CHRISTOPHER TRENTO/Photos

SSP Architectural Group CEO Jeanne Perantoni talks about plans for the district if the $49.8 million referendum question passes. School and municipal officials made one of their final pitches to residents at a community forum on Nov. 19, urging them to 'Vote Schools, Vote Kids' during the Dec. 9 bond referendum meeting.Fort Lee interim Superintendent Paul Saxton speaks about the school referendum. 'This, of all the plans, is not only the most creative but is financially and fiscally responsible and the

FORT LEE - With the Dec. 9 bond referendum to expand district space drawing closer, school and municipal officials made one of their final pitches to residents at a community forum on Nov. 19, urging them to "Vote Schools, Vote Kids."

The $49.8 million plan calls for a ten-room addition to School No. 2 for Pre-K and special needs students, the relocation of the district's fifth- and sixth-graders into a new 33-classroom wing at the middle school and upgrades to the high school track and field area.

CHRISTOPHER TRENTO/Photos

most efficient,' he said.

If approved, the expansions will end an overcrowding strain that has forced art, music and other classes into libraries and hallways and students at School No. 2 into trailers and provide enough space for the 400 students expected to enroll in the school system in the next five years.

The district has absorbed the addition of 350 students over the past five years with no new construction.

Mayor Mark Sokolich was also present during the Nov. 19 community forum to speak on the school referendum.

"This, of all the plans, is not only the most creative but is financially and fiscally responsible and the most efficient," said interim Superintendent Paul Saxton, noting that the reconfigured middle school will allow students to better identify with each other and create a school culture.

See the original post:
Officials make final pitches for bond proposal

Tuesday, November, 25, 2014 - 1:01:33 PM

Six-room addition at St. Therese to open in September

A six-classroom addition at St. Therese of Lisieux should be completed by the time school returns next September, says the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board. A start date for the work has not been determined, the board says, but work is expected to be done by Sept. 1. The tender for the project was awarded earlier this month to DeFaveri Group, which had the lowest bid at $2.1-million. Expansion of the west Mountain elementary school was the top project on the boards wish list to the Ministry of Education in 2013. The addition will feature a number of energy efficient features such as extra insulation and sensors to turn off lightning when a room is not in use. There will also be parking lot improvements to ease congestion.

Excerpt from:
Six-room addition at St. Therese to open in September

Instead of following the typical studio apartment floor plan and outfitting Pila's place with a galley kitchen, closet-sized bathroom, and a bedroom the size of a prison cell, PKMN developed a solution that allowed her to have several spacious roomsjust not all at once. PKMN Architecture

Instead of following the typical studio apartment floor plan and outfitting Pila's place with a galley kitchen, closet-sized bathroom, and a bedroom the size of a prison cell, PKMN developed a solution that allowed her to have several spacious roomsjust not all at once.

A series of rolling storage units double as walls.

A series of rolling storage units double as walls.

Industrial tracks, typically used to support rolling bookshelves at libraries are given new life in this atypical application. PKMN Architecture

Industrial tracks, typically used to support rolling bookshelves at libraries are given new life in this atypical application.

The itinerant nature of the walls means each of these spaces can be larger, about 160 square feet, than if they were permanently defined. PKMN Architecture

The itinerant nature of the walls means each of these spaces can be larger, about 160 square feet, than if they were permanently defined.

Special features, like a hidden Murphy Bed, are built into the boxes. PKMN Architecture

Special features, like a hidden Murphy Bed, are built into the boxes.

More:
Moving Walls Transform a Tiny Apartment Into a 5-Room Home

4 hours 29 minutes ago

Junior League of Lafayette teamed up with the residents of the New Life Center, a shelter for women and children in Opelousas, for their fall service project. The New Life Center operates 365 days a year and shelters up to 58 women and their children in a hotel room style setting. The Center provides three hot meals a day, a licensed Class A child care center, a substance abuse program in addition to supportive services to help secure employment, permanent housing and other services that may be needed. The provisional class combined four projects into one comprehensive approach to make a real impact on the New Life Center, thereby allowing each Junior League member a fulfilling opportunity to utilize her own unique abilities and time to truly make the most impact in the lives of the shelter's women and children.

The project included two life skills classes consisting of tips for resume writing, interview skills, appropriate work wear and budgeting. League provisional member Kelly Grenier, who helped organize the life skills class portion of the project, commented that "the class was intended to last for 30 minutes, but the residents all showed such genuine interest and care in what we had to teach them that we ended up talking for an hour and half. Some of the residents have even emailed us their resumes to review."

The second portion of the project was a clothing/toy drive in which clothing, toiletries, shoes, purses, and toys were donated by active Junior League of Lafayette members and sustainers, and sororities within the community. Items were organized and delivered to the residents of the shelter.

Repainting and organizing the shelter's recreational room was another huge portion of the project. Several members teamed up to paint and build furniture for the recreational room which serves as an area for residents to hang out as well as an overflow room when the shelter is at maximum capacity. A large mural was painted on the wall complete with handprints of all residents and Junior League provisional members.

Last but not least, children of the shelter were treated to a morning of arts and crafts during which they enjoyed making Christmas stockings and toy snowmen.

Provisional Chairman Alise Hagan stated, "This year I selected the theme We Can Do It!' as the class motto, and the provisionals have shown us that yes, they can do whatever they put their minds and hearts to. Our provisional members have first-hand experience now being 'granted the joy of filling someone's needs'. The class advisers and I are immensely proud of the creativity, dedication, and generosity of time and spirit the provisional members have demonstrated. The League continues to be inspired by each of the amazing talents the provisional members graciously share with the League, the New Life Center, and the community."

Read the original here:
Junior League of Lafayette Provisional Members Make an Impact

Enlarge Image

Phil Hossack / Winnipeg Free Press The Elma Hotel and Beverage Room has been closed and for sale for years. It remains padlocked along Highway 15.

NOTRE DAME DE LOURDES -- Angelo Mondragon remembers growing up hanging around picket lines in California with his mom and dad, who were union organizers.

His dad worked along side Cesar Chavez, the migrant farm worker who founded the Farm Workers Union in the United States, and who became that country's most famous Latino American civil rights leader.

Mondragon, as a child, would accompany his dad to Chavez's house, and was taken along on union rallies. "I didn't understand what these marches were about. I basically grew up in the (union) headquarters in southern California."

How Mondragon wound up in the heart of southern Manitoba owning a hotel beverage room -- and spearheading a drive to save small rural beverage rooms like his from vanishing off the landscape -- is another story. The small hotel bars scattered across the countryside have outlasted many a school, church and grain elevator, and are just as steeped in history, albeit a different kind. But the days for many of the small beverage rooms appears to be coming to an end.

"A friend of mine met a friend of hers," explained Mondragon, who is of Mexican descent, over a beer one afternoon in the Notre Dame Hotel.

His friend met a woman from Notre Dame de Lourdes, about 110 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg, who was visiting California, and they ended up marrying. Mondragon flew in from California for the wedding -- that was 10 years ago -- and met the bride's friend. A long-distance relationship ensued. He and Tina Bourdeaud'hui married seven years ago. They tried living in California but Tina, who is a physiotherapist, missed home. They returned five years ago. "How do you decide where to live? She's the boss," replied Mondragon, who is 37.

In Santa Cruz, his early attempts at a career ranged from police officer trainee to stock broker. In Notre Dame, he embraced that rural ethic of wearing several hats. He worked in a pig barn, drove a combine for a couple summers, sold wind turbines, and, most recently, worked for Manitoba Hydro.

The couple have two children with a third on the way, and live on an acreage outside town. "What we have here we could never have in California," Mondragon said.

Read this article:
Closing time: The hotel beverage room is slowly disappearing from the rural landscape

Written by Gary Simeone, oysterbay@antonnews.com Thursday, 20 November 2014 00:00

What better way to celebrate a 100th birthday than by having a new room inauguration filled with local residents, live music and cocktails and scrumptious hors doeuvres. That is what happened at the Locust Valley Library Sunday evening, Nov. 9, as the community room was officially renamed the Matinecock Neighborhood Association Community Room. Proceeds from the event went to the restoration of the new room.

Speakers at the centennial celebration included Library Board of Trustees President Charles Brisbane, Library Administrative Director Kathy Smith, Locust Valley Historical Society President Herb Schierhorst and Matinecock Nation Chief Little Running Fox.

Its been 100 years since the Matinecock Neighborhood House was built through gifts of money from local residents, said Brisbane, who is also president of the Matinecock Neighborhood Association. The building featured a theater, an infirmary and there was a kitchen and a bowling alley in the basement. The basement also housed the Locust Valley Fire Department at that time.

In 1923, local resident Frank Doubleday added a library wing to the building and in 1936 the Matinecock Neighborhood Association turned over the building and grounds to the Locust Valley Library.

Brisbane said that people are making the library their neighborhood house once again.

The library offers multiple programs for people of all ages, was a place of refuge and a gathering place after Superstorm Sandy and the newly renamed community room attracts a couple of thousand people a year for events, said Brisbane.

Smith said that the people of the Matinecock Nation have been very generous with the library over the years.

They have done a lot of nice things as far as helping with the upkeep of the library and recently donated $25,000 for the renovation of this room, said Smith.

There are big plans in the librarys second century for renovations that will help to continually improve the look of the buildings interior and exterior.

Go here to see the original:
Library Celebrates 100th Birthday

One of the main reasons that building an addition can cost twice as much per square foot as remodeling an existing space is the foundation. Unless you're building up or bumping out, every addition requires some sort of masonry foundation dug down below the frost line so it won't get pushed around by freezing temperatures. The earthmoving and concrete-pouring required to support the new construction can be 10 to 15 percent of the total project investment, says Eden Prairie, Minn., design-build contractor Mark Mackmiller. But there are some ways to slash those costs.

Full Basement. This is the costliest option because it requires the most digging and the most concrete, plus the crew will likely have to break through the old foundation to connect the new and old basements together. What you get, however, is basement space that can easily be converted to living space, either now or in the future, for a nominal added cost, Mackmiller says. Plus, you can insulate under the floor and can use solid wood flooring, which isn't an option with all foundation types.

Crawlspace. By building your basement only a few feet deep, you might save $3,000 or more for a 12x14 foot addition, while still retaining the ability to use solid wood flooring and to fully insulate under the addition. And all you really give up is the headspace that would allow you to convert the basement to living space in the future. That's why this is the standard approach to additions in most parts of the country.

Slab. Built much like a concrete patio (though with deep footings around the perimeter to support the weight of the structure), this combines the foundation and the floor in one layer of concrete. It only works when the addition is right at grade level, in which case it's the cheapest option available, saving perhaps $5,000 compared to a crawlspace basement, according to Mackmiller. The crew can put insulation under the slab (as well as electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling lines), but because of the concrete, the floor will typically be fairly cold, says Schultz, and solid wood flooring isn't advised due to moisture in the concrete.

Pole Footings. When the addition is above gradeeither because your first floor is high above the ground or because you're building a second floor addition with, say, a screened porch below itthe lowest cost option is to forgo a foundation or slab and use pole footings instead. This is what's typically used for decks: Holes are dug down below the frost line, cardboard tubes are inserted in them, and then concrete gets poured into the tubes. Once it has cured, the tubes are cut away and the concrete serves as footings for posts that hold up the addition. This allows for a wood floor and for insulation, though it's typically not as warm in the space as when there's a foundation underneath. Again, you can save as much as $5,000 compared to a crawlspace.

Link:
Choosing an Addition's Foundation | Mechanical Systems | HGTV

Room addition Bobcat tear down
via YouTube Capture.

By: joshuawwd

Read the rest here:
Room addition Bobcat tear down - Video

Chris has been at it again, haunting the floor of any games show careless enough to leave an air vent accessible from the outside. Recently he was at EGX, putting his hands on any- and everything he could. Here, he reports back.

The Room Three by Fireproof Studios

The first two The Room games set the mobile platforms alight as they were games that not only did not feature a match-three mechanic but were also not free-to-play. Many of Fireproof Studio's contemporaries scoffed at the notion of making a game that doesn't leech money from the player on a regular basis as they attempted to play through it. Despite this The Room and The Room Two were so successful that Fireproof Studios has now embarked on the third outing of the series, cryptically titled The Room Three.

Making its debut at EGX 2014, The Room Three has a number of key features that set it apart from the previous two games. The first being that there is someone else in the rooms that the player traverses through. This was quite unsettling when I saw it during the 10 minute demo I played as I always regarded The Room games as a solitary experience, so to find someone else into the environment was quite unexpected. There is no indication of what or who this person is, or if the player interacts with them in any way, but their presence is very much felt.

Toryans by Holyfingers

But let's focus on what Toryans is about before we go plunging into too much detail. Set in a contemporary environment, the main protagonist is a woman who is the midst of questioning the very foundations of her life and her beliefs. One day she follows a stranger after a train journey she takes home from work every day and things start to unravel from there.

The demo does an excellent job of explaining how the interface in Toryans works. Using a reactive icon system, as the player moves the mouse pointer across the screen an icon appears indicating how they can interact with it. Sometimes an item (a key, for example) is needed in order for the action to be successful. In the demo there are number of areas the player can explore and items they can pick up and use in combination with one another in order to complete a task and eventually solve a puzzle. Items in the player's inventory can also be combined to make new items, which of course is nothing new, but an important mechanic that Toryans uses frequently.

In order for the pass to be retrieved the woman must somehow get it from the locked room to her so that she can use it on the lift. Travelling around the office is an automated vacuum cleaner, which is diligently clearing anything up that drops to the floor. By using the shredded paper that the woman collected from the office shredder, she is able to get the robotic cleaner to have the pass lodged onto its lid. The next task is to get the pass from the top of the cleaner; but I won't go into that for fear of spoiling things.

Toryans is set to appear on Windows PC, Mac and Linux sometime in the future; probably when it's done.

Read more:
EGX First Looks: The Room Three and Toryans - First Look

BEAVERTON, OR (KPTV) -

Police said a man was making counterfeit credit cards in a Beaverton motel room and then using those cards to buy prepaid gift cards.

The Beaverton Police Department's investigation began when officers checking out a suspicious car with California license plates at the motel determined the man who was driving it was using a fake driver's license to rent the room.

Detectives determined the man stole the identity of someone in California and using that identity obtained a $40,000 loan to buy the car, a 2007 Mercedes CL 550.

When officers arrested 40-year-old Thomas Geter of California on Sunday, they found he was running a counterfeit credit card operation out of the hotel room.

Detectives said they confiscated fake credit cards, devices to make those cards, more than $13,000 in prepaid gift cards, about $1,800 in cash and other evidence.

Detectives said it appeared Geter bought the gift cards from numerous stores, including Home Depot, Safeway, Albertsons, Walgreens and Rite-Aid.

Police said Geter was the only one involved in the counterfeit operation at the hotel room but he might have been working with someone in California.

He was arraigned Monday on charges of identity theft and unlawful use of a vehicle.

He is due back in court Nov. 24.

Read more:
Police: Man ran fake credit card operation out of Beaverton motel room