A Better Guest Experience Join Complimentary Webinar To Be Presented March 26, 2014

Is providing a clean room and complimentary newspaper enough today? For some, it may be a good start, but guests today are discerning, sophisticated, and have more choices than ever for their lodging needs. In addition to the fundamentals that every guest expects as a minimum, hospitality organizations need to be smarter about their execution by delivering an exceptional experience.

According to the J.D. Power 2013 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study, the number of interactions guests have with hotel staff may have an impact on satisfaction, as guests who interact with four or more staff types, excluding the check-in staff, gave an average of 856 points, 79 points higher than the industry average. Conversely, satisfaction dropped to 53 points below the industry average when guests have no interaction with staff beyond check in.

The Service Optimization solutions, HotSOS, REX and PMWorks, from Newmarket International, Inc. ("Newmarket"), the proven business solutions provider for empowering hospitality organizations to lower costs and increase revenue, while improving customer satisfaction and guest loyalty, are the ideal tools to give guests what they want. A clean room, hot water, and an on-time wake-up call are essentials, but guests want their needs to be anticipated and requests swiftly executed.

HotSOS automates and tracks preventive maintenance, service orders, and guest requests. With intelligent guest matching, profiling, and stay history features, guest information is always "at your fingertips." And, since HotSOS in enterprise-enabled and delivered via the Internet, staff members can anticipate guest needs and be more proactive because unique automation provides the right information, right when they need it.

By making the room assignment and cleaning process quick and easy, REX uses data from multiple systems in ways to help get guests to the rooms faster. First, it gathers information from the Property Management System (PMS) and other systems to intelligently assign rooms and provide room attendants with the next most important room to clean. Second, it communicates valuable client information such as name, stay details, and room setup preferences to room attendants, so they can enhance the guest experience.

With PMWorks, maintenance staff can focus on completing open orders. Properties do not necessarily need a sophisticated tool to manage maintenance. PMWorks allows properties to create and maintain a standardized preventive maintenance program for all venues in an organization. The program can even include brand standards for frequency of maintenance and special inspections that need to be done throughout the year. This level of detail proves valuable not only in legal cases, but also serves as a competitive advantage for brands.

Service Optimization solutions from Newmarket enable hospitality organizations to run at optimal efficiency and help create a "home away from home" experience that guests expect. They also have the tools to create personalized, unique experiences that go beyond the expected, resulting in guest loyalty and years of repeat business.

Please join Newmarket for a complimentary webinar on Wednesday, March 26, 2014 at 1pm EST to learn more about the Service Optimization solutions provided by HotSOS, REX and PMWorks. Register today!

Since 1985, Newmarket International, Inc. ("Newmarket") continues to deliver proven business solutions for empowering hospitality organizations to lower costs and increase revenue, while improving customer satisfaction and guest loyalty. With more than 40,000 installations and 150,000 users in over 154 countries worldwide, Newmarket technologies are a cornerstone in the global hospitality industry. Offering solutions for sales & marketing automation, customer relationship management, catering & events, guest loyalty, meeting intelligence, workflow management, and property maintenance, Newmarket enables hospitality professionals to work smarter and better manage all aspects of their transient, leisure, groups and meetings business. For more information on Newmarket, please visit http://www.newmarketinc.com.

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Newmarket Service Optimization Solutions Deliver A Better Guest Experience

The Osseo City Council moved forward with the concept to put an addition onto City Hall that would house the Police Department.

The council also discussed the removal of snow from residential sidewalks at its meeting Monday, Feb. 24.

POLICE ADDITION

Modris Feders, Principal Architect with Buetow 2 Architects, brought to the council the schematic design for the proposed police addition to City Hall. The council previously authorized Buetow to prepare the design back Jan. 13.

The cost of the addition to City Hall for the police department is estimated to be $878,000. These costs include the addition to the City Hall building, removal of the existing police building and reconfiguring the parking lot.

The project would consist of a 3,463-square-foot addition onto the City Hall building on the west side. This proposal would put police and other city departments, community center and library all under one roof. This police addition would house a garage for three police cars, a waiting area, booking and photo area, reception area, an open office, police chiefs office, conference room, kitchen and emergency operations center.

The addition would allow the two current public entrances to not change and remain open as well.

Feders said the proposal would keep the appearance the same at City Hall. The curb cut for one of the drive entrances to the parking area would be then used for the squad garage entrance/exit. The electrical and plumbing infrastructure would be tied into the new addition. The existing bathrooms in City Hall would also serve the new addition.

Also, part of the project would be to use 1,660-square-feet of the lower level in City Hall that is currently used for storage. This level would house the mens and womens locker rooms, storage and supply area, evidence space and armory area.

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Osseo moves forward with police addition to City Hall

Wright City, MO (PRWEB) February 27, 2014

Goodtime Medical announces the addition of Complete Custom Exam Rooms, from cabinetry to exam tables and computer desks. There are multiple color options to choose from to make that exam room yours.

Research reveals that specific design changes in healthcare environments can reduce stress and alleviate the consequences of that stress. An aesthetically pleasing environment will help alleviate stress on the patient in the doctors office making them feel more comfortable and more relaxed. This can also help prevent medical errors while improving staff morale and efficiency.

Goodtime Medical is located in Wright City Missouri, just outside St. Louis Missouri and has been in business since 1996. For more information about the tables and Goodtime Medical, please visit the website at http://www.examtables.com or call at 888-386-8225.

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Goodtime Medical Announces the Addition of Complete Custom Exam Rooms

Real estate for sale in Newport News Virginia - MLS# 1344989
568 Viking Drive Newport News Virginia 23608 MLS# 1344989 For more info visit http://vt.realbiz360.com/Listing-1459642.html Beautiful tri-level home in Shore...

By: klawson8

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Real estate for sale in Newport News Virginia - MLS# 1344989 - Video

RAMALLAH, West Bank A Gaza teen stabbed to death by her brother while she prayed in her room has become the latest addition to a grim statistic: Palestinian women killed by relatives, often for allegedly shaming the family.

Twenty-six women were slain by relatives in the West Bank and Gaza in 2013, twice as many as the year before, according to official figures. The rise stems from mounting economic difficulties in the Palestinian territories, compounded by ongoing leniency for those killing in the name of "family honor" and social acceptance of violence against women, women's rights activists said Wednesday.

They urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to repeal sections of a penal code that allows for short sentences of at most a few years for the perpetrators. Abbas suspended one article of the code in 2011, but others remain on the books, said Hanan Ashrawi, a senior PLO official and former legislator.

Ashrawi said she repeatedly has urged Abbas to adopt legal reforms, especially of articles that discriminate against women, but so far to no avail. She said she last met with Abbas in November, but that he referred the matter again to his legal adviser.

She said that male politicians often brush aside women's concerns, with the argument that more important issues are at stake, such as ending Israeli occupation and establishing a Palestinian state.

Ashrawi said archaic laws harming women also undercut Palestinian aspirations. "We are fighting for freedom and human dignity," she said. "How can you deprive women of all these things?"

Abbas aides, including his adviser on legal affairs, did not return requests for comment.

So-called honor killings are committed regularly in traditional Arab societies that enforce strict gender separation and view an unmarried women's unsupervised contact with a man as a stain on the family reputation.

The most recent killing was carried out Saturday in the town of Bani Suheila in southern Gaza, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which cited a police report.

The victim was identified as 18-year-old Islam al-Shami. The girl was stabbed in the neck with a kitchen knife while she was praying in her room, the rights group said. Her 21-year-old brother was arrested and later told police he killed his sister to defend the family honor, according to the rights group.

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Number of Palestinian women killed by relatives has doubled in a year, official figures show

A three-story addition to the Water Street Inn in downtown Stillwater is being proposed by the building's owner. (Image courtesy of the Water Street Inn)

The Water Street Inn in downtown Stillwater is planning a major expansion.

Owner Chuck Dougherty wants to build a three-story addition that would include a rooftop patio and a new primary entrance and lobby. It also would have a tower element, a nod to the clock tower that graced the old Union Depot train station that formerly stood on the site.

The 21,000-square-foot addition, designed by ARCHNET in Stillwater, would add about 20 rooms to the 41-room hotel. The hotel lobby in the southwest corner would be moved to the building's north side, and the existing lobby would become the main dining area.

Plans for the addition were considered in 2008, but the economic downturn "put it on the back burner," Dougherty said Monday.

He said the time is right to make a major investment in downtown Stillwater.

"I think with all the improvements, with the new bridge, with the bike trails -- both the Loop Trail and Brown's Creek State Trail -- coming into town, we're at a renaissance," he said. "In talking to the business owners, everybody is really seeing these as great, positive moves. The city rebuilding Lowell Park and the parking lots and the public restrooms and the amphitheater are all very positive moves, and we feel ... that the future looks very bright."

The project would require a variance to the front-yard setback and a special-use permit for the rooftop patio, said Bill Turnblad, the city's community development director. The matter is expected to go before the planning commission March 10 and the city council on March 18.

The proposed addition, at the corner of Water and Myrtle streets, would be in the "view corridor" of people who looked down Myrtle Street to the Lowell Park gazebo and the St. Croix River, Turnblad said.

"It's more or less exactly where the original tower was, but it's closer than our ordinance allows to the street now, so that becomes the public balancing act," he said.

Originally posted here:
Stillwater's Water Street Inn plans three-story addition

A Gaza teen stabbed to death by her brother while she prayed in her room has become the latest addition to a grim statistic: Palestinian women killed by relatives, often for allegedly shaming the family.

Twenty-six women were slain by relatives in the West Bank and Gaza in 2013, twice as many as the year before, according to official figures. The rise stems from mounting economic difficulties in the Palestinian territories, compounded by ongoing leniency for those killing in the name of family honour and social acceptance of violence against women, womens rights activists said Wednesday.

They urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to repeal sections of a penal code that allows for short sentences of at most a few years for the perpetrators. Abbas suspended one article of the code in 2011, but others remain on the books, said Hanan Ashrawi, a senior PLO official and former legislator.

Ashrawi said she repeatedly has urged Abbas to adopt legal reforms, especially of articles that discriminate against women, but so far to no avail. She said she last met with Abbas in November, but that he referred the matter again to his legal adviser.

She said that male politicians often brush aside womens concerns, with the argument that more important issues are at stake, such as ending Israeli occupation and establishing a Palestinian state.

Ashrawi said archaic laws harming women also undercut Palestinian aspirations. We are fighting for freedom and human dignity, she said. How can you deprive women of all these things?

Abbas aides, including his adviser on legal affairs, did not return requests for comment.

So-called honour killings are committed regularly in traditional Arab societies that enforce strict gender separation and view an unmarried womens unsupervised contact with a man as a stain on the family reputation.

The most recent killing was carried out Saturday in the town of Bani Suheila in southern Gaza, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which cited a police report.

The victim was identified as 18-year-old Islam al-Shami. The girl was stabbed in the neck with a kitchen knife while she was praying in her room, the rights group said. Her 21-year-old brother was arrested and later told police he killed his sister to defend the family honour, according to the rights group.

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Number of Palestinian women killed by relatives doubles

Framing Room Addition over Storm Shelter - 2013 - Day One
Nothing like a #39;family #39; building project; my son, hubby and myself, framed this smaller job in just a few days time. We had fun. Survive a storm shelter and ...

By: Janie Pendleton

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Framing Room Addition over Storm Shelter - 2013 - Day One - Video

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Posted: Monday, February 24, 2014 11:13 pm | Updated: 11:15 pm, Mon Feb 24, 2014.

Menomonie school board mulls over hockey locker room By Pamela Powers Menomonie News Bureau Leader-Telegram

MENOMONIE Menomonie school board members tended to support a dedicated high school hockey locker room at a planned addition to the Menomonie Youth Hockey Association ice hockey arena but worried about funding it.

The cost of the locker room would be about $75,000, which could be paid over 10 years or in a lump sum.

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Menomonie school board mulls over hockey locker room

Developers have submitted plans for a five-story, 200-room hotel with two floors of underground parking to replace a parking lot between the Oxbow Public Market and the existing Copia building.

Developer Keith Rogal is working with the Copia Liquidation Trust and bondholder ACA Financial Guaranty Corp. to redevelop the former Copia site at 500 First St., which previously operated as a cultural center for wine, food and the arts.

Copia declared bankruptcy in 2008 amid falling attendance and debt totaling $78 million and has mostly been shuttered since then. The goal is to bring life to the site, said Rogal, and to focus on the unique attributes of the Oxbow area and bring them to a wider audience, including visitors and guests.

In addition to the hotel, a 7,200-square-foot subterranean-type addition would be built using the space currently occupied by Copias amphitheater. Three small buildings would be constructed along First Street offering room for retail, food service, restrooms and a cafe.

The details were presented in a design review and use permit application submitted on Feb. 11 to the city Planning Department. Rogal has also asked the city for a planned development zoning amendment of the area.

Rick Tooker, city community development director, said his team is reviewing Rogals application. At 60 feet, the height of the proposed hotel would meet the maximum height allowances that can be approved for that area, he said.

Even though Rogal has asked for the maximum height, maximums arent automatically granted, Tooker said. There are many issues that need to be considered, such as context, impact on adjacent buildings, views and aesthetics.

These will all be reviewed by the Planning Commission and City Council at future meetings, he said.

The Copia site south of First, including the parking lot, is not part of this application.

Rogals application is a revised reuse plan for the former Copia site. Incorporating earlier public criticism about a need for meeting space, Rogals plan now includes assembly areas in both the main Copia building and the hotel.

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Keith Rogal proposes 5-story Copia hotel project