The Labor Day holiday is expected to attract about 10,070 visitors to town Saturday, according to the Steamboat Springs Chamber Resort Associations lodging barometer.

The figure represents 64 percent capacity at area lodging properties, with downtown occupancy at 100 percent. On the mountain, hotels are forecast at 76 percent capacity and condos are predicted to be 47 percent full.

Lodging is expected to dip to 3,887 on Wednesday.

The Chambers lodging barometer is based on survey data from local lodging properties. Its primary function is to help businesses determine staffing levels during the winter and summer tourism seasons. Actual lodging occupancy levels tend to increase from the forecast levels as a result of last-minute bookings.

Area women are invited to join an inter-denominational Community Bible Study, which will begin Thursday from 8:45 to 11 a.m.The host church is Concordia Lutheran Church, 755 Concordia Lane in Steamboat Springs.The weekly study, which is open to women and their children of all ages, will include fun, fellowship, individual study and small group discussion on the Gospel of Mark and Christian Living.Call Susie Rinn at 970-879-2045 or Marcia Spitellie at 970-846-2865 of visit http://www.cbsclass.org/classes/steamboatsprings for more information.Pre-register now to be placed in a Core Group on the first day.

Beginning Tuesday, construction crews working on the U.S. Highway 40 project will begin a schedule of night work. According to Eric Marsh, Steamboat operations manager for Connell Resources. That work will take place generally from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Monday through Thursday nights east and west of downtown Steamboat Springs.

Current work includes installing new traffic signal conduits at Pine Grove Road as well as installation of concrete curb and gutter, sidewalks and ADA-compliant curb ramp improvements and center median concrete removal and replacement from Third Street to the Hilltop intersection. There also is center median work being done from Third Street to the Anglers intersection.

During the project, motorists can expect various alternating single-lane and multiple-lane shifts or closures and turn lane closures at Hilltop, Anglers, Pine Grove and Walton Creek roads. No work is being performed in downtown Steamboat Springs from 13th to Third streets.

Delays of about 10 to 20 minutes from one end of the project to the other should be expected, and work will continue during the day and at night.

The $6 million road improvement project is being constructed by Connell Resources of Steamboat Springs. The project information line is 970-871-7979.

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Steamboat briefs: Lodging barometer: 10K visitors this weekend

FLORHAM PARK - Borough Council members on Thursday, Aug. 14, awarded a $911,100 contract to CFM Construction of the Stirling section of Long Hill Township to start work on the municipal pools makeover.

Bids for the contract were accepted and opened on Tuesday, Aug. 5.

Work is expected to begin next month after the pool closes and be completed in time for the pool to open on the Memorial Day weekend in 2015.

CFM was one of six companies to submit bids, but it was not the company with the lowest bid initially.

That was RJR Engineering of Califon Borough, which submitted a bid at $817,000.

RJR, however, withdrew its bid due to an error the company had made.

The other companies submitting bids included Vincent Pools of Pipersville, Pa., at $940,000; Ray Palmer Associates of Dover, $987,600; Carlton Pools of Warmester, Pa., $1,025,623, and Cypresco Industries Inc. of Neptune, $1,263,823.

Exciting Upgrade

An ordinance allowing the borough to issue $950,000 in bond anticipation notes for the work was adopted in the spring. The remaining $50,000 will be taken from the boroughs capital improvement fund as a down-payment.

In a previous interview, Borough Councilman William Zuckerman, the councils Community Services liaison, called the pending project exciting.

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Contract OKd at $911,100 for pool makeover in Florham Park

Mountain Rides fine tunes Ketchum hub agreements

Plan on track for constructing transportation hub this fall

By TERRY SMITH Express Staff Writer

The Mountain Rides Transportation Authority is getting its ducks in order for construction this fall of a transportation hub at the intersection of Sun Valley Road and East Avenue in Ketchum. Executive Director Jason Miller advised the organizations board of directors at a Wednesday meeting that an invitation for bids is now out to find a construction contractor. Miller said he anticipates construction will start toward the end of October. Construction will mainly involve building bulb outs, ostensibly for pedestrian safety, at the four corners of the Sun Valley Road-East Avenue intersection. Mountain Rides also intends that the hub will have three bus shelters, lighting and signage for passenger information and new landscaping. The hub will serve as an information center and transfer point for five bus routes serving the Ketchum-Sun Valley area. As things now stand, Valley Route buses, which provide service between the north and south of the valley, will not be included in the transfer plan. Valley Route buses now traverse Ketchum on Main Street, which is two blocks west of the transportation hub location. At Wednesdays meeting, the board of directors reviewed three agreements that the board plans to approve in September. Two of the agreements involve easements for the installation of bus shelters, while the third is an agreement between Mountain Rides and the city of Ketchum that specifies responsibilities of the two entities pertaining to the hub. The Mountain Rides-Ketchum agreement provides that maintenance and upkeep of the bus shelters and their locations be the responsibility of Mountain Rides. Electricity costs for bus-shelter heaters and digital signage will also be the responsibility of Mountain Rides, as will snow removal within the bus shelter and other passenger waiting areas. The city of Ketchum will be responsible for landscaping maintenance, litter and garbage removal, upkeep of sidewalks, the bulb outs, and curbs and gutter and for snow removal outside of the bus shelter and passenger waiting areas. The other two agreements are for easements for bus shelters. One will be built on the southeast corner of the intersection in front of The Elephants Perch store and two others will be built on the northwest corner of the intersection in front of the Visitor Center. The agreement for The Elephants Perch shelter would be between Mountain Rides and the property owner, listed in the draft agreement as C&D of Idaho Inc. The agreement provides an easement for five years only. We tried to get it as long-term as possible and this was all we could get, Miller said in response to questions from the board. The draft agreement for shelters at the Visitor Center provides an easement for 15 years and is between Mountain Rides and the property owner, the Ketchum Urban Renewal Agency.

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Mountain Rides fine tunes Ketchum hub agreements

CLEARLAKE, Calif. The Clearlake Planning Commission held a public hearing Tuesday during which it sealed its approval of a mitigated negative declaration for the Monte Vista Home project.

The project would develop single family homes or duplexes in the area of 3593 Old Highway 53.

The public hearing originally was scheduled for Aug. 5; however, it was postponed because that meeting lacked a quorum.

The mitigated negative declaration sets forth 30 mitigation measures in the following areas: aesthetics in that all exterior lighting shall be shielded and/or directed so as not to produce offsite glare; air quality addressing construction activities, debris and structure removal, and inspection for the presence of asbestos; biological resources addressing the protection of trees; hydrology and water quality requiring grading and storm water drainage plans and erosion control conditions; land use and planning addressing lot size and structure type; noise (during construction); public services addressing standards for fire protection; utilities and service systems addressing utility and drainage easements, water distribution and storage facilities, and sewer and sanitation concerns.

Mitigation measures also are presented in the areas of cultural resources, geology and soils, hazards and hazardous materials.

Additionally, transportation and traffic mitigation measures address construction of internal access roads requiring curb, gutter and sidewalk to standards of a residential street, installation/approval of street name signs and location, and an emergency access easement at the north end of the development property.

Transportation and traffic mitigation also require a development agreement requiring of the applicant payment of a fair-share of intersection improvements and signalization of Old Highway 53 and Olympic Drive for each lot as it is developed. A zone of benefit is to be established to determine the fair-share for the development.

Developer Owen O'Donnell received a four-year extension in July on the use permit for the project, which was first proposed in 2008. The project was postponed because of the state of the economy.

Extension of the use permit included amended conditions concerning infrastructure that related to drainage and run-off, flood zone regulations, lighting and clarification indicating all utilities are to be installed underground.

Another amendment concerned the formation of a street maintenance district, which City Manager Joan Phillipe said is easier to address when there is a single property owner prior to the selling of the subdivided parcels.

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Clearlake Planning Commission approves project's mitigated negative declaration, chooses new leaders

Olympia, Washington (PRWEB) August 20, 2014

Smart Energy Today, Inc., (SET) a energy company, announced today that Inc. magazine has named it one of the Fastest Growing Private Companies in America.

Smart Energy Today Inc., named to Inc. 500 Fastest-Growing Companies for the first time ranked SET at number 336. The ranking is based on growth over the last three years. SET reported 1381% growth over that period.

The 2014 Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies is ranked according to percentage revenue growth. To qualify, companies had to be U.S.-based privately held, for profit, and independent -- not subsidiaries of other companies -- as of December 31st, 2013. The minimum revenue required for 2013 was $2 million.

We are honored to be recognized as one of the countrys fastest growing companies and couldnt have done it without all our wonderful customers and our team of employees who are on the front lines everyday, said company spokesman Julie Murray. Our company mission remains focused on providing high quality and competitively priced products for home improvements that will decrease energy consumption, lower the cost of energy bills and most importantly increase the comfort level in our customers homes. SET is also committed to maintaining excellence, integrity and longevity in all aspects of our operations and our professional business conduct.

In the last three years the SET team has grown from 2 employees to over 65. The company adds hundreds of new customers to its roster every month and continues to grow exponentially. The company currently serves all of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, California and Pennsylvania with plans to enter British Columbia, New York, Maryland and South Carolina in the next year.

About Smart Energy Today, Inc.

Smart Energy Today, Inc. provides homeowners with a comprehensive range of home improvement products and services that include photovoltaic solar systems, design, installation and maintenance, solar ventilation, skylight tubes, mass insulation, reflective insulation. The company also does roofing which includes repair, replacement and cleaning as well as gutter cleaning and repair. Formed in 2008, the company is privately held, holds an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and is located in Olympia, WA. For more information, visit http://www.smartenergytoday.net or call 1-888.405.8689.

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Smart Energy Today Inc Listed on Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Companies List

Motive still unknown in Tifton murder Motive still unknown in Tifton murder

Updated: Wednesday, August 20 2014 6:59 PM EDT2014-08-20 22:59:42 GMT

Updated: Wednesday, August 20 2014 6:54 PM EDT2014-08-20 22:54:52 GMT

Updated: Wednesday, August 20 2014 6:53 PM EDT2014-08-20 22:53:18 GMT

Updated: Wednesday, August 20 2014 6:42 PM EDT2014-08-20 22:42:23 GMT

In what Albany Dougherty Drug Unit officials call possibly their largest drug haul, Lester Joffrion, 31, was arrested, and ADDU displayed the property they confiscated from his home.

In what Albany Dougherty Drug Unit officials call possibly their largest drug haul, Lester Joffrion, 31, was arrested, and ADDU displayed the property they confiscated from his home.

Updated: Wednesday, August 20 2014 6:39 PM EDT2014-08-20 22:39:41 GMT

Two road improvement projects in South Valdosta are now one step closer to getting underway.

The utilities department began installing water valves to the water lines along South Troup Street Wednesday between East Hill Avenue and Griffin Avenue. The valves will allow crews to be able to shut off water to certain sections during construction instead of having to shut off water to the whole street.

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Valdosta utilities department preparing for upcoming road improvement projects

Main Street improvements, resurfacing of a stretch of the Heart of Iowa Trail and construction of a new street named after a former state senator are among the applications under consideration by the Story County Board of Supervisors for an annual tax-increment financing program.

At its Aug. 12 meeting, the board began hearing requests for financing through the 2014 Urban Renewal Area program, which is used to assist various infrastructure improvement and expansion projects, public land and trail improvements and Main Street revitalization work.

Nine communities in the county have applied this year for assistance ranging from $10,000 (for a Main Street revitalization project in Collins) to $1.2 million (for Main Street improvements in Slater).

TIF funding is a subsidy intended to finance projects whose tax revenues will eventually cover its costs.

Supervisors continued hearing the TIF requests at their Tuesday meeting and will wrap them up next week before scheduling public hearings on the recommended proposals.

On Tuesday, they heard requests from the cities of Huxley, Kelley, Maxwell and Story City.

Mark Jackson, city administrator for Story City, requested the maximum 75 percent in TIF funding to help cover the costs of a project, initially estimated to cost more than $900,000, to build a street named after former state Sen. Rich Olive, a Democrat, who also spoke to the board on Tuesday.

The street would be built in Story Citys Interstate 35 Business Park and its construction would include utility extensions.

After Supervisor Rick Sanders questioned whether it would be appropriate for the county to cover more than $675,000 of the projects costs through TIF funding, Jackson agreed to revise the funding request to at least $83,500. The projects total cost was revised to $835,000.

Huxley is asking for $16,000 to help it resurface a mile-long stretch of the Heart of Iowa Trail between U.S. Highway 69 and Trailridge Park, a project it estimates will cost about $280,000.

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Board of Supervisors hears TIF requests

FLORHAM PARK -- Borough Council members on Thursday, Aug. 14, awarded a $911,100 contract to CFM Construction of the Stirling section of Long Hill Township to start work on the municipal pools makeover.

Bids for the contract were accepted and opened on Tuesday, Aug. 5.

Work is expected to begin next month after the pool closes and be completed in time for the pool to open on the Memorial Day weekend in 2015.

CFM was one of six companies to submit bids, but it was not the company with the lowest bid initially.

That was RJR Engineering of Califon Borough, which submitted a bid at $817,000.

RJR, however, withdrew its bid due to an error the company had made.

The other companies submitting bids included Vincent Pools of Pipersville, Pa., at $940,000; Ray Palmer Associates of Dover, $987,600; Carlton Pools of Warmester, Pa., $1,025,623, and Cypresco Industries Inc. of Neptune, $1,263,823.

Exciting Upgrade

An ordinance allowing the borough to issue $950,000 in bond anticipation notes for the work was adopted in the spring. The remaining $50,000 will be taken from the boroughs capital improvement fund as a down-payment.

In a previous interview, Borough Councilman William Zuckerman, the councils Community Services liaison, called the pending project exciting.

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Florham Park Council awards contract for pool makeover

(PRWEB UK) 17 August 2014

Electrical heat-tracing specialist, Pentair Thermal Building Solutions, has launched the industrys first BIM (Building Information Modelling) content for heat-tracing solutions. The comprehensive suite of new tools includes BIM families and the dynamic Raychem Trace-It Revit add-in for winter safety applications and hot water maintenance. With this content, architects, engineers, contractors and building owners can easily incorporate heat-tracing content into their building models to optimise efficiencies and performance.

BIM is widely accepted as the integrated process for holistic project collaboration and adoption rates are rapidly increasing across Europe and the USA. In the UK, this is reinforced by the requirement for BIM Level 2 on government projects by 2016. By bringing project teams together at the early stages, BIM has a critical impact in the delivery of more efficient construction projects throughout design, build, operation and maintenance phases.

Pentairs new Raychem Trace-It add-in enables users working in Autodesk Revit to design, calculate and specify the companys reliable, high quality heat-tracing solutions directly and quickly within their BIM models. This smart tool automatically pulls pertinent information from the Revit model, such as pipe material, sizes and lengths. From this, it provides a bill of materials for the heat-tracing application, circuiting information and installation details to assist with estimating and construction. Raychem Trace-It is currently available for pipe frost protection and single pipe hot water systems with more products to follow in the coming months.

In addition to the add-in, Pentair has developed a group of families for ramp heating and surface snow melting, and roof and gutter de-icing. Each family includes design guides and product information to assist with design of the heat-tracing system. Dynamic and streamlined, the BIM families and Trace-It add-in optimise the heat-tracing content within the BIM model. The content is easy to use with a simple user interface and is compatible with Autodesk Revit 2013 and all later editions of Revit.

Our new BIM content facilitates engineering design decisions, providing the deliverables needed to handle each project effectively, comments Jonathan Jones, European Product Manager at Pentair Thermal Building Solutions. By using our Trace-It add-in and BIM families, each and every stakeholder has relevant and useful information throughout the project. This results in quicker, more efficient design and build, which saves time and optimises building performance. And importantly for the UK, were providing the tools to comply with the UK BIM strategy in advance of 2016.

Brad Faulconer, Vice President and General Manager, Thermal Building Solutions, adds: BIM is a game changer in how buildings are designed, procured, built, delivered and maintained. As the first company to introduce BIM content for electrical heat-tracing products, were helping project teams adopt an integrated and collaborative approach to building design and management.

This latest innovation reinforces our position as pioneers in the global heat-tracing industry. Its a tangible example of our commitment to meeting market needs and helping our customers do business more easily and efficiently, says Faulconer.

The Pentairs Raychem BIM families can be downloaded from Autodesk Seek (seek.autodesk.com) and the Trace-It add-in is available in the Autodesk Exchange store (apps.exchange.autodesk.com). A complete catalogue of instruction videos showing how to use the BIM families is also available to view on YouTube search for Pentair Thermal Revit tutorials.

Editors note: ABOUT PENTAIR THERMAL MANAGEMENT Our Thermal Building Solutions focuses on keeping people and infrastructure safe from harm, enhancing building performance and bringing comfort into the home. Our Pentairs industry-leading Raychem brand products are sustainable, easy to install and use, and are relied upon by building investors, owners and professionals in commercial, residential and infrastructure markets around the world. For more information, visit http://pentairthermal.com.

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Pentair Introduces the first BIM content for Heat Tracing Solutions

In the desert, the term water crisis usually refers to the lack of water. Intermittently, the phrase may mean too much water.

As is usual for the monsoon season, Lake Havasu City is now in the cycle of storm, damage, cleanup. The cleanup amounts to a protracted period of moving rocks, mud and other debris from the roads.

Thats what you get in a city where the washes run across roadways and street curbs and gutters are not the norm.

Is there a better way? Of course. Retrofitting storm drains and routing wash water through underground culverts would be a big step forward but the cost would be daunting.

Even those expensive improvements wouldnt be a perfect solution for a city built on a hillside. The force of water during big storms pushes along rocks and limbs that can clog even huge culverts.

A better first step might well be a cost-sharing curb and sidewalk program similar to those in many other cities.

There are many ways to structure those programs, but they generally involve city government offering residential curb, gutter and sidewalk installation at or near cost. The program can be either bid out to contractors, or handled in house.

For homeowners tired of seeing half of their front yard wash down the street with each heavy rain, the option might be a good one.

Right now, city government doesnt have a formal sidewalk improvement program, though, according to its website, it focuses on areas near schools and in business areas.

What the city does have now is big cleanup costs after storms. It may make sense to apply some of those anticipated costs to a voluntary curb, gutter and sidewalk program.

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Curb, gutter program could stem storm damage, costs