SALEM - Art in concrete.

It almost sounds like a contradiction in terms. Highways, autobahns, bridgeworks, tunnels, speedway walls, barriers and superstructures of all sorts, are called to mind.

But for Rick Lobdell, a 1992 Salem High School graduate who earned a masters of fine arts degree from Savannah College of Art and Design, concrete is a medium he is turning into an art form.

Rick Lobdell, a 1992 Salem High School graduate, has transformed his love of art into a high-demand business that uses concrete as its medium in central Tennessee. A 1996 Mount Union College graduate, Lobdell heads an internationally recognized company called Concrete Mystique with four employees and several subcontractors. Lobdell also creates his own artwork through paintings he sells. The dolphin pool, set onto a concrete floor, is where the concrete and art combine to present unique, highly-desired accents for high-end homes. (Contributed photo)

He works from a 6,400 square foot office and warehouse in Nashville, Tenn. He owns the company, called Concrete Mystique Engraving and considers himself part of a pretty elite group.

"I only know of five or 10 people in the world who treat it as an art form." Lobdell said.

"The average concrete guy has no idea of what I'm doing and I've never poured concrete."

Today, with two companies - he also owns a concrete furniture company called Gallery Mystique - Lobdell has four direct employees and four or five sub-contractors.

He moved on to Savannah after graduating from Mount Union College in 1996 to study at Savannah where he met his girlfriend who is now his wife, Natalie.

A molecular biologist, she headed toward Vanderbilt in Nashville.

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Salem grad creates art in concrete in Nashville

NEW ALBANY Following an hour of debate and a failed motion to accept a higher bid the New Albany Redevelopment Commission hired the Louisville firm Myers-White Inc. to restore the Ekin Avenue Recreation Center Monday.

Last week, the body failed to take action on a contract after commission member and New Albany City Councilman Dan Coffey pushed for the local contractor Upton Pry Inc. to be chosen for the job.

Upton Pry and Myers-White were the only contractors to bid on the project, but when taking into account the alternate options, the New Albany firms price was $26,000 more than Myers-White.

Still, Coffey said it would be worth it to hire Upton Pry because they employ local people and pay local taxes.

The commission consists of five members, and only three were present during last weeks meeting. With Coffey voicing his disagreement with selecting Myers-White, commission President Irving Joshua declined to entertain a motion to vote on the bids.

The entire commission was on hand for Mondays meeting.

The bulk of the base bid was for roof replacement and repair work, and Upton Prys proposal was $9,000 cheaper than Myers-Whites bid. But counting the alternate options which include exterior painting and masonry work Upton Prys bid was for $302,000.

Thats compared to the total bid of Myers-White, which was $276,000 and eventually accepted by the commission.

The biggest difference in the bids was for the painting, as Upton Prys proposal for the work was quite a bit higher than Myers-White, officials said.

It looks like we have apples and oranges, said commission member and Councilman John Gonder of the difference in the painting bids. A representative with the engineering firm hired for the project, Michell Timperman Ritz, said the painting price may have just been a mistake on the part of Upton Pry.

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Bid accepted on Ekin Center in New Albany despite debate over hiring local firm

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Sports Fan Insider

Keep up with your favorite teams and athletes with daily updates.

KCBS News AnchorStan Bunger(who along with KCBS Sports AnchorSteve Bitkerare the on-air duo known asKCBS Sports Fans) offers his unique sports analysis.

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) America is going gaga over soccer. All of a sudden, were painting our faces and destroying workplace productivity so we can follow the mens national team at the World Cup.

So now that the USMNT (thats insider-lingo, apparently required of anyone who REALLY knows whats up) has reached the Round of 16 by losing to Germany, its time to start acting like Americans.

For starters, why do red-blooded Americans suddenly go all Euro when talking about the score of a soccer game? Two-nil? Please. Two-to-nothing is the way we talk here. Try going to AT&T Park and talking about the four-nil final score of Lincecums no-hitter. See how that works out for you.

The list seems endless. We already offend foreign ears by calling the game soccer (because we all know what football really is), so why do we feel compelled to call the surface on which its played a pitch? Its a field, same as it is when you play anything else on it.

And for crying out loud, when someone scores a tying goal, they tied the game up. Leveling is for building contractors.

If you insist on using un-American sports language, then why not go all-in? The Brits call a game a fixture. Here, we keep our fixtures in the bathroom or kitchen. They also refer to the standings (as in, Whos in first?) as the table. Here in this country, a soccer table is that game in the basement of the frat house.

I could go on, but by now, I hope you get the point. Its bad enough that the greatest country on Earth saw its citizens dancing in the streets after its national team lost its way into the next round of a soccer tournament. Must we surrender our sporting language, too?

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KCBS Sports Fans: Are We Going To Be Americans About This?

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by Jeremy Veno, reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on June 24, 2014, Tuesday

KUCHING: More than 50 volunteers comprising Naim Holdings Bhds board members, staff and sub contactors, representatives braved the scorching sun to participate in building work for Habitat for Humanity Malaysias Borneo Blitz Build (BBB) 2014 project at a site located at Jalan Stephen Yong here.

The group was led by Naims group managing director Datuk Hasmi Hasnan.

According to a press statement, Naim was the main sponsor for Habitats BBB 2014 project with a contribution of RM400,000.

It was a day of fun and sweat as volunteers embarked on work such as carpentry fabrication for forming beams and lintel, steel work such as bar cutting, bar bending and footing bar fabrication and painting.

General work such as banner hanging and painting of site office was also being held.

Hasmi explained that Naims involvement in Habitat of Humanitys BBB 2014 project demonstrated the groups commitment in providing assistance to lesss fortunate members of society.

As a responsible corporate citizen, Naim has always taken into consideration the interests of community in which it operates.

We are committed to fulfill our corporate social responsibility by extending aid beyond statutory obligations and compliance with legislation.

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Naim lends muscle to Habitat for humanity

The cost of a Dunedin trial of ''sharrows'' - symbols painted on roads to tell motorists the roads are to be shared with cyclists - will be carried by the city council.

The five-month trial, which includes monitoring of how the sharrows are working, will begin next week, when contractors start painting the sharrows - symbols of bicycles with two chevrons above - on parts of George St and King Edward St.

Council transportation planning manager Sarah Connolly said the sharrows - part of a national trial the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) will consider before making them legal road markings - would cost the council $1684 to install and $12,000 to monitor during the five-month trial.

Monitoring involves video recordings, counters, surveys of road users and gathering feedback from businesses and residents.

If the trial was not successful and the sharrows needed to be removed, which she hoped would not be necessary, there would be an additional cost of $9000.

All the money was coming from existing transportation budgets, which are partly funded by the NZTA.

Councils applied to take part in the trial.

The sharrows would be painted in the lanes where vehicles would have to drive over them, as per guidance from Auckland Transport, which was also taking part in the trial, Ms Connolly said.

Auckland Transport had advised it was important vehicles travelled over the sharrows so their intended meaning, that the road was to be shared by motorists and cyclists, was realised.

''If drivers are able to drive past or around the sharrow, I don't think the intent of the marking rings true for drivers, and the markings stray into indicating a safe place for cyclists to ride, not that the road space is shared with drivers.''

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Council to carry cost of sharrows, monitoring

The crack on a steel girder on the underside of the westbound Interstate 70 bridge over the Patapsco River was so small that it wouldn't catch the eye of most.

But within a half-hour of a bridge cleaning-and-painting contractor spotting it, a structural engineer with the State Highway Administration was on scene, and the bridge was closed to traffic.

About 100,000 vehicles travel over the bridge daily, and all were detoured for two days earlier this month as repairs were made. SHA Administrator Melinda Peters said her agency is "very conservative" when it comes to assessing bridge safety, and was "erring on the side of caution."

The decision to immediately put contractors to work shoring up the bridge was also in line with the agency's evolving modus operandi, officials said, of using newly available resources to bring an ever-increasing number of bridges into good condition before small issues become major problems.

"We've really been able to kick that up," said Earle "Jock" Freedman, longtime director of the SHA's Office of Structures, including bridges.

Local concerns about deteriorating infrastructure have increased recently following the collapse of a large retaining wall in Charles Village and the recent closure of Interstate 495 in Wilmington after the discovery of serious damage to several bridge supports there. The brief closure of I-70, as a result, led to more questions than normal from the already concerned public, said Valerie Burnette Edgar, a SHA spokeswoman.

But in Maryland in recent years, cause for concern should actually be going down, SHA officials said, because significant progress has been made improving the condition of state-maintained bridges largely thanks to dramatic increases in annual bridge repair funding, including from the state.

"We've really been getting good funding," Freedman said. "We've gotta be looking at these bridges and finding potential [problems] rather than reacting to things that we didn't expect."

"If you don't take care of your house, you're going to have problems," said Rod Thornton, the SHA's division chief of bridge design and rehabilitation, on the agency's "preventative measures" approach.

According to SHA data, funding for "Bridge System Preservation" has jumped from $62.2 million in fiscal 2002 to $176.1 million in fiscal 2014. In the same period, the number of "structurally deficient" bridges in the state fell from 148 to 81 or about 3 percent of the 2,700 bridges the state is responsible for, Freedman said.

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State making progress on bridge upkeep with increased funding