WAYLAND, MA It's going to be an unusual election. This time that's not due to politics, but because of the pandemic.

Wayland's spring town election will take place Tuesday following a more than two-month pandemic-related delay. Polls will be open all day, but the Town Clerk has been advising residents to vote absentee due to the lingering coronavirus pandemic.

Here's what you need to know about the June 9 election:

Voting hours

Like normal, you can vote between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. at the town building. For those who are not voting in-person, absentee ballots have to be in by 8 p.m. Tuesday. You can drop ballots in the mail, but your best bet is to drop off your ballot in the box in the town building vestibule it's open 24 hours.

As of mid-May, the Town Clerk had received close to 700 absentee ballots. You can find absentee voting applications on the Town Clerk's website.

Candidate profiles

Way back in February, Patch asked candidates to fill out questionnaires about why they're running in 2020. Here are the candidates we heard back from (in alphabetical order):

There are more than just School Committee and Board of Selectmen races. There are 11 races ranging from Town Moderator to the Recreation Commission. See everyone running here.

Ballot question

Wayland voters will be asked to approve a debt exclusion so the town can borrow money to pay for a new roof at Loker Elementary School. The Loker roof is leaking and in need of a full replacement. The total cost of the replacement will be about $4.3 million, and the state School Building Authority has approved a $1.2 million grant toward that total cost.

Original post:
Your Guide To The Wayland 2020 Town Election - Patch.com

Here's the Flo installed in my house.

I originally reviewed the Flo smart water monitor in 2018. Since then, I've replaced it once and added to it with a water overflow detector. My initial observations and my conclusions after 18 months are documented below.

I have had the misfortune to experience the results of two leaks inside my home. Trust me when I tell you that, if you haven't gone through this, you really have no idea how bad it can get.

The first occurred quite some time ago. I went to work in the morning, worked a long day, and came home... to my basement apartment filled with five inches of water. My cat was cowering on my bed, clearly quite freaked out.

As it turns out, one of the hoses to the washer had split. Water from the hose flooded into my apartment for hours. Later, I was told by the insurance adjuster that the top source of in-home flooding is broken washer lines, and the best way to prevent that from happening is to spend a few bucks and upgrade to metal lines. Let that be a hint to you. I've always upgraded my washer lines since that day.

To prevent that from happening again in this house, I've added the newly released Flo Smart Water Detector. More on that device below.

Also: CNET lab tests the Flo

It took more than two months for my life to go back to normal. Thankfully, most of the expense was covered by the apartment management and insurance, but I lived with huge fans running day and night trying to clear out the moisture. All my rugs had to be deep cleaned, and all my furniture had stains on the legs. All told, it cost the insurance company, the apartment manager, and me more than $4,000 to recover from the lack of a $12 metal hose.

This is what our wall looked like after discovering one small leak. Not pretty.

The second leak occurred just recently. We bought our new house and had a home inspector check it out. We were told there were no visible or known leaks.

Two weeks after the sale, I drove down to the house with my wife (we were still living in our rental house while we fixed up our fixer-upper). My wife noticed discoloration on the wall near the ceiling in a bathroom.

It turns out there was a pipe junction in the ceiling above that wall that was leaking. There was more discoloration behind the drywall. We wound up ripping out the entire wall, and with it, the vanity, to mitigate the problem. Not counting the cost of the plumber to fix the leak, the drywall repair, painting, and a vanity probably cost us a few thousand dollars, an expense we had not budgeted for.

I'm sharing these two examples in some depth to show you what can happen when your home has a leak. Keep that in mind when I discuss the Flo, a smart home device that, if installed, could have substantially reduced the damage from both these emergencies.

Serendipitously, the folks at Flo Technologies reached out to me about doing a review of Flo just about a week after we discovered the stain on the wall and were making plumbing repairs. To say I could appreciate the need for its product was an understatement.

You can see exactly what's flowing into your house in real-time.

Here's the thing: At that time, my wife and I were still living about 45 minutes away in our temporary rental home. We expected there to be at least three more months of work on the new house before it was ready for us to move in.

Although one or both of us went down there as often as our schedules would permit, there were still times when the house would be unoccupied and unobserved for days at a time. We had no idea if we would discover more leaks or problems that, left unobserved, would mushroom into new big expenses.

But, if we could put a Flo on the pipes, if something bad happened, we'd know pretty quickly, even when we were miles away from the house.

Flo picked up the cost of the $500 device and sent me one for review. It needed to be installed right at the point where water comes into the house, and it needed a power socket nearby. It cost me about $350 in licensed electrician and plumber hours to get the device installed.

If you're doing the math, getting a Flo and installing it will cost somewhere between $500 and $1,000 for most users. That seems like a lot. It is a lot.

But when you factor in the time, stress, and out-of-pocket cost for a major leak, the up-front cost is actually worth it. That's why I took you through my two experiences. I want you to understand the scope of the emergency the Flo is meant to protect you from.

The Flo is a smart valve. It sits at the point water enters your home and, if it detects an anomalous situation, it closes off water flow to the house. That's why it needs power. There's both a Wi-Fi client and a motor inside the unit, and both need power to operate.

Once installed, Flo takes about a week to get used to the water usage patterns in your home. A toilet flush uses a certain number of gallons quickly, then stops. Washing at a sink might use a smaller number of gallons for 3 to 5 minutes, then the water flow stops. Taking a shower uses a larger number of gallons, but after 10 to 20 minutes, that water flow stops as well. Washing clothes also uses a certain number of gallons and might run for 20 or 30 minutes.

Each of these patterns is observed and cataloged by the Flo. Flo then watches to see if anything outside one of these patterns occurs.

You don't want to see one of these, but you'd rather see one than not, if you know what I mean.

Here's how it would have worked if I had a Flo back when my apartment flooded. Once the feeder pipe to the washer broke, Flo would have detected water flow. Based on the gallons per minute, it might have even assumed a wash was running. But if the water kept flowing for 30, 40, 50, 60 minutes, Flo would suspect something was amiss.

The first thing it would have done would be to send me an alert on my phone. I would have gotten a message that said there was high water usage. At that point, I could have tapped my phone and remotely, at work, turned off the water flow into the house. If Flo sent me that alert and I did not respond, Flo would have automatically turned off water flow to the house.

Water that was still in the pipes might have leaked out the washer hose. First, if I found out there was a leak, I might have left work early to check it out. Alternatively, when I got home that night, I would have had a big puddle around the washer, not a 5-inch deep lake throughout my whole apartment.

Flo also does regular tests for small leaks. Every night, it shuts the water off for about 10 minutes. During that time, it monitors to see if there's a pressure drop. Your home's water pipes are a closed system. If the input port is closed and all the valves are closed, pressure should not drop -- unless there's a leak.

Leaks can be from a faucet not fully closed or from a pipe in the wall dripping onto drywall for weeks. The Flo can't tell you where the leak is, but it can tell you if it sees a pressure drop, which you can then investigate.

Let's start with the last test I just described, the Flo test for tiny leaks in the system. Here's a log from a few days last week. As you can see, most nights Flo reported a successful health test. One night, it detected a small drip. And one night, the health test was interrupted.

This log contains a lot of useful information, especially when trying to determine if a leak is systemic or situational.

An interrupted health test is usually because someone in the house opens a faucet or flushes a toilet. But the small leak is the important one. If a small leak is detected each night, that's a problem. But if it's only detected once in a while, the odds are that a faucet hasn't been fully closed.

Thankfully, I've only had one high usage alert, and that was while painters were at the house. Funny story. I had installed the Flo, but still wasn't living in the house. As such, our water usage was negligible. There might have been a toilet flush once every day or so, but that's about it.

Suddenly, the painters were there, and they were using a lot of water to clean up. I got a high water alert and immediately called the contractor. "Hey," I said. "Is there any chance you started to use a lot of water down there?"

"Uh, yeah," replied the painter. "Why?" A second or two passed. "Wait," he exclaimed (for real, his voice went up a whole octave). "How do you know?"

I explained the Flo. While I was excited that the system worked, it was clear that the idea I knew what was happening at a water flow level from across the state discomfited my contractor. I think he's been suspicious of my gadgets ever since.

As I said, we're living in a fixer-upper. Fixer-uppers are often great investments, but there are days.

A month or so after I got the Flo, the rainy season hit in full force and we discovered a leak coming from the ceiling in our hall. We had to break open some of the ceiling and we found both a water pipe and boards from the roof. The question was: was it the pipe or was it the roof?

We were pretty sure we could eliminate the pipe because the previous night's Flo health test hadn't reported a leak. To be sure, I manually initiated a health test run, and ten minutes later, we had our answer. It was not the pipe that was leaking.

We were able to quickly eliminate one possible source of the leak. While we still had a roof to fix, the Flo was able, at least, to tell us it wasn't the fault of the pipe.

Setting up the Flo was a pain. You're supposed to pre-bind it to your Wi-Fi network before the plumber shows up. I did that, but once installed, it lost that connection, and I had to spend almost an hour fiddling with the unit and restarting it before I got it to bind with my router. That cost me an hour in plumber fees.

Once it was finally connected, it worked flawlessly for about six months, then it died. Kaput. Zilch. Fortunately, it didn't die in the middle of a water pressure test, so we were still able to use city water. Had it died with the flow constrictor closed, we would have needed to use a special hex wrench to open it back up.

I contacted the company (this was before they were acquired by Moen), and it sent me a new device. However, not wanting to incur more plumbing service fees, I let the replacement device sit on my shelf for about half a year. Then, I had another plumbing project that needed attention, so while the plumber was here, I asked him to replace the dead device with the new one. He did, and since all the prep work had been done for the previous device, the installation of this new one didn't cost nearly as much as the original install.

The new device does the smart water check in seconds instead of minutes. Since we installed it, it's reported on our water regularly, and once again, we've got peace of mind.

I'm also not thrilled with how the power connector goes into the Flo unit itself. There's a gasket that's intended to prevent water from getting into the power connector, but it tends to push the connector out of the small socket.

A much better design would have been a positive link or lock once the power connection was made into the Flo. Again, it's worked since I set it up, but it could be a bit better.

Moen has added a line extension to its Flo product that makes a lot of sense. The Smart Water Detector is a little puck that sits where pooling water would gather in the event of a leak. When my 18-year-old fridge died last fall, I bought a Samsung Smart Things leak detector and placed it under the new fridge. Because the plastic water line goes into the wall, we couldn't replace it with a metal one. That plastic line was at least as old as the old fridge, so we decided a pro-active monitoring solution would be a good idea.

This was before Flo introduced its water detector. While the Samsung device will post alerts, the Flo Smart Water detector goes one step further. If it detects a leak on the floor, it automatically shuts off the water using the Flo. I placed the unit Flo sent me under the washing machine, in case that decides to flood.

This gives Flo multiple points of leak monitoring. The device can sense water pressure changes at the main junction. But by using the leak detectors on the ground, it can also sense leaks from around the house and shut them down, possibly preventing the kind of disaster I had with my washing machines back in the day.

Yes, probably. The cost of water damage is so high that if you're even slightly concerned about making sure you don't live through an inside flood or leak that could cause mold or other organic substances, it's worth getting. It also detects high water pressure and freezing water temperatures, so you have a much better chance of preventing bursts due to freezing pipes.

Back when we were in Florida, there was a lot of what we called "snowbirds," folks who lived in the north through the summer months and moved down to Florida for the winter months. If you're someone who migrates between homes and, for whatever reason, can't shut off mains water at the house you're not at, a Flo might prove essential.

Likewise, if you're someone who travels a lot, being able to monitor water usage from anywhere in the world is a big win. I had a major disaster in my apartment, and that was from water flow while I was at the office, just my normal commute away from home. Back in those days, I traveled a lot, and when I think about how bad things might have gotten if the water kept running for days, it gives me the chills.

Yes, the Flo is pretty expensive. It's also not able to pinpoint where a water problem occurs, just that there is one inside your home.

Think about this:Zillow says the median home value in the US is $221,000. The site CostHelper says that it can cost from $5,000 to a whopping $70,000 to clean up damage from a water leak. Is it worth spending $500 (plus labor) to protect such a huge investment while at the same time preventing such huge costs?

In my mind, after living through two very costly water damage situations (which, still, were at the low end of the overall cost spectrum), and then, with the Flo, being able to quickly eliminate and positively identify a roof leak, my answer is "yes." It is worth the initial expense. That's because the cost of damage ranges from simply daunting to truly horrifying. Plus the stress. Don't forget the stress.

Of course, if the Flo fails, as mine did, you might only think you have water monitoring. When our first Flo stopped working, the app did not alert me. We probably went days to weeks without active water monitoring, and it was only when my wife pointed out she hadn't heard the sound of the valve closing during test time that we finally realized it was dead. The Flo rep wouldn't tell me if these failures were common or if it was simply growing pains since I was an early adopter. That said, I'm far happier with the new replacement Flo installed than I was during the intervening time that we didn't have it watching over us.

You can follow my day-to-day project updates on social media. Be sure to follow me on Twitter at @DavidGewirtz, on Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz, on Instagram at Instagram.com/DavidGewirtz, and on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV.

Read more:
Is the Flo smart water monitor still worth it 18 months later? - ZDNet

The Level cafe by Simon Carey from geograph.org.uk

The cafe on The Level was built in 2013 as part of the award-winning revamp of the central Brighton park. Contractors Thomas Sinden said the cafe construction project was worth 1 million.

But earlier this year, the roof had to be replaced because it was leaking.

And according to a Freedom of Information request from a member of the public, the council has picked up the 77,000 cost of replacing it even though its still under warranty.

Its response appears to put the blame on the fact so many different companies were responsible for its installation, no one company is liable for the replacement.

When making his inquiry, resident Ted Newton said either the architect or the contractor should pay for the repair.

He told Brighton and Hove News: I have a gripe with the whole Level thing. Once you start getting money from the Heritage Lottery Fund its like free money and its thrown around willy nilly.

There used to be a little kiosk selling chips and those people had been there for years and they werent involved in anything to do with the Level revamp, they were simply told their lease was going to be ended.

That cafe just represents everything thats wrong with how Heritage Lottery Fund money is spent.

In its response to Mr Newtons FOI, Brighton and Hove City Council said: We used a standard form of contract with a commercial warranty.

However, it was decided that the costs of the legal proceedings against various parties, had no guarantee of success, due to the history of involvement of various parties, and that the costs we would have to bear outweighed what would be recovered.

In a subsequent response, it added: Even where successful, not all costs would be recoverable.

The council owns the building and is responsible for its upkeep. It first leased it to the Velo Cafe, run by Small Batch Coffee, and is now run by Tomato Dolce and Salato.

The work on the cafe is featured as a case study on websites of several of the contractors involved in its construction.

Organic Roofs, which also helped install the replacement roof, features the then Velo Cafe roof in a piece entitled Organic Roofs vs Cowboy Builders about their appearance on a Channel 5 TV show.

It said: Some of the multiple benefits Lee (Evans, company director] explained included the greatly extended lifespan of the waterproofing . . . and the magical figure of cost.

Overall the message was that everyone can do their bit, and the upfront investment is more than balanced by the life cycle savings.

Organic Roofs did not respond to a request for comment.

Hertalan, which manufactures the waterproof panels used by Organic Roofs, also featured the Level Cafe in an online case study.

It says: Our EPDM systems have a life span of more than 50 years (SKZ Study 2001).

Architects Knox Bhavan and contractors Thomas Sinden also feature the cafe on their websites. Neither responded to a request for comment.

Brighton and Hove City Council also failed to respond to a request for comment.

See the article here:
Council landed with 77k bill to replace leaky eco roof - Brighton and Hove News

Hollinger houses afteer 1936, when the peaked roofs were added, effectively adding a second storey to the four-room homes.(Timmins Museum: National Exhibition Centre)

When Noah Timmins founded the Hollinger gold mine, he needed housing for his workers. So in 1919, he built 150 four-room, tar paper houses on the avenues west of Mountjoy Street North then another 100 in 1922 and another 100 on Spruce, Balsam, Maple and Elm Streets.

Museum director-curator Karen Bachmann tells us that backyard privies were replaced by indoor bathrooms in the 1920s.

By 1936, these little homes are flat-topped roofs and again families are big, so we create the little peaked areas on them, creating some more space upstairs, she says.

Many of the Hollinger mine employees living in the houses were avid gardeners.(Timmins Museum: National Exhibition Centre)

Bachmann adds that when the mine closed in the late 1960s, employees living in the houses were given the opportunity to buy them.

There was some money available to renovate them, so they were more than glad to do that, she recounts. And the Hollinger houses have been a part of our community ever since.

See the original post:
When the Hollinger houses got indoor bathrooms and peaked roofs - My Timmins Now

BELOW are planning applications received by Somerset West and Taunton Council in the week up to June 4, 2020.

The applications and notifications have been received for consideration and can be inspected online at http://www.somersetwestandtaunton.gov.uk/planning.

BATHEALTON

03/20/0003/T: Notification to fell one Acer tree within Bathealton Conservation Area at Farriers Orchard, Bathealton

BRADFORD ON TONE

07/20/0013/T: Notification to fell one Acer, 6 dead trees (species unspecified) and to carry out management works to one Sumach within Bradford on Tone Conservation Area at The Old Rectory, Bradford on Tone

DURSTON

16/20/0002: Erection of a single storey extension to the side of Cogload Farm, The Olde Sheep Barn, Glastonbury Road, Durston

NORTH CURRY

24/20/0018: Variation of Condition No. 02 (approved plans), removal of Condition Nos. 3, 4, 6, 7 and 12, variation of Condition Nos. 5, 8, 9, 10 11 and 13 of application 24/16/0042 for residential development on land south of Knapp Lane, North Curry

OTTERFORD

29/20/0011: Erection of a general purpose agricultural building on land at Otterford

PITMINSTER

30/20/0019: Construction of raised deck area to the first floor of Old Smithy Cottage, Sellicks Green, Pitminster

WELLINGTON

43/20/0005: Erection of 1 No. detached dwelling with integral garage, parking and access arrangements in the garden to the rear of 78 Oaken Ground, Rockwell Green

43/20/0054: Replacement of lean-to roof with the erection of a single storey extension to the side and erection of porch to the front of Fourwinds, Bagley Road, Wellington

WIVELISCOMBE

49/20/0027: Erection of 1 No. detached dwelling with associated works in the garden adjacent to Chorleys Farmhouse, Blackwater Lane, Whitefield, Wiveliscombe

BRUSHFORD

3/04/20/005: Erection of two-storey extension on the south elevation: Ellesboro, Brushford, Dulverton, TA22 9AW

MINEHEAD

3/21/20/040: Erection of two storey side extension, loft conversion to include a dormer window to the rear and associated alterations. 30 Staunton Road, Alcombe, Minehead, TA24 6DX

NETTLECOMBE

3/24/20/001: Erection of a two storey side and rear extension and associated works (resubmission of 3/24/19/002). The Blade Mill, Woodford Road, Monksilver, TA4 4HW

STOGURSEY

3/32/20/011: Erection of a single storey extension to the side and rear. 14 Town Close, Stogursey, TA5 1RN

WILLITON

3/39/20/008: Outline planning application with all matters reserved, except for access, for the redevelopment of the site to provide a food store (A1), retail shops (A1), professional and financial services (A2), food and drink uses (A3), health services (D1), residential dwellings (C3), vehicle and pedestrian accesses, associated car parking and landscaping. Land off Bank Street with link to Fore Street, Williton

DECISIONS

BICKENHALL

04/20/0005: Erection of single storey extension to the rear of Barton Oaks, 2 The Old Dairy, Bickenhall Lane, Bickenhall. CONDITIONAL APPROVAL

BISHOPS HULL

05/20/0015: Erection of single and two storey extensions, detached garage/gym building and creation of additional access at Highlane Manor, 51 Stonegallows, Taunton. CONDITIONAL APPROVAL

BISHOPS LYDEARD

06/20/0020: Erection of single and two storey rear extension at 41 Hither Mead, Bishops Lydeard. CONDITIONAL APPROVAL

HALSE

18/20/0005: Relocation of porch and removal of render on the front elevation to expose the traditional stone beneath and removal of part of stone boundary wall to improve visibility for vehicular access at The Cottage, Halse. CONDITIONAL APPROVAL

18/20/0006: Erection of single storey extension to the rear elevation and replacement of timber windows with double glazed upvc windows at Culver End Cottage, Halse. CONDITIONAL APPROVAL

KINGSTON ST MARY

20/20/0013: Replacement of garage and outbuildings with the erection of a carport and store with solar panels to roof at Greenbanks, Lodes Lane, Kingston St Mary. WITHDRAWN BY AGENT/APPLICANT

LANGFORD BUDVILLE

21/20/0005: Removal of Condition No. 03 (occupational tie) of application 70526 at Camberley, Wellisford Manor Road, Langford Budville, Wellington (resubmission of 21/19/0007). CONDITIONAL APPROVAL

NORTON FITZWARREN

25/20/0002/LB: Replacement of windows and doors at The Old Stables, Harnham Court, Wiveliscombe Road, Norton Fitzwarren. CONDITIONAL APPROVAL

OTTERFORD

29/20/0007: Erection of a two storey extension to the rear, replacement of roof and windows with various internal alterations at 1 Ivy Cottages, Holman Clavel Road, Culmhead. CONDITIONAL APPROVAL

PITMINSTER

30/19/0038: Change of use of land from agricultural to tourism with siting of 4 No. shepherd huts for use as holiday accommodation on land at Lower Woodram Farm, Woodram Lane, Pitminster. WITHDRAWN BY AGENT/APPLICANT

RUISHTON

31/20/0010: Replacement of coal shed and erection of single storey and two storey extension to rear of Littlemead, Ruishton (amended scheme 31/19/0020). CONDITIONAL APPROVAL

STAPLEGROVE

34/20/0007: Demolition of carport/garage with conversion of remaining structure and erection of a single storey extension to the side of 1 Drake Close, Taunton. CONDITIONAL APPROVAL

TAUNTON

38/20/0080: Erection of single storey side and two storey rear extension at 50 William Street, Taunton. CONDITIONAL APPROVAL

38/20/0113: Erection of first floor extension to the rear to create 1 No. flat at 24 Billet Street, Taunton. WITHDRAWN BY AGENT/APPLICANT

38/20/0114/LB: Replacement of failed render at Manor Farm Cottage, Woodland Road, Taunton. CONDITIONAL APPROVAL

38/20/0116: Erection of a detached studio/hobby room in the rear garden of 60 Wood Street, Taunton. CONDITIONAL APPROVAL

TRULL

42/20/0013: Erection of two storey rear extension and replacement single storey rear extension at 3 Fairview Terrace, Wild Oak Lane, Trull. CONDITIONAL APPROVAL

42/20/0025: Construction of roof over slurry store Canonsgrove Farm, Little Canonsgrove Lane, Trull. CONDITIONAL APPROVAL

42/20/0026: Construction of roofs over cattle feed yards at Canonsgrove Farm, Little Canonsgrove Lane, Trull. CONDITIONAL APPROVAL

WELLINGTON

43/20/0039/T: Application to carry out management works to one Yew tree included in Taunton Deane Borough (Wellington No.1) Tree Preservation Order 1990 at Saxby, South Street, Wellington (TD488). SPLIT DECISION

WIVELISCOMBE

49/20/0008: Change of use of land from allotments to churchyard with erection of fencing at St Andrews Church, Church Street, Wiveliscombe. CONDITIONAL APPROVAL

DULVERTON

3/09/20/001: Erection of a single storey side extension. Fairview, 18 Battleton, Dulverton. GRANTED

Read more from the original source:
Planning applications in the Somerset West & Taunton area: June 4, 2020 - Somerset County Gazette

When faced with an emergency, growth stops and maintaining the status quo becomes everything. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, many projects and expansion plans expansion plans have been placed on hold, while the business of staying in business has become top priority.

Enabling remote access, virtualising applications, and keeping an eye on security at the same time have kept IT teams occupied in recent weeks.

Initially all anyone was concerned about from a business point of view in this pandemic was business continuity and keeping the lights on. People were trying to figure out how employees would access technology at home via laptops or other devices. Then there was an immediate focus on virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), facilitating remote access and the scaling up and flexibility that this required, said Maeve Culloty, managing director of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Ireland.

Some companies already had an idea about how to do these things and how to get from here to there, but others just didnt know how.

Companies that depended on on-premise infrastructure needed to know quickly how to use VDI as a service, using hyper converged solutions. Some companies, said Culloty, just didnt have the knowledge and expertise to be able to scale that out.

From an HPE point of view, we had many digital transformation projects stop cold as companies in sectors such as retail, construction and others just stopped. Those workloads were replaced by companies that needed to accelerate their virtual desktop infrastructure deployment, she said.

It could be Office 365 or whatever solution they were going with, but regardless they had to start making decisions about where that would sit. Would it sit on-premise and if so what infrastructure was required? Most did that on site, but some scaled into the public cloud as well.

Those that scaled using their own on-premises solutions with HPE were able to make use of the companys Greenlake VDI Lighthouse programme, a pay as you go system that allows users to control costs by paying per seat per month.

We had to deal with a lot of customers who wanted that sort of functionality immediately, not in several weeks time but now. They also needed their systems to be secure and reliable, to be able to take their office desktops off physical machines and make them accessible from anywhere, at a rate that was acceptable given the levels of connectivity and broadband that people had, said Culloty.

Prior to this, remote access was an add-on to many companys IT infrastructure, something that people could use if they werent in the office or were working from the road. While it was useful, it wasnt considered an essential service. That changed overnight suddenly there was a huge remote access issue and security became a big issue.

Companies needed to get access sorted but there is risk at a time like this that when a company moves quickly to certain new services, it can then find itself locked into a significant ongoing cost to deal with a short term problem, Culloty said.

At a practical level, companies that are able to help others manage the disruption that has been caused by the pandemic have rarely been busier. According to Marc ORegan, chief technology officer for Dell Technologies, few in that organisation have experienced a more busy time.

It has spent a significant amount of its time and resources helping its customers to reposition themselves to be able to deal with the challenges of having a remotely distributed workforce.

To begin with, everyone is using Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Skype as their communication and collaboration tools and internally, theyve allowed us to work and communicate at a global level. Lots of other companies are doing the same thing and tools like these have really helped in the pandemic because a lot the meetings we would normally have face to face just havent been possible, he said.

Using these remote collaboration tools, weve been able to educate our teams and help them adapt to the situations were all dealing with. Its not as good as being face to face in a workshop environment, where eye-to-eye contact and thinking can spark magic, but its a lot better than nothing.

Dell Technologies has used these tools to create collaborative spaces where employees can build what it calls bootcamps and give its customers one-to-one experiences.

Outside of our own internal experience, in wider industry were seeing a huge rate of some workloads going onto public cloud platforms, and a real cry for other workloads and services to be very quickly spun up and built on private or hybrid cloud platforms, said ORegan.

Interestingly we have also recently seen a massive spike in people heading for the public cloud for simple virtual machine utilisation. A big issue for many of the service providers is that some werent able to cope with the strain of this.

Cloud providers offer users the ability to scale their resources up and down as they need them. However if everyone tries to increase their capacity at the same time, that can place serious pressure on a provider.

Its like a run on the banks. Banking works fine as an idea unless everyone turns up at the same time looking for their money. Public cloud has been sold to the industry as this infinite pool of resources that can be just fired up in response to demand. All you have to do is hit the button and youre good to go, said ORegan.

But there was a percentage increase into the hundreds because of the pandemic and that really put that idea to the test. Its pretty widely known across the industry that the capability to do this for everyone at the same time just wasnt there. That was very interesting to see happen in real time.

For ORegan this was a real test case for the scalability of public cloud platforms and what happened as a result was that a lot of potential public cloud consumers were forced down other routes.

They were forced back into their own data centres or to those of partners to help them build these platforms themselves. Public cloud is extraordinarily powerful and useful, but nonetheless it was an interesting observation to see the system stress tested, he said.

According to Seamus Dunne, managing director of data centre specialist Interxion Ireland, many cloud-related projects have been shelved at the moment, but he anticipates a major pick up later in the year.

After the emergency phase is over, towards the end of the summer and into autumn I believe well see acceleration in change in IT. When it comes to things like digital transformation and prioritising digital projects, I think companies have now got it. The need for anything around digital transformation by which I mean application consolidation, cloud migration, data centre consolidation and infrastructure projects all the IT projects which are being driven in businesses will power ahead, he said.

There is absolute clarity now that these projects need to work and progress. In the short term, a lot of activity for companies is about maintaining things, avoiding disruption and doubling down on supporting what theyve got.

Dunne foresees a gearing up for the second half of the year and expects to see an acceleration of action into 2021.

There are three different levels of cloud infrastructure, platform and software as a service and most businesses in Ireland are still on a cloud journey. Only about 4 per cent of industry workloads are actually in the cloud, the rest are still on-premise and in peoples data centres, he said.

There are plenty of migration strategies out there but whats happened is that IT workloads and capacities during the Covid-19 pandemic have really expanded, hugely, driven by things like Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Its that sort of network traffic that accounts for most of it and its gone through the roof.

However larger cloud projects have slowed down for now. In the face of an emergency, preserving the status quo is more important than powering growth.

Many projects have been shelved until people can be deployed into data centres and can make changes manually. I believe what well see is that in the second half of the year, a lot of digital transformation projects which are very much centred on migration to the cloud will accelerate, he said.

Its all paused at the moment though. Things right now are about maintaining the IT thats there, not letting it go down and supporting network traffic. Our customers are asking us to maintain everything and help make sure nothing goes down.

According to Dunne, the cloud industry will be forever changed by the pandemic. It has accelerated adoption and changed perceptions.

Businesses understand that theyre in a digital economy now. Cloud has delivered a new economic model and its not just one built around lower cost. Yes, going to the cloud is a better financial proposition but the real benefits are speed, flexibility and agility for every business through IT, he said.

The cloud facilitates faster deployment of new applications to run your business and being able to scale them up and down, facilitated things like dev ops and containerisation. Look at operators like N26 and Revolut arriving in Ireland and the struggle that the banks are having to compete with them.

Similar genre-busting examples exist in all industries, as a general shift in perception is taking place. IT is not just considered a cost of doing business anymore, its considered a mechanism for growing a business. It can be a revenue generating centre rather than a cost centre.

Its a hard time to be a chief information officer because increasingly people in those roles are being asked to do more but without getting a bigger budget to make that happen. CIOs have to be able to move faster, be that by deploying apps or upgrading capabilities and applications are typically needed now, not in six months time, said Dunne.

Companies with a significant amount of infrastructure in a data centre can find that efforts to find a work-around to deal with the pandemic have hit significant problems due to lack of access. While a huge amount can be done remotely, for some things you really need a person to make manual adjustments.

This is where companies like Rubrik come in, offering advice on how to help those struggling to manage their data across a spread of private and public cloud.

Thats something were seeing a lot of at the moment and weve worked with a few customers that didnt have access to their own data centre or offices because of lock down. We were able to help by removing the need to manually intervene in the management of data, said John McCleverty, enterprise sales manager for Rubrik.

At the same time, were seeing a lot more requests for cloud native capabilities. There is big growth in customers that were previously running on-premise infrastructure and are now moving to the cloud. And theres no mystery why. The current challenges around the lockdown and Covid-19 pandemic faced by organisations have highlighted the importance of automation.

According to McCleverty, companies across Ireland have reported to him that they struggle to manage data spread across private cloud, public cloud and remote locations.

They dont want something like this to happen again. They want to future proof themselves to mitigate being hit as hard in future. As we come out of Covid, the big focus will be on planning for such events again and looking at issues like business continuity, he said.

Its still very early to predict what is going to happen in the market but Ireland is well placed. Customer confidence just needs to follow.

Rubrik stores its customers data in an immutable format, meaning that cyber attackers cant alter any of your backups.

This is an issue that many people have with regard to storing data in the cloud. Weve built our systems to reduce the risk of downtime, optimize cost, achieve operational efficiency and realize cloud modernisation, said McCleverty.

Lasting change or temporary swerve?

Companies of all different sizes have done their best to deal with the ongoing challenges presented by the pandemic, and for some that meant moving from having little to no online activities to depending entirely on an online offering.

Some companies we deal with that had very little online presence discovered quickly that the only way they could survive and get money in the door was by reinventing themselves at least partially or even fully online, said Michele Neylon of Blacknight Solutions.

Take Velvet Cloud, a client of ours. It makes fantastic sheeps milk products but its business was primarily working with distribution channels that focused on getting product to supermarkets and wholesalers it didnt sell direct to the public But then the pandemic hit and it had to reinvent itself really quickly as an online seller. Weve seen a lot of that over the last couple of months.

According to Neylon, there has been a large surge in internet traffic in general as more people are doing more communicating and shopping online. Those companies which have embraced that new reality have been able to better weather whats going on.

Weve seen a massive surge in people registering domain names and some of that is people looking for temporary solutions to allow them to deal with the lockdown, and some of it is people looking for ways to pivot and help other companies redesign their shops and offices to deal with social distancing, he said.

I cant see all this progress being lost. I dont think were going to see people going back to being as offline as they used to be. I think the pendulum has swung and people on both sides of the supply and demand equation are now comfortable with the technology.

According to Neylon, many companies that have traditionally been risk-averse when it comes to trying new ways of doing business have had their hands forced by the pandemic.

They basically thought things are fine as they are, and yeah, maybe we could do something online but could we be bothered? Theyve now had to embrace online and theres no going back from that. When the world returns to normal, theyll still have that capacity and theyll be dealing with a consumer market that will have grown used to the convenience, he said.

Cost savings not a significant factor in cloud adoption rates

One of the enduring ideas surrounding cloud adoption rates is that companies primarily do it to save money, to pay for infrastructure, platform or software using the as-a-service model.

The ability to shift costs from the capital expenditure column to the operating expenditure column of the balance sheet has often been cited as a major motivator powering cloud adoption. However it might be time to leave that idea in the past, according to Loman McCaffrey, head of practices at Logicalis.

His company recently carried out some research and among its findings was that of the 110 companies that responded, 43 per cent engage a technology partner to manage their cloud services because it simplifies management for them. Some 39 per cent do it to overcome a lack of in-house skills and only 18 per cent do so to achieve greater cost effectiveness.

Anecdotally this tallies with our experience, but as we all know its dangerous to form opinions based on what you think your customers priorities are so this research is really helpful, said McCaffrey.

So its our opinion that cost isnt really a motivating factor to people. A bigger barrier to adopting the cloud is that while companies do it, they typically dont wind down the on-premise infrastructure they already have and they end up managing both on and off premise solutions. The result is that complexity becomes a problem.

Moving workloads to the cloud multiplies complexity and that makes people wary of making big changes.

People dont live in a world where their in-house environment is everything they want it to be. Its not always as well patched as it could be, as resilient as it could be and so on. The vast majority of people running IT systems spend at least some of their time putting out fires, said McCaffrey.

If people can get a managed offering, getting access to the so-called -ilities, the flexibility, the agility, the scalability and so on but without increasing the complexity, thats great. That will overcome some of their concerns.

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Cloud traffic through the roof in pandemic - Business Post

This program is about trying to bless those essential workers and first responders who are real heroes in a difficult time. Jack Borba, owner of Straightline Construction

Local heroes, essential workers, first responders and those in need amid the COVID-19 crisis have a chance to score free home improvements.

Straight Line Construction is partnering with other local, small businesses to help people in need or to give back to those on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19. $125,000 in home upgrades will be given away as part of its Heroes Home Improvement Giveaway that will run through May 26.

This program is about trying to bless those essential workers and first responders who are real heroes in a difficult time, said Straight Line Construction owner Jack Borba.

Community members in El Dorado County can nominate a local hero, someone in need or even themselves to win one of many home improvements. The program gives winners an opportunity at a new roof, gutters, solar, HVAC system, deck, siding, paint job or a garage door.

Borba said he first came up with the idea for the program driving through south Cameron Park at the beginning of April and saw all the businesses closed down.

For awhile we in construction were not sure if we would be classified as essential or not and eventually we were and are very blessed, Borba said. I decided to add people in need to the program because I realized how many people are hurting from their businesses closing up as a result of this health crisis.

The giveaway is divided up into categories with assigned value limits that include a complete deck replacement (one available up to $30,000 in value); complete siding replacement (one available up to $26,500 in value); complete roof replacement (one available up to $20,000 in value); solar system (one available up to $15,000 in value); heating/air conditioning system (one available up to $15,000 in value); roof repair or gutter replacement (five available up to $2,000 each in value); painting services (one available up to $5,000 in value); skylight replacement (one available up to $1,500 in value); deck sealing (one available up to $1,000 in value); and a garage door (one available up to $1,000 in value).

Winners will be determined by weekly drawings.

Founded in 1999 by Borba, Straight Line Construction began as a roofing company and now offers residential services for roof replacement and repairs, gutters, decks, siding and window replacement.

Straight line has since been improving homes in this community and giving back to those in need, with past fundraising efforts helping to support the Food Bank of El Dorado County.

Borba said participants in the Heroes Home Improvement Giveaway can enter once each day and even complete bonus entry options/forms to increase the opportunity for nominees to win.

For more information on how to nominate someone visitstraightlineconstruction.com or call (530)-672-9995.

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Local construction company giving back to heroes of the pandemic - Mountain Democrat

Six Island schools were upgraded or refurbished by the Isle of Wight Council last year and many more are set to benefit from millions of pounds of government funding.

In total, almost 2 million was invested by the council in major projects that have included modern classrooms, replacement roofing and windows, heating systems and electrical works.

However, a further estimated 12 million is set to be spent on the Island over the coming years through the governments Priority Schools Building Programme (PSBP).

The programme has already seen the refurbishment of Barton Primary School, Newport, and a new build at Queensgate Primary School, East Cowes which opened last week with major works also planned for Binstead, Brading, Dover Park (Ryde), Greenmount (Ryde), Wootton and Wroxall primary schools.

Councillor Paul Brading, Cabinet member for childrens services and education, said: We are continually investing in our schools to ensure our children have the best possible learning environment.

Thanks to the strong working relationship between the Department for Education (DfE) and local authority, many Island schools are also benefiting from significant investment from the governments PSBP.

Our push on improvements is helping to boost school results on the Island with outcomes improving at a much faster rate than schools nationally.

Godshill Primary School has recently undergone a 640,000 transformation with the council investing a further 790,000 in Cowes and Broadlea primary schools, with the latter benefiting from a brand-new roof.

Around 200,000 has been spent at The Bay Church of England School, Sandown, as part of a series of works which has included the refurbishment of the school dining hall.

Meanwhile, further investment has been made at St Georges special school and Medina House School, both at Newport, to enhance fire safety.

Among the schools to have already benefited from PSBP funding is Gurnard Primary where, last month, pupils were excited to walk into a snazzy new building.

The old school had become very expensive and time consuming to maintain with a leaky roof, blocked drains and temperamental boiler.

The new building has much larger classrooms, benefits from the latest facilities and is fully accessible for children and adults with disabilities.

Headteacher Vanessa Hicks said: We are lucky enough to have two halls, two library spaces, music practice rooms and a specialist science lab.

The learning environment in the new school is outstanding.

The children are now designing our new back garden which will be created on the site of the old school. This will include a natural playground, pond, wildflower meadow, forest school, orchard and allotment so were all very excited to see it develop.

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Millions of pounds of investment in Island schools - Isle of Wight Observer

By John E. LePage Jr.Correspondent

SundayMar1,2020at12:01AM

The Spencer Township Trustees met on Feb. 17. Trustees Brad West and Mark Roberts were present along with Fiscal Officer Darlene Miser.

Bills in the amount of $25,158.92 were presented and approved for payment. Correspondence received included GrassRoots Clippings Newsletter, legislative alerts, and miscellaneous mailings. There were no visitors in attendance.

In old business the trustees discussed the Windstream road bore, Internet connection and the Muskingum Watershed assessment. In new business, the trustees discussed roofing proposals and the possible replacement of a tractor utilizing the state bidding program.

The next regular meeting of the Spencer Township Trustees will be on Monday March 16 at 7 p.m. in the Township Building on Mill Street in Cumberland.

Upcoming events

The next card making class at the Presbyterian Church in Cumberland will be March 2. It will run from 1 to 3 p.m. No skills or materials are needed. The cost is a $10 donation to the church.

March 2 The next regular meeting of the Cumberland Village Council is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. in the village building on Mill Street.

March 3-4 The SouthEastern Ohio Joint Solid Waste Management Districts Recycling Trailer is scheduled to be at the Spencer Township Building on Mill Street in Cumberland. Please do not place trash in the trailer or leave items on the ground next to the trailer. The recycling trailers schedule is subject to change.

Wednesdays There is a quilting group get together beginning at 9:30 am at the Presbyterian Church in Cumberland located at the intersection of Main and Church streets.

Thursdays Euchre is scheduled at the Chandlersville Community Building from 7 to 9 p.m., weather permitting. (The Community Building is the old Chandlersville School located on SR 146 in Chandlersville.)

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Cumberland news - News - The Daily Jeffersonian

On Tuesday, March 10th, Michiganders will head to the polls to vote on the Republican and Democratic Presidential nominees. When they get there, theyll see a number of proposals on the ballot aswell.

See key information on voting below, including proposals that 101.9 WDETs newsroom is currently reporting. This article will be updated as we publishreporting.

Voters will need to choose from three ballot types. They can pick a Democratic,Republican,or non-presidentialballot.

A non-presidential ballot is for voters who choose to give up voting for presidential candidates in the primary in order to keep their party affiliations private. Ballot choices are subject to the Freedom of Information Act for 22 months after an election. They will still be able to vote on localproposals.

Here are the ballot initiatives and proposals 101.9 WDETs reporters will be following in advance of the election. This list is not comprehensive, but a reflection of our newsroomreporting.

What: Wayne, Macomb and Oakland counties will be asked if they want to renew a millage for the Detroit Institute of Arts. The ten year,.2 mill tax was initially passed in 2012. It costs a tax payer with a $100,000 home $10peryear.

Supporters: Salvador Salort-Pons,Director of the DIA,says the millage has allowed the museum to bus in seniors and studentsand fund community arts programming in thecounties.

In the past we were an organization that generally speaking was looking a little bit inwards. Thanks to this millage and the service agreement we have with Oakland, Wayne and Macomb counties we areout-facing.

Opponents: During the 2012 campaign the DIA said it would not ask for a renewal. Critics say its unfair the museum put the millage on the ballot during a primary election,which historically has low voterturnout.

A lawmaker has introduced a bill that would allow communities to opt out of the Detroit Institute of Arts millage renewal, should it pass. State House Rep. Jeff Yaroch represents northern Macomb County communities like Armada, Richmond and Memphis.He says he introduced the bill because most of his communities voted against the millage in2012.

We have our own issues to take care of. We have water, sewerage and roads issues. So maybe some of those communities would rather see their resources go to fixing their own issues than addressing another countysissues.

What:Ferndale Public Schools has a proposal to raise$120 million over 10 years through a bond on the ballot. The bond is structured to avoid a tax increase for Ferndaleresidents.

Supporters:Superintendent Dania Bazzi says the bond is needed to make improvements to the Ferndale High School and Middle Schoolcampus.

That campus the building was built in the 1950s. It is a solid building. But much like your home, its in need of mechanical, plumbingand roofing upgrades, which are substantial on a 420,000 square footbuilding.

What:The proposal would create a policy for the implementation of marijuana facilities, including process, fees and criteria for licensing. The proposal would prohibit sales or marijuana within 1,000 feet of schools, include equity plans for communities impacted by the prohibition of marijuana, and implement a businessexcisetax.

What: Proposal to allow Plymouth-Canton Community Schools to borrow up to $275,000,000 through the issuance of general obligation bonds for the purpose of upgrading school facilities, construction of a new stadium, acquiring instructional technology, and preparing new activity and athletic facilities. Repayment of the bonds is expected to incur an average of 1.65 mills annually for up to 20 years, costing a tax payer with a $100,000 home $165 ayear.

What: Proposal to increase a millage on taxable property by 1.9 mills over 10 years, 2020 to 2029, for enhancements to local public school districts. The millage would raise an estimated $55 million if approved, and costa tax payer with a $100,000 home $95 peryear.

Schools that would benefit from the millage include Anchor Bay School District, Armada Area Schools, Center Line Public Schools, Chippewa Valley Schools, Clintondale Community Schools, Eastpointe Public Schools, Fitzgerald Public Schools, Fraser Public Schools, Lake Shore Public Schools, Lakeview Public Schools, LAnse Creuse Public Schools, Mount Clemens Community Schools, New Haven Community Schools, Richmond Community Schools, Romeo Community Schools, Roseville Community Schools, South Lake Schools, South Lake Schools, Utica Community Schools, Van Dyke Public Schools, Warren Consolidated Schools, Warren Woods Public Schools and Macomb Intermediate SchoolDistrict.

What:A proposal to allow Birmingham Public Schools to borrow up to $195,000,000 through the issuance of general obligation bonds for the purpose of upgrading school facilities, construction of a new stadium, acquiring instructional technology, and preparing new activity and athletic facilities. Repayment of the bonds is expected to incur an average of1.24 mills annually for up to 20 years, costing a tax payer with a $100,000 home $124 ayear.

What:Proposal to extenda millage on taxable property for up to 18 mills for general school operating purposes, restricted to 16.9698 mills on owner-occupied homes, for 10 years, 2020 to 2029. This millage would raise approximately $42,309,000 in the firstyear.

What:Proposal to allow the city to continue to levy a 7.5 mils property tax in Center Line for 10 years, 2021 through 2030, for public safety, police and fire.Based on current taxable property value the millage would raise approximately $1,160,000 and cost an owner of a $100,000 property $750 ayear.

Read more from the original source:
Michigan March 10th Election: What's On the Ballot and How to Vote In Metro Detroit - WDET