuries ago still available? How can you explain delays to impatient modern citizens, for whom construction is something that is done in weeks or months?

It is true that some of the finer, more specialized knowledge of these (construction) crafts has been lost. This work is still being done, perhaps more clumsily, but the crafts remain and people know how to work with these materials, Mondragn says, referring to the quarry stone and super-light tezontle volcanic stone used to build the original dome. But with quarries near the city depleted or filled in to create housing Mondragn says in effect, it gets harder every day to find good material.

Initially, restorers thought that they would have to dismantle what remained of the dome and re-assemble it piece by piece, Mondragn said. But they realized that the cause of the collapse had been an enormously heavy central cupola that stood atop the dome and which had been leaning out of level because the church was unevenly sinking into Mexico Citys notoriously swampy soil. So the collapsed part could be rebuilt and mated with the remaining structure.

The $2 million restoration effort at Nuestra Seora de los Angeles will take at least two years more; impatient residents often ask experts why it is taking so long. To date, about 1,100 of the 2,340 damaged structures have been restored.

Architect Fernando Duarte Soriano is restoring churches for the Institute, known as the INAH, in the neighboring state of Morelos. He points to the barrel-vault roof from the 1500s of the former convent of San Juan Bautista in Tlayacapan, Morelos that cracked and partly collapsed in the 2017 quake.

Sometimes with community members, we face a situation where they say it has been so long, and you havent finished,' says Duarte Soriano, noting that original materials like lime mortar, wood and stone take longer. Imagine, these structures sometimes took as long as 100 years to be built ... and in three years, we have managed to consolidate the structure.

While the Tlayacapan convent, started in 1554, soon after the conquest, is nearing completion there are dozens of other churches that need urgent attention.

Duarte Soriano headed up teams that went out immediately after the 2017 quake to inspect 159 damaged buildings in Morelos, often at enormous personal risk. The truth is there are vaults on the verge of collapsing, collapsed bell towers, domes, buttresses and walls that were falling down. At times it wasnt safe to go into all those places, there was a chance that part of it was going to come down on top of you.

Unable to correct inclinations in some structures, the best restoration work will still leave some buildings leaning at crazy angles, steadied with steel cables and counterweights.

Nor were the original builders centuries ago faultless geniuses; the restoration work has uncovered some elementary errors, like the use of rounded river-stones in the lower parts of some walls. Their round shapes are inherently unstable and dont hold mortar well.

Experts restoring buildings and monuments here have faced every kind of challenge: how to replace a bent old steel support completely encapsulated inside a slender stone column hundreds of feet tall; how to fix foundations sunk in swampy soil; how to restore church bell towers that are central to village life. There have even been fires and takeovers by homeless people at one church under restoration.

Filiberto Arias Araujo, the parish priest at the San Juan Bautista church in Tlayacapan, explains the importance of the bells in Mexican village life. Church bells are commonly rung as an alarm in emergencies, or toll to gather townspeople together. After San Juan Bautistas bell towers were damaged in 2017, the town went silent for three years.

They rang the bells recently as a test, Arias Araujo said of the restoration experts. They wanted to see if there were any vibrations, especially in the facade, and the people were saying Great! We got shivers hearing what we hadnt heard in three years, our bells, the voice of our town.

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Mexico halfway through quake restoration of old churches - The Independent

Pastor Bill Wiebe has been head of the congregation at the Port Rowan Community Church in downtown Port Rowan for 16 years. He says the accidental excavation of a 19th-century gravesite on church property Tuesday was a surprise and remains a mystery. Monte Sonnenbergjpg, SR

PORT ROWAN Accidently digging up a grave is always disturbing.

So it was Tuesday in downtown Port Rowan when a crew installing water mains at the corner of Bay Street and Church Street inadvertently excavated bones that proved to be human.

A construction crew digging at a local church unearthed the remains, Const. Ed Sanchuk of the Norfolk OPP said in a news release Wednesday.

The Norfolk OPP crime unit continued to investigate and determined that the remains located in a casket are historical in nature and appeared to be a burial site.

No foul play is suspected and this incident is not being treated as suspicious.

The remains were found on property belonging to the Port Rowan Community Church. A date stone embedded in the front of the brick building says it was known as the Baptist Chapel at the time of its construction in 1856.

At the scene Wednesday, Pastor Bill Wiebe says the discovery would not have been a surprise had the remains been located on the south side of the church.

Wiebe said the old Baptist cemetery was south of the building but was relocated over time as the congregation sold off lots for properties that, today, front onto Bay Street between the church and Wolven Street.

As it happened, the grave discovered this week was excavated to the north of the church across the street from the Port Rowan post office. That, Wiebe said, adds an element of mystery.

The records of the church were destroyed in a fire in 1906, said Wiebe, who, with wife Lorraine, has served as the pastoral family at the Community Church for 16 years.

All we have is a written oral history. Thats what we rely on pre-1906. History tells us that people too poor for a funeral wouldve been buried on site. This wouldve all been farmland 150 years ago.

Wiebe added that the oral histories gathered after the 1906 fire do not mention burial grounds to the north of the church. The fact the body was interred in an east-west direction tells Wiebe it was a Christian burial.

The excavation occurred at a time of turmoil in downtown Port Rowan.

The London firm J-AAR Excavating is replacing iron water mains at several locations in the core that prematurely failed due to improper installation 30 years ago. The graves discovery is part of this work.

Overseeing installation is Vallee Consulting Engineers, Architects and Planners of Simcoe. A foreman in downtown Port Rowan Tuesday declined to comment.

It is too early to say what will become of the remains. Norfolk OPP are in contact with the office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario, forensic anthropologists, and Norfolk officials along with Pastor Wiebe.

From a spiritual standpoint, Wiebe says there are no consequences he can think of regarding the innocent disturbing of a grave, as opposed, he added, to the conscious act of grave robbing.

The scriptures tell us that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, he said.

Excavators in urban areas of Norfolk have uncovered 19th-century gravesites before.

In the late 1980s, an excavating crew removing an in-ground fuel tank at a former service station on James Street in Delhi uncovered a portion of a forgotten cemetery from the days when Delhi was known as Fredericksburg. The graves were located on the east side of James Street immediately south of Church Street East.

MSonnenberg@postmedia.com

See more here:
Construction crew unearths human remains - The Beacon Herald

AVONDALE Thirty-three years ago, local leaders were asked to look 50 years into the future and make predictions about Chicago and society as part of a time capsule project for ComEds 100th anniversary.

This summer, a construction worker found the time capsule much earlier than expected and the predictions arent looking too accurate, though we have 17 years to change that.

In one, ad agency founder Harold E. Kuttner predicted by 2037 we will no longer have bigotry, anti-semitism or discrimination of any kind in our country.

In another, local pastor John S. Quinn of St. Andrew Catholic Church said by 2037 he expects the Catholic church to allow women and married men to be priests, and to adapt its doctrines to scientific discoveries.

The country is battling a growing wave of bigotry, anti-semitism and discrimination, with hate crimes on the rise.

And women and married men are still excluded from priesthood in the Catholic church despite repeated calls for change.

SCROLL FOR PHOTOS OF TIME CAPSULE ITEMS

The construction worker found the letters and all of the other artifacts in the time capsule at the end of July on the ComEd headquarters site at 3500 N. California Ave.

Crews are demolishing the 90-year-old building because the company built a new headquarters. ComEds new, $58 million headquarters complete with a public STEM education area opened on the same site in February.

The time capsule was installed in 1987 at ComEds centennial party, a grand event with a performance by Lane Techs marching band, a helicopter landing and a car show, said John Maxson, a longtime ComEd employee who organized the party.

In the weeks leading up to the party, the time capsule was filled with memorabilia from ComEd employees, everything from 1987 coins to 1987 issues of Life magazine, as well as letters from local leaders.

The goal was to surprise and delight whoever stumbled across the box decades later, Maxson said.

At the party, officials placed the time capsule near an 8-foot-tall art deco eagle sculpture, thinking itd be found at least 50 years later, in 2037.

Maxson said he was surprised when he got a call in July and learned the time capsule had already been found.

I was like, Oh my gosh, already? I really had not thought about when it would be found. I thought it would be way in the future, Maxson said.

I didnt know what way in the future meant, but at the time we thought of the office there, at California and Addison, as being one of the pyramids or something we thought this was something that was a permanent asset of the company.

But Maxson noted the past 33 years probably saw more change than [ComEds] first 100 years.

Its unfathomable how technology and the company has changed in such a short period of time, he said.

Back in 1987, ComEd relied on natural gas and coal to generate electricity, whereas today natural gas is its main source. Technicians had to bring drawings with them when going out to fix or install power lines because there was no GPS. Meter readings were done manually; today, theyre automated.

Those are only a few examples of the technological advancements made in just a few decades, said Maxson, who worked for ComEd for 32 years.

I remember [thinking] it would be a different world when its found, but I had no idea it would be such a short period of time, he said.

As for the 2037 predictions: Weve got 17 more years to eliminate bigotry and make the capsules vision for the future a reality.

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Time Capsule From 1987 Found In Avondale Building: 'Unfathomable' How Technology Changed But Social Progress Lagging - Block Club Chicago