The State government has accorded administrative sanction of up to 5 lakh each for 76 churches and church-run-institutions across the State for grant-in-aid towards construction and repairs under a Minorities Welfare Department scheme against proposals received by the district Collectors between 2016 and early 2019.

Principal Secretary to Govt. Md. Ilyas Rizvi issued a Government Order to this effect on Monday.

As part of the scheme, 66 churches and church-run-institutions would be given 5 lakh each and 10 others would be given less than 5 lakh for carrying out construction or repairs, renovations, construction of compound walls and others by the A.P. State Christian (Minorities) Corporation, the order states. The total grand-in-aid amounts to about 3.6 crore.

The Mandal Parishad Development Officers or Municipal Commissioners concerned would have to verify and ensure that the institution doesnt violate any rules and works are completed in three months.

The churches recommended by the Collectors are from Krishna, Kurnool, Prakasam, East Godavari, West Godavari, Anantapur and Kadapa districts.

The scheme of supporting churches in carrying out repairs, maintenance, new construction and others was first introduced in 2002 and a sum of 30, 000 towards repairs and 1 lakh as a maximum permissible amount towards new constructions was announced.

Later the maximum permissible amount was enhanced to 3 lakh in 2016 and 5 lakh in 2018 by the then government.

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Statement from Rockland County Executive Ed Day on the Passing of Rev. Louis Sanders:

Reverend Louis Sanders was a fixture of Rockland County serving on numerous boards and organizations and making his presence felt. Rev. Sanders well deserving of the recognition he received having been presented with the Rockland County Buffalo Soldiers Award in 2014 and being inducted into the Rockland County Civil Rights Hall of Fame in 2009. His leadership, as Senior Pastor of the St. Charles A.M.E. Zion Church in Sparkill, was noted for how he raised up those around him and saw the potential of each and every person. I ask that we all keep Rev. Sanders in our thoughts and prayers and work as he did, serving his community with respect and empathy.

Statement By Rockland County Legislator Toney L. Earl on the Passing of Rev. Dr. Louis Sanders:

For the second time this week, I am devastated to learn of the passing of a true stalwart of Rockland County the Rev. Louis Sanders. I knew Rev. Sanders since the 1970s, when our wives were at nursing school together.

I am humbled by his impressive resume because everything Rev. Sanders did was to help others. He not only served the people of Rockland County, but hurricane victims in Mississippi and struggling poor families in Africa.

Rev. Sanders also served our country as a U.S. Air Force chaplain. He fought against racial segregation and he fought for human and civil rights. He did so much for so many and its a deep loss for all he knew.

Legislator Earl recognized Rev. Sanders for his many contributions and achievements in 2017, when he presented the reverend with a Distinguished Service Award, the Legislatures highest honor. Rev. Sanders was inducted into the Rockland County Civil Rights Hall of Fame in 2009, and his portrait is on permanent display in the Allison-Parris County Office Building in New City.

Rev. Sanders served as pastor of the St. Charles African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Sparkill for nearly four decades. He was a retired Social Studies teacher and championship basketball coach. At St. Charles, he increased the churchs membership, renovated the sanctuary and steered the construction of a $1 million fellowship hall. He was ordained in 1975 after studying at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

Under Rev. Sanders direction, St. Charles became a place of community, with an SAT tutoring program, a homeless youth program, a cultural awareness program for children of color, and an on-site HIV and AIDS testing and education program.

Rev. Sanders service extended to the military and as a U.S. Air Force chaplain, he helped train other military chaplains for service in Desert Storm. He retired as a lieutenant colonel in 2003. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Rev. Sanders worked to collect truckloads of supplies for families in hard-hit Jackson, Mississippi. Under his leadership, St. Charles also helped many of the impacted families to find housing and to pay their rent for a year.

His international mission work included building churches in the Republic of Ghana. He also helped provide scholarships to enable poor youth in Ghana to attend school. Rev. Sanders grew up during the days of segregation and fought against racial discrimination as part of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and for the remainder of his life. Rev. Louis and Connie Sanders were married for more than 50 years. They have three children and several grandchildren and had retired to Virginia.

Reverend Sanders photo is on display at the Rockland County Civil Rights Hall of Fame in the Allison-Parris Office Building, 11 New Hempstead Road, New City, NY.

ed day, Louis Sanders

See the original post:
County leaders react to the assing of Rev. Louis Sanders - Rockland County Times

LEBANON, Ohio Four generations of Renee Forresters family have worshiped at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Watching the 156-year-old structure disappear in flames Dec. 13, 2017, made her stomach turn.

It was very emotional, she said Monday night. Just thinking about it, I get emotional."

She and other worshipers have spent their Sundays since at a storefront church seating about 30 people. The Rev. Karen Schaeffer predicts theyll soon be able to return home.

It will be a new home, she added the original building wasnt salvageable, and theyll be using insurance money to begin construction. But it will be a permanent one.

And it will be built on a plot of land once owned by Forresters grandfather.

The city bought the property, and the familys been wanting to get it back so we can build a house, she said.

Instead, it will be the site of the new church. Forrester said she thinks thats even better.

Just to know that were on my grandpas property is everything, she said.

Schaeffer said her presiding elder told her to think big when the congregation began discussing the construction of a new church. The plan as of Monday night was to start with a new sanctuary and expand over time, creating spaces for classes and sports as well as worship.

Its going to be wonderful to worship in a new space, and also because were thinking of it as being a place thats open to the community, she said. Were really excited about just opening our doors and welcoming people in every single day of the week.

The two years since the fire have been painful, she added, but theyve also been an opportunity for Bethel AMEs community to grow, with members forming closer bonds with each other and community groups forming new friendships with the church.

While we loved the building and we mourn its loss, what has happened in the interim is that weve been surrounded by love, she said. Its just been a miraculous journey.

Continued here:
Over two years after fire, Bethel AME is ready to begin building a new home - WCPO Cincinnati

The city of Plano is planning to hold a bond referendum in 2021 that would fund infrastructure projects for the city's roads, parks and facilities. (Daniel Houston/Community Impact Newspaper)

Plano Budget Director Karen Rhodes-Whitley told council members Feb. 10 the city expects the new bond package to total somewhere between $300 million and $350 million.

The projects would be selected by the city in consultation with a committee of residents and ultimately submitted to voters for approval in the May 1, 2021, election, Rhodes-Whitley said.

Plano voters approved $44.7 million in bond-funded projects in 2019. The proposed bond referendum for next year would also potentially exceed the $220.6 million package approved in 2017.

Much of Planos infrastructure was built in the 1970s and 1980s, when the city grew from a sparsely populated 18,000 to a bustling 129,000. When the city proposed its 2017 bond, Plano Director of Engineering Caleb Thornhill said that the city would likely see maintenance costs continue to rise as this infrastructure network continues to age.

You factor in the age of these roads and then you factor in the increased traffic, Plano Director of Engineering Caleb Thornhill said in 2017. As the years have gone on, these roadways have seen a large increase in traffic from the growth in Plano, but also the surrounding communities.

The list of projects funded by the 2021 bond will take shape in the coming months as city staff works with the committee of residents to narrow down the list. The city is expected to present a list of recommended projects to council members in October, Rhodes-Whitley said.

See original here:
Plano weighing 2021 bond referendum that could fund more than $300M in infrastructure projects - Community Impact Newspaper

When California-based C.W. Driver Cos.began work on the new 94,000-square-foot K-8 Cadence Park School campus in Irvine in 2016, the overall construction costs came in at $475 per square foot.

But in 2019, as the firm started mapping out the construction of Heritage Fields School No. 3, another K-8 campus for the Irvine Unified School District, costs had surged to $598 a square foot.

Thats a jump of 26% in just three years, and it echoes a trend experienced around the country.

Over the last few years, the cost increase per square foot has been abnormally high, said Jonathan Keene, senior project manager at C.W. Driver, which specializes in K-12 and higher education construction. Weve seen abnormally high increases in labor costs as well as huge increases in material costs like structural steel.

School construction costs aren't just rising in high-priced locales like California. From Maryland to Washington State, school and university construction projects are seeing cost increases that are forcing school boards and university trustees to reconsider their original plans or go back to the drawing board altogether.

In an extreme example at St. Paul (Minnesota) Public Schools, cost estimates on 18 projects grew by more than 60%between 2016 and 2019, according to the Twin Cities Pioneer Press newspaper.

In some of the bigger districts, where they thought they could do 30 schools, theyre now saying we can only do 18, said Mary Filardo, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based 21st Century School Fund, a nonprofit that supports and advocates for improved school infrastructure nationally. Theyre definitely feeling it.

On a national basis, school construction costs now range from a low of $230 per square foot for a high school in Nashville, to a high of $558 in New York, according to construction cost consultant Cummin. Dan Pomfrett, Cummins chief forecaster, said costs in the sector are up around 15%over the last three years. While thats in line with other sectors of commercial construction, schools unique designs can lead to higher overall price tags.

Add in a gym, science building or magnet school, and it goes up from there, Pomfrett told Construction Dive. Theres a lot of sticker shock.

Higher construction costs are being amplified at the university level, too,especially as institutions compete for a shrinking number of enrolled students.

We're really seeing an arms race in higher education right now, said Ripley Bickerstaff, director of business development at Birmingham, Ala.-based Hoar Construction, which specializes in university projects.He points to two-story recreation centers with hanging, inclined running tracks and 360-degree motion-capture systems in health sciences departments.

Whatever it's going to take to recruit students and get their enrollment numbers up, thats what they want," he said.

Like other sectors in commercial construction, labor and material costs are playing an increasingly larger role in development costs. School boards appetite for technology has also contributed, as has the length of the current economic expansion. Schools longer lifespans, robust structural specifications and more specialized indoor air quality requirements all come into play as well.

For example, at Fairfax County Public Schools, the largest school district in Virginia, assistant superintendent Jeff Platenberg said that HVAC and mechanical systems at schools are more expensive because of changing perspectives of childrens unique physical needs.

Air inflow and the conditioning of air have more stringent requirements, because you're dealing with children, and children breathe at a more rapid rate than adults, said Platenberg. He also noted that stormwater management requirements, due to schools large tracts of playing fields, recreation courts and expansive roofs, also drive up costs.

Given the length of the current economic expansion, schools are now building during the upside of the cycle, whereas traditionally, educational institutions tended to build when the market was down and costs were more favorable, said Tony Schmitz, an architect at Kansas City-based Hoefer Wysocki Architecture, whose portfolio includes more than 1.9 million square feet of education facilities. But we've been in an up economy for so long now, they are building in an up cycle, which leads to an uptick in construction costs," he said.

In addition, theres the ballooning amount of technology and automation thats going into todays schools to make sure they will provide students with the tools they need well into the future.

With the increased focus on technology, science and the overall student experience, the projects we build today look much different than the ones we did a decade ago, said Tony Church, executive vice president of operations, at St. Louis-based McCarthy Building Cos. Some of our K-12 projects are more complex and costly than the higher-ed projects weve completed recently.

Security is also driving up costs, with electronic access control becoming more common. Defensive design elements, such as wing walls for students to hide behind in case of a lockdown, also contribute,Filardosaid.

Against that backdrop, schools are dealing with the same labor issues as other sectors of commercial construction.

You literally have a workforce that will walk off the job in the middle of the day to go down the street where somebodys paying 25 cents more an hour, said Schmitz. The labor force bounces around daily.

Its also increasingly hard to get subs to bid on jobs, Bickerstaff said.

We used to have six mechanical guys looking at a job, and now you'll be lucky to get two or three, he told Construction Dive. They're booked. And for that reason, you've basically got two guys competing over this job, so youre going to see a 10%increase right there, just because there's nobody else to do it.

Thats a factor that impacting all facets of construction.Construction managers are being realistic about what it costs to fill these positions, and as a result, customers are seeing higher bid prices, said Michael Regan, project management practice leader at Middletown, N.J.-based engineering firm T&M Associates.

At any given time, there are three times as many jobs on the street as there were ten years ago, he said. We are in a bidders market."

To deal with the rising costs, contractors and their subs are turning to various strategies, including writing cost escalation clauses into contracts.

Contractors need to do a lot more today to protect themselves from rising costs, including building in cost escalators or fuel surcharges to their contracts, according toIan Shapiro, a CPA and co-leader of the real estate and construction practice in the Miami office of tax and accounting consultancy BDO.

When costs do escalate beyond expectations, value engineering becomes a contractors best friend. At the Performing Arts Complex of Woodbridge High School inIrvine, California, C.W. Driver shaved $2 million off the numbers by only using shot-blast concrete block on the exteriors, instead of throughout the building, while re-drawing window and door openings to line up with the factory measurements of whole blocks to reduce the cutting needed in the field.

But while material prices can be tied to commodity indices, labor costs are still an "X factor," the proverbial moving target that contractors need to set a bead on early. Key to that is having a binding, detailed bid schedule up front, as is holding subs to it for the scheduled duration of the project, saidSean Edwards, Chief Operating Officer of the education arm at Boston-based Suffolk Construction, which is currently working on projects at Northeastern and Boston University.

We have a plan and control process to bring trade partners on as early as the preconstruction phase, he said.That way, we can all work on the same design alongside the architects and owners to better predict constructability issues that can drive up costs before they happen.

Key to the process are detailed check-ins with the whole team every two weeks, he added.

Others hone in on the labor issue by making sure theyre the contractor of choice for their subs. Companies are getting creative to pay subcontractors a lot quicker, to help build loyalty with their subs, Shapiro said. Sometimes, for that prompt payment, they may even get a little cost reduction.

At Fairfax County Public Schools, Platenberg strives to be a client of choice, too.We pay on time to keep the blood flowing in the arteries, Platenberg says. That keeps people focused.

Read more:
Making the grade: Why school construction costs are climbing and projects are stalling - Construction Dive

DUBLIN, Ga. On Sunday, a Dublin church held their final service in their 100-year-old sanctuary.

Blue Water Baptist Church has to find a new home, as the Georgia Department of Transportation prepares to widen Highway 441.

"We're looking at it being demolished real soon," said Tony Bowman, the Chairman of the Board of Deacons.

He said they've known it was coming for a long time.

"This church in particular has known that the widening project would take the church for close to 40 years now," Bowman said.

Temporary plastic chairs replaced century-old pews, as they emptied out the church on Saturday.

"It was pretty emotional, I mean obviously you have some folks who have a lot of history here. Their families have come through this church," said Bowman.

WMAZ

The church was established in 1839, but the physical building wasn't built until 1921.

Now they have almost 300 people in their congregation, including active, inactive, and home-bound members.

Bowman said his whole family was baptized there.

"We keep reminding ourselves and our congregation, the church is not a building. It's the people within the congregation," he said.

Adam Hobbs has been a member since he was 11-years-old.

"I got married in this church. Ive got three little boys that had baby dedications here. Two of them have been baptized here. One of them last Sunday," Hobbs said.

He said they had tissues ready at Sunday morning's 11 o'clock service.

"The service wasnt about the church being torn down. The service this morning was exactly who the church is. Its not this building. The service this morning revolved around us being together, staying faithful, always turning to God and that hes in control, and its going to work out the way he wants it to work out," Hobbs said.

He said they will build on the 10 acres of donated land almost directly across the street, an area GDOT can't build on because of a cemetery.

"We've been working with them to try to negotiate with them, work with them and prepare for the future," said Bowman.

GDOT told 13WMAZ in an email the project spans four miles from Pinehill Road to State Route 117.

"The church was one of the condemnations as we could not reach an amicable settlement. Since the church is a relocation, the expected date of vacating, after several extensions, is Feb. 15, 2020. The department bears the cost of demolition, and the contract will be bid out," said Kyle Collins with GDOT.

Some members of the church feel they are not being compensated properly for the move and the construction of an entirely new building.

Hobbs said Turkey Creek Baptist Church is loaning them their sanctuary until their new building is finished. Both Hobbs and Bowman said at this point, they don't know how long it will be until they have a permanent place to call home.

"The church is the people, and no matter where we go, we're gonna have church," Hobbs said.

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Excerpt from:
100-year-old Dublin church to be torn down as Highway 441 expands - 13WMAZ.com

Latter-day Saint officials kept the size of the churchs $100 billion investment reserves secret for fear that public knowledge of the funds wealth might discourage members from paying tithing, according to the top executive who oversees the account.

For members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, tithing donating 10% of ones income to the faith is more of a sense of commitment than it is the church needing the money, Roger Clarke, head of Ensign Peak Advisors, which manages the denominations investing holdings, told The Wall Street Journal.

So they never wanted to be in a position where people felt like, you know, they shouldnt make a contribution, Clarke said.

Neither Clarke nor other officials would provide The Journal with details on the size of the churchs annual budget or how much money goes to Ensign Peak. But, the paper reported, they gave estimates for its main areas of expenditure that, collectively, total about $5 billion.

In recent years, the churchs reserve fund has grown by about 7% annually, Clarke told The Journal, mainly from returns on existing investments, not member donations.

The funds handlers are instructed not to invest in industries that Latter-day Saints consider objectionable including alcohol, caffeinated beverages, tobacco and gambling, he said, alluding in part to the churchs health code known as the Word of Wisdom, which bars those substances (although caffeinated sodas are not part of that prohibition).

Some of the stocks in which Ensign has invested millions include Apple Inc., Chevron Corp., Visa Inc., JPMorgan Chase, Home Depot, Amazon and Google, according to the article.

Clarke and former Ensign employees said the firm created a system of more than a dozen shell companies to make its stock investments harder to track. That strategy, Clarke said, was designed to prevent members from parroting what Ensign was doing and to, as the paper stated, protect them from mismanaging their own funds with insufficient information.

Church officials described the fund as a rainy-day account and to help fund operations in poorer parts of the world such as Africa, where the faith is booming where member donations cant keep up.

The church cant predict when the next 2008 is going to take place, Christopher Waddell, second counselor in the faiths Presiding Bishopric, told The Journal. If something like that [an economic recession] were to happen again, we wont have to stop missionary work.

When the Great Recession hit, however, officials said the church trimmed the budget rather than tap its reserves.

Ensign Peaks holdings include $40 billion of U.S. stock, timberland in the Florida Panhandle and investments in prominent hedge funds.

Latter-day Saint officials acknowledged that it used Ensign funds to underwrite construction of City Creek Center mall in downtown Salt Lake City and rescue Beneficial Life, a church-owned insurance company, but said there was nothing illegal in that.

Former employees said the fund mushroomed from about $40 billion in 2012 to around $100 billion by 2019.

Church officials said the global faith, as a whole, gives about $1 billion a year to humanitarian causes and charities.

Debates about Mormon finances and the question of transparency have persisted for decades but were triggered again in December by a whistleblower complaint filed by David Nielsen, a former portfolio manager with Ensign Peak, and reported by The Washington Post.

In a complaint filed with the IRS, Nielsen accused Ensign of taking in billions from members tithes and other donations and not spending any of it over a 22-year period for charitable purposes. He urged the agency to strip the denomination of its tax-exempt status, saying Ensign may owe billions in taxes.

Church leaders may be right to worry that the financial revelations could have a negative impact on tithe paying.

Carolyn Homer, a Latter-day Saint who lives in Virginia, told The Journal that after she heard about the money held by Ensign Peak, she resolved to tithe less and give more to other charities.

After The Post piece, Patrick Mason, head of Mormon studies at Utah State University, told The Salt Lake Tribune that stories like this will undoubtedly trouble many church members and lead them to wonder whether their charitable giving is best directed toward an institution that reportedly has a stockpile twice as large as Harvards endowment.

Others may not be as concerned.

A recent Tribune/Suffolk University poll revealed that while a majority of Utahns, from across the religious spectrum, support the idea of requiring tax-exempt religious organizations to publicly report their finances, barely a third of very active Latter-day Saints do.

That suggests a remarkable level of trust in church leadership, Sam Brunson, a professor of tax law at Loyola University in Chicago, told The Tribune, not just on spiritual/religious matters but also on more mundane secular matters.

We believe at some point the Savior will return. Nobody knows when, Clarke told the newspaper. When it does happen, we dont have any idea whether financial assets will have any value at all. The issue is what happens before that.

Julia Miner, a retired tax attorney in the San Francisco Bay Area, is proud of her conservative Mormon tradition of frugality. But there is a time, she told The Tribune on Saturday, to use resources to help and lift people.

Isnt amassing wealth and then saving it the equivalent of burying talents, that Christ condemned in the biblical parable? Miner asked. At some point, saving needs to be converted into good works and charitable giving.

See the rest here:
LDS Church kept the lid on its $100B fund for fear tithing receipts would fall, account boss tells Wall Street Journal - Salt Lake Tribune

As the sun filters through thick winter clouds over Vladimir, a city located 200 kilometers to the east of Moscow, the residents go about their business as tourists wander through the center of the city, taking photographs of the Golden Gates, stepping into the pedestrian Georgievskaya Ulitsa to drink some Suzdal mead and buy souvenirs before rushing off to Cathedral Square to admire the churches and visit the museums. Somehow day-to-day life and commerce coexist with the preservation of the ancient architecture. But its not an easy balancing act.

Preserving ancient architecture

Vladimir is one the oldest cities in Russia, founded in 1108 and once the capital of the Vladimir-Suzdal Principality. It is one of the main cities of the tourist route of the Golden Ring with hundreds of historical and cultural monuments, three of which are on the UNESCO World Heritage List: Assumption Cathedral, the Golden Gate and St. Dmitry Cathedral. Its rich history, many preserved historical and cultural sites and proximity to the capital make Vladimir popular with foreign and Russian tourists.

Vladimir is unique in another way, too. In the early 1970s, the Giprogor State Institute of Urban Planning and Gosstroi developed a general plan for Vladimir. According to the first draft project, the historical buildings in the city center would be torn down to make way for the simple 5-story apartment buildings built all over the country. At the time, only a few people understood the value of the cultural heritage. But Russian preservationist and architect Igor Stoletov did understand, and he fought to save the citys cultural legacy. Vladimir became the first city in the U.S.S.R. with a state plan for the preservation and reconstruction of the historical center.

The project was designed until 2005. It was based on research by the historian Lidia Dudorova, who found information about the history of virtually all the buildings along with drawings of the streets and houses. She was able to provide historical references for each building in the project. On the basis of this information, the team decided which buildings must be saved and which had little historical value.

There is another unique aspect of urban development in Vladimir. As Yuri Borisov, a member of the Vladimir Public Chamber told The Moscow Times, in other cities investors or property owners often decide to tear down old structures and build replicas instead of carrying out the far more expensive and time-consuming reconstruction. The city government in Vladimir chose a more difficult path. Borisov said that in Vladimir, even banks and shops conduct their business in buildings that date back centuries.

Tough building codes

Despite the protective legislation, historical buildings are surrounded by power lines and signs, and they are viewed against the backdrop of cars, buses, and new architecture from various eras in the distance. Their functions have also changed. For example, after the building of the former City Council (54 Bolshaya Moskovskaya Ulitsa) was carefully reconstructed, since 2008 it has been Friendship House, the venue for guests from other regions and countries. Although the 18th century Gostiny Dvor an ancient trading arcade and caravansary is still a bustling shopping center, it is no longer organized in rows of vendors selling one type of goods. Instead the spaces are occupied by nationwide or international clothing brands and electronic shops.

But all the same, the architecture has been saved. The 2010 update of the project developed in 1979 by Stoletov prohibits changing the historical structure of the streets and building modern houses.

Reconstruction of historical buildings is a very expensive and tedious process. Builders are only allowed to use materials that were characteristic of Vladimir in previous centuries. That means there is a ban on tile, siding, plastic, silicate brick without plaster, and any other modern construction material. There is also a very limited number of colors that may be used. During the reconstruction, it is important to preserve as much of the original architectural detail and as many fragments of the interiors and exteriors as possible. Even advertising signs must be approved by the State Inspectorate for the Protection of Cultural Heritage.

The municipal program for the protection of monuments extends until 2023. It includes the development of draft protection zones for nine more city structures, including a 19th century house on Dvoryanskaya Ulitsa.

Zoning codes and reality

As is often the case, regulations are good on paper, but reality is much different.

Olga Butrim is an architect at Tsimailo Lyashenko & Partners (Moscow), co-founder of an architectural firm in Vladimir, and a graduate of the first group to study in the federal program Arkhitektory.rf. Vladimir has great potential, but it also has a lot of problems, she told The Moscow Times. One of them is the parody of new buildings pretending to be old. I see wooden houses rotting away, or authorities pulling them down and putting up plastic fakes that are meant to look like old structures Sometimes building height restrictions dont work and huge boxy buildings appear in the city. We are losing our panoramic views.

Another problem, in her opinion, is connected with a shortage of highly qualified specialists. Alexei Dudin, a journalist on local TV, also blames problems on locals. But he means the people who are supposed to be protecting cultural heritage sites.

In 2016, a construction company built two floors higher than indicated in the project disclosure statement and building permission. Why was the violation discovered when construction was finished? he asked. The structure wasnt built in a day or two.

There was the same situation with the installation I love Vladimir that was in front of the Assumption Cathedral in 2018. Tourists liked it, and you could find a lot of photos with it on Instagram. But many months after it appeared, the authorities decided that it spoiled the view of the cathedral. As a result, it was removed. I think it was a strange decision because the installation was very popular and it not very big. Most mostly I dont understand why the problem, if there was one, was only identified months later, he said.

Dudin wants approvals for construction to be made with construction companies, the mayors office, museum officials, and the local clergy. Only when all these interest groups take part can preservation of ancient sites can be balanced with urban development.

A new paradigm

Alexei Dudin blames much of the citys problems on the people in power. Yuri Borisov one of those people in power doesnt agree. He thinks Vladimirs problems are not unique but typical of all Russian cities.

In the U.S.S.R., many historical landmarks were lost. Unfortunately, Vladimir is not an exception. For example, although the Russian writer Alexander Herzen married his bride Natalya Zakharyina in the Kazan Church inYamskaya Sloboda, it was pulled down in 1966. [Today this is Victory Square, where in 2008 modern version of the Kazan Church was built.] At the same time, the historical center of Vladimir is our architectural heritage. Sometimes it is difficult for authorities and society to agree on certain questions, but as a rule, the outcome of these discussions is in favor of the city, not the builders.

Olga Butrim has another proposal. She finds the existing regulations to be very narrow and restrictive. She suggests that Vladimir adopt the kind of regulations being used in many cities, including Kaliningrad and Saratov. They define the spatial guidelines for neighborhoods. This is not solely conservation or mimicking the past, but preserving structures of value and defining what new structures may be built to harmonize with the old. This is the general approach in many European cities where there is redevelopment but the new and old are blended harmoniously.

We need to use traditional details, the rhythm and proportions of old structures, the maximum length of facades and building heights in order to build modern houses using contemporary materials and technology, Butrim said. Thats the way to get harmonious construction. Our task is to preserve the balance between the past and the present.

Read more here:
Balancing Preservation and Urban Development in Vladimir - The Moscow Times

The playground of William Dick School in Strawberry Mansion was built on the former site of Odd Fellows Cemetery in 1954. Although records show that the burial grounds remains were relocated in 1950, a construction crew found 28 graves on the site in 2013. | Photo: Michael Bixler

It is a striking contrast: large tracts of land within the city that, for a very long time, were quiet places above and below ground. As the final resting sites of tens of thousands of Philadelphians, many burial grounds eventually became centers of lively childhood activity as playgrounds, parks, school yards, and ball fields.Historical records show this pattern repeated dozens of times all over the city.

By the mid-to late 19thcentury, many of the cemeteries within the city were full. Many had fallen into disrepair, were overgrown, and with headstones knocked over, saidDoug Mooney, president of the Philadelphia Archaeological Forum.Established churchyards that were full moved to more open spaces within the city or in the suburbs, which required the relocation of graves. This trend was spurred on by the advent of rural cemeteries, beloved by Victorian-era city dwellers for their open, park-like settings not too far from the citys center where they could pay visits to their deceased.It also coincided with a burgeoning health and hygiene movement, added Mooney. The old, overcrowded graveyards represented a risk to public health.

After relocation of the burial grounds the neighborhood was left with a big, open area where the cemetery was, which was conducive to creating public amenities. In the aftermath of World War II, as Philadelphia approached its peak population level in 1950, the city made a big push to create more open spaces. The population boom drove a demand for more schools and that became another frequent use for the land from relocated graveyards.

However, these relocations werent always carried out as the written records claim. Ive been involved in more than a dozen cemetery excavations, noted Mooney, and I have not found a single one that was completely moved. Just because theres a written record that graves were moved, it doesnt necessarily meant they actually were.

This illustration by Alfred Hoff showsOdd Fellows Cemetery Company in 1849. | Image courtesy of The Library Company of Philadelphia

Even when there was a genuine attempt to be thorough, efforts were rarely refined. The moves were done by hand in the 19thcentury with the labor-intensive efforts carried out by untrained workers. Sometimes theyd dig near the head of the grave shaft and take just the skull, said Mooney. Other times theyd only move the headstone.

In many cases the original burial records, going back a century or more, were poorly kept or even nonexistent, adding to the confusion when relocations were incompletely done. Mooney cites the example of the William Dick School near 25th and Diamond Streetsin Strawberry Mansion, which was built in 1954 on a portion of the former site of the Odd Fellows Cemetery. The graves were supposedly moved four years prior and relocated to Mount Peace Cemetery near Laurel Hill and Lawnview Memorial Park in Rockledge, Pennsylvania.During a greening project of the Dick Schools playground in 2013 a construction crew found 28 burials on the site. There was an individual we recovered with his name clearly visibly stamped on the coffin, recalled Mooney. But Mount Peace said they had a record of him being relocated to their site.

Some graveyards go down very deep with original remains getting reinterred further into the ground to accommodate additional layers of graves. How deep the relocation would go depended upon the intended development of the site.When such examples arise of incomplete moves there is a conflict between the relocation practices of past eras and the best practices of todays archaeologists. The first choice is to preserve the remains in place, said Mooney. If thats not possible, they need to be respectfully moved.

Whichever final outcome is chosen, there is an opportunity to collect historical information from the remains. The body and its skeleton preserves a great deal of information about life in a certain time. For example, trace elements present in bone provides data about the individuals diet.The City of Philadelphia had little to no health records in the 18th and 19th centuries. In particular, information about minority populations was barely recorded, explained Mooney. So bodily remains can provide a tremendous amount of information.

A small army of volunteers led by the Mtter Institute worked against the clock in March 2017 to salvage human remains and artifacts from First Baptist Church Burial Ground at 2nd and Arch Streets. The site was being prepped for construction by PMC Properties when the remains were discovered. | Photo: Michael Bixler

As one of the oldest cities in the United States, Philadelphia struggles with the issue of construction work constantly unearthing burial grounds. In response, the Philadelphia Archaeological Forum (PAF) developed a searchable online database of burial sites, gleaning information primarily from newspaper searches. From 1800 to the present, we found 86 different instances of historic cemeteries being disrupted by construction, said Mooney.

PAF hopes the map will be used by developers and government officials when planning new construction and rehabs. That knowledge would allow them to plan ahead, noted Mooney, rather than be caught by surprise after work has begun at a site.

Of particular concern is the Rebuild Program, one of Mayor Jim Kenneys signature projects supported by the proceeds of the Citys embattled beverage tax, that will undertake capital improvements to city libraries, recreation centers, and playgrounds.One of the first projects is at Capitolo Playground at 900 Federal Street. Plans include installation of a new sprayground and the design of a new natural grass field and a soccer mini-pitch intended for smaller games. Capitolo Playground is on the former site of Lafayette Cemetery, established in 1828. After World War II, 47,000 bodies were supposedly moved to Evergreen Memorial Park in Bensalem.The move is one of the most egregious examples of the abuses that were rife in these situations.

According to a Philadelphia Inquirer story from October 1988, the City contracted with the owner of Evergreen Cemetery, Thomas A. Morris, in 1947 to relocate all of the Lafayette Cemetery remains there, with caskets, bronze markers, roadways, and perpetual maintenance of the grounds. Four decades later construction work adjacent to the memorial park uncovered a couple of unmarked burials. This led to an examination of the site that supposedly contained the Lafayette Cemetery burials, which revealed what appeared to be a few dozen 300-foot long trenches containing stacks of wooden boxes that contained human remains.

Lafayette Cemetery in 1946, now the site of Capitolo Playground in South Philadelphia, prior to demolition and reinterment. This photograph was taken at 9th Street and Passyunk Avenue. | Image courtesy of Temple University Libraries, Special Collections Research Center

Lafayette Cemetery in 1947 after the cemetery was cleared for public space. | Image courtesy of Temple University Libraries, Special Collections Research Center

Mooney said the PAF has proactively contacted the Department of Parks and Recreation regarding theCapitolo Playground project and shared the burial database with them. According to Maita Soukup, associate director for communications for Rebuild and Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, We are aware that the site sits on a former cemetery. The design team is currently in the process of assessing the site. She indicated that the City has contracted with the firm Commonwealth Heritage Group to provide an archaeologist for the design team and that any improvements made through Rebuild will be handled appropriately based on the findings.Given the massive number of graves that were supposedly moved, and the shady contractor that carried it out, it would be very surprising if there was no bodies left behind.

In other cases it is well known that a relocation, complete or otherwise, has never taken place and construction simply went up over the burial site. A prime example is Weccacoe Playground, originally named Weccacoe Square, built at Catharine, Queen and Leithgow Streets in Queen Village in 1905.It is the former site of the Bethel Burial Ground, which was the cemetery for Mother Bethel AME Church from 1810 until 1864. In a 2015 nomination by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission for the National Register of Historic Places, Aaron Wunsch, architectural historian and University of Pennsylvania professor, wrote that Bethel Burial Ground appears to be the citys oldest religiously affiliated African-American burial ground that is not a churchyard (that is, a graveyard adjacent to a church).

A partial grave marker for Amelia Brown was discovered in 2013 at Weccacoe Playground, the former site of Bethel Burial Ground, during an investigation by URS Archeology. | Image courtesy of Bethel Burying Ground Project

In an attempt to address the interests of the residents who value the heavily used playground and those who want the sites history acknowledged, the Citys Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy (OACCE) formed a committee in 2018 to convene public meetings and develop a Bethel Burying Ground Historic Site Memorial.In October 2019 an official state historical marker was erected on the site. The Bethel Burying Ground Historic Site Memorial Committee is currently soliciting proposals from several finalists for their memorial, with an estimated construction date of Spring 2021.

OACCE is also sponsoring an exhibition, Bethel Burying Ground: A Tribute to A Sacred Place, at City Hall to honor the historic significance of those buried there and the early 19th century free black community they represented. It includes 100 church fans created by artists to pay tribute to specific individuals, including many children, buried at the site. Walking into the exhibit you are hit with the magnitude of the story. 2,846 black men, women, and children are still buried on Queen Street, noted historian Terry Buckalew, former committee member and author of the website Bethel Burying Ground Project.The exhibition is currently on view Monday through Friday from 10AM until 4PM in the Art Gallery, Room 116, at City Hall and in the first floor display casesuntil March 13, 2020.

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Playing on Hallowed Ground: Hidden Cemeteries and the Modern City - The Hidden City Daily

SAINT JOHN Work on a new uptown development on Wentworth Street could start as soon as next month.

Developer Percy Wilbur told city council Monday night he hopes to start pouring concrete by March or April.

The seven-storey, 83-unit luxury apartment building will replace the former Gothic Arches church.

Itll also include an underground parking lot with room for 80 cars and tenant storage.

The building will also feature things unlikely to be found in most Saint John apartment complexes, such as an Amazon package dropbox, electric car charging stations, a bicycle wash and repair station, a car wash, and even a dog wash.

A pocket park just behind the building has also been included in the plans. The small green space will feature a piece of public art commemorating the former church.

Council approved the first and second reading of the required rezoning and amendments Monday night. They will still have to go through third reading before the project is officially approved.

Staff say a sewer renewal will be required on Princess Street. The city is currently looking for funding from different levels of government to help with those upgrades.

Wilbur says the entire building could be constructed in 18 months.

He hopes to have it done and open by the summer of 2021.

Danielle McCreadie is a news reporter with CHSJ/Country 94, a Huddle content partner.

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Construction Could Begin This Spring On Gothic Arches Development - Huddle Today