Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

BECKLEY, WV (WVNS) Allen Walker is the owner of Dragons Den, a local gaming store in Uptown Beckley, and one of the business affected by the demolition project.

The biggest thing, obviously, is the road closure, Walker said. You dont see any of the traffic going by, either by vehicle or traffic by walking. The other thing that impacts us is the closed parking lots around the corner.

The demolition closed down a portion of Main Street that leads to the game store, meaning Walker is losing walk-in customers. When asked where his customers are parking, this was Walkers response:

Wherever they can, Walker said. Mostly, its still East Main Street, but thats very limited. They just do the best they can with parking. Most of the time, they do have to walk somewhat of a considerable distance.

Walker added the lack of customers is creating a lack of revenue. He said sales have decreased roughly 20-percent since demolition started in June.

Each month, Ive seen roughly about a 20-percent decrease in sales since June, Walker said. Hopefully, as soon as they finish the demolition and they can get that parking lot to reopen, that will go back up to where it should be.

Walker said he is worried about what the demolition is doing to sales, but he is confident his regulars will keep Dragons Den open for business. He added he is hopeful a parking lot will come from the demolition. He said it would be beneficial for not only his business, but the other businesses on Main Street as well.

Read more:
Local businesses affected by Main Street demolition in Beckley - WVNS-TV

A 2017 Detroit Health Departmenttask force reportconcluded there was a potential link between the high number of demolitions occurring in the city during the summer months and elevated blood lead levels of children who live near the demolition sites. The city announced in early 2018 that it would halt nonemergency demolitions in five of the most at-risk ZIP codes48202, 48204, 48206, 48213 and 48214 fromMay through September.

Except it didn't.

A joint Type Investigations and Detroit Free Press investigation found the city approved a large number of nonemergency demolitions in some of the riskiest areas of the city and is now asking voters to approve aquarter-billion-dollar bondreferendum to do even more demolitions, despite that record. When city officials approved demolitions, they sometimes appeared not to follow their own rules.

Work crews in those same neighborhoods continued to raze a total of 219 homesduring mid-2018 and in mid-2019. Almost half of them were nonemergency demolitions.

A March 6, 2018, memowritten by former Detroit Health Department Director Dr. Joneigh Khaldun said only emergency demolitionsfor structures that posed an imminent danger would be allowed during the moratorium in those five ZIP codes.

But of the 219 demolitions that occurred in 2018 and 2019, just under half 48%, or 105 totalwere not emergency demolitions, according to a Free Press analysis of completed residential demolitions posted on the citys website.

City officials, who would respond only in writing to the Free Press questions and declined on-the-record interviews, dispute the newspapers findings that the city didnt follow its own moratorium.

The timeline for an individual demolition process is variable and in a small number of cases the demolition timeline was too far along to delay completion until October, the city said via email.

When asked why nonemergency demolitions took place during the moratorium period, a spokesperson for the mayors office said that the demolitions completed during these months had already been initiated, and the potential risk of leaving those structures open and exposed for five months was weighed against the risk to public health of tearing them down.

Guidance from aJune 7, 2019, memoto a city councilwoman from then-interim health director Jean Ingersoll pledged that demolitions were to be done with the strictest possible safety precautions and advance notice to families, including spacing demolitions at least 45 days apart. The health department provided additional direction later that demolitions in the five ZIPcodes also required a 400-foot separation.

Yet, that wasnt always done.

The Free Press found that in the summer months of 2018 and 2019, dozens of houses within 400 feet of one another were demolished and many were razed within 45 days of leveling of a nearby home some even on the very same day.

For example, in 2018, three properties on the 8800 block of Canfield within 400 feet of each other were demolished by the same company overtwo daysin late June.

One week later, less than 400 feet away from the Canfield cluster of demolitions, another contractor demolished two homes on the same dayinthe 4400 block of Holcomb across the street from each other.

The map below shows 2018 summer demolitions in the target ZIP codes, including a 400-foot radius around each site.Click on each point to see the demolition date, contractor and price.

In response to questions about these demolitions, the city claimedthe rule stating demolitions could not be performed within 400 feet of each otherapplied only to nonemergency razings, despite the citys own internal memo. All five demolitions completed in late June and early July were nonemergency, according to city data.

Properties slated for demolition are typically awarded to contractors after a bidding process in packages ranging from one house to more than 100 houses at a time.

According to 2019 bid requests reviewed by the Free Press, the properties are typically bid on in clusters within close proximity of one another. In several instances, the packages includedstructures on the same street. Contractors often tear clustered homes down on the same day or within a handful of days to reduce demolition and hauling costs. While it's more efficient, it conflicts with the city's purported safety guidelines that were set for the five impacted ZIP codes.

At the end of September 2019, three houses in a row at the end of the 4200 block of Webb Street were demolished on the same day, according to an analysis of city records. All of these buildings in the 48204 ZIP code were torn down by the same contractor. In this case, the multiple demolitions were classified as emergencies.

Elevated lead levels among Detroit's children are all too common in many corners of the city. In 2018, the most recent year for which data is publicly available, 14% or 99 of the 706 children under age 6tested in 48204had blood lead levels above 5micrograms per deciliter. Thats the threshold the state considers to be an elevated blood lead level, according to the report from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Detroit is home to nine of the top 11 ZIP codes in the state for highest rates of elevated blood level in tested children under the age of 6, including 48206, which has the highest.

Citywide, 7% of all tested children under 6had an elevated blood lead level in 2018. Thats more than double the states rate of 2.9%. In the U.S., lead paint and dust in homes may account for up to 70% of childhood cases of elevated blood lead levels, according to one 2008 study.

And lead exposure disproportionately affectsBlack children across the nation. Black children have the highest rates of elevated blood lead levels, according to a national study published in February. The study found Black children who live in poverty are four times as likely to have elevated blood lead levels above 5 micrograms per deciliter compared with white or Hispanic children. In Detroit, 43% of children live below the federal poverty level.

Schroeck noted this has been an issue decades in the making fueled by structural racism, redlining and other exclusionary tactics that forced many Black Americans to live in heavily polluted areas, industrial zones and older housing that disproportionately exposes them to lead and other pollutants.

Children in Detroit are exposed to more pollution than children in suburban communities, its just a fact, Schroeck said.

The need for demolitions remains great. The city so far has completed more than 21,000 demolitions since 2014. In July, the mayors office estimated that roughly 14,000 blighted structures still need to be taken down.

But the citys estimates may be a vast undercount. The Detroit Blight Removal Taskforce, a group convened by the Obama administration, estimated in May 2014 there were more than 84,000 properties with structures in severe disrepair or at risk of becoming so.

The citys demolition program has long been plagued by problems, including a lack of transparency, a lengthy federal probe over bid-rigging and environmental violations, and contractors who didnt follow the rules.

The Duggan administration says there are newly implemented safety measures to protect its most vulnerable residents despite the speed and scope of its efforts.

We are unaware of a single protocol of any environmental regulations of any state in America that is more stringent than the city of Detroits protocols in managing the environmental risks of demolitions, mayoral spokesman John Roach wrote. In other words, the city of Detroit demolition protocols would meet or exceed the strictest standards of any state in America.

But on that October day last year, Sonia Brown didnt care about why or how houses were being demolished in her neighborhood.

MANDI WRIGHT, DETROIT FREE PRESS

2753 Hazelwood in Detroit on Friday, Sept. 25, 2020.

All that mattered was Lyriq.

Brown is known as Auntie Na throughout the neighborhood.A community pillar, Brown transformed her dead-end block on Yellowstone Street into Auntie Nas Village, where she lives in her two-story home near other homes repurposed into a student-run health clinic, a food pantry and community gathering place.

To friends and neighbors, shes known for doling out tough love, food and shelter to anyone in need, no questions asked.

According to 2018 data, Browns ZIP code ranked fourth in the state for the percentage of children tested with elevated blood lead levels.

So as the houses around her came down, Brown worried that the demolitions themselves were doing more harm than good, potentially exposing children to greater levels of lead.

ButLyriq found out she was relatively lucky that day.

Her blood lead levels tested at 4 micrograms per deciliter of lead,just below the 5 microgram level.

It seemed like a weight lifted in the room as Lyriq put her pink coat on to go back outside, her hair twists flopping behind her.

Will I be able to paint my pumpkin still? she asked, aiming her wide brown eyes at Brown, who nodded and said: Go on ahead, baby. Have fun.

As Lyriq dashed off without a tear, anxiety over the test results quickly returned.

Brown isnt a doctor, but she knows any amount of lead in a child is alarming. Both state and CDC guidelines warn that theres no safe blood lead level. Even low levels of lead have been shown to affect IQs, the ability to pay attention and academic achievement, according to the CDC.

Despite Lyriq's blood lead levels falling below the government'srisk threshold, the health department workers said they planned to suggest that her mother follow up with her pediatrician.

Brown, the neighborhood's matriarch, still has questions, as Mayor Duggan is now asking residents of Detroit to vote in November in favor of a $250 million blight bond that would fund thousands more demolitions across the city.

How long have our loved ones and our children been poisoned? Brown asked. If all of these homes still have lead, what's happening to all that lead and what's happening when you're tearing the house down and my babies are out in the lots over there playing in the playground? Im not trying to put my city down and I'm not kicking my city, but I'm kicking those that's over my city.

Lead poisoning has long been a serious concern for Detroit. According to a report from the citys demolition safety task force, 93% of the citys housing stock was built before 1978, when the federal government banned consumer use of lead-based paint.

So, the state of Michigan considers all children in the city to be at-risk, according to the Lead Pediatric Clinic at the Childrens Hospital of Michigan. Dr. Kanta Bhambhani has been the director of the clinic since 1983.

We still do see a few children with very high lead levels, which really should not happen in this day and age, Bhambhani said, adding the amount of children with high blood lead levels in Detroit has decreased over time.

Families affected by lead exposure are typically offered nutritional support and environmental methods to remove the source of the lead, but those who have extremely high levels of lead may be admitted to the clinic for other forms of therapy, according to the lead clinic. Testing typically focuses on children 6and under.

KIRTHMON F. DOZIER, DETROIT FREE PRESS

Volunteers work on a play scape during the community bazar put on by Sonia Brown also known as Auntie Na Saturday, October 19, 2019 in Detroit, Mich.

We know also that the chances of the child developing ADHD and other behavioral problems are much higher in children with lead poisoning, Bhambhani said. We say that 5to 9micrograms per deciliter is considered to be a level of concern, meaning that no child should have a level like this. ... Now, more and more scientific data is coming out that even levels less than 5can be harmful to the child and as an advocate for a child, I would say that no level is safe.

She said in Detroit,health officials must consider every potential source: including the citys widespread demolitions.

Thats a very legitimate concern, Bhambhani said. There's no question, especially in the summer months when children are playing outdoors, and the demolition of the house next door may have hadeven if they removed every scrap of the old debris I'm sure there would be still a scattering of lead dust in that area, and would be a potential source of lead for these children.

Duggan began his fight against blight in 2014, soon after he was elected to his first term. He envisioned creating the nations largest demolition program to remove large swaths of residential blight from neighborhoods across the city. The program has moved aggressively at Duggans direction, leading some to question the public health impact of demolitions.

Concerns about the potential link first arose in an analysis led by then-Detroit Health Department Director Abdul El-Sayed in May 2016.

El-Sayed said he became curious after a meeting of the Lead Safe Detroit coalition, a group of city departments and community partners who coordinated childhood lead prevention and removal efforts. The coalition was discussing a group of kids who had recently been exposed to lead and possible sources of exposure when a nurse mentioned a couple houses had been demolished in the childrens neighborhood.

It was time, according to El-Sayed, to take a deeper look, knowing that it would be difficult to do since no one can state for certain where a childs lead exposure originated. Another challenge, El-Sayed said, was that demolitions cluster where housing quality is low and theres poverty, which means kids are more likely to be exposed anyway.

Its really a hard analysis to do, El-Sayed said in an interview. You have to be able to isolate all of the other things that cause lead poisoning in a child. As we kept peeling back and isolating more and more, it became really clear that there was a clear link here. And it was statistically significant.

The analysis found that, for a child, living within 400 feet of a demolition site increased theodds of having elevated blood lead levels by 20%. If there were two or more demolitions that occurred, the chances grew by 38%. The study also estimated that demolitions may be connected to at least 2.4% of Detroit children with elevated blood lead levels. Its unclear whether more could have been attributed to demolitions because not all of Detroits children have been tested for lead poisoning.

El-Sayed commissioned a task force of internal and external experts to issue recommendations for reducing exposure to and potential health impacts from possible lead dispersion.

The group recommended improvements to notification and enforcement processes that can lower risks of exposure. One of the recommendations was providing families with hotel, travel and recreational vouchers that would give them the ability to leave neighborhoods while demolitions occurred.

El-Sayed said health department officials became concerned about the citys demolition program and potential health impacts because of the large volume and speedy pace involved.

But the city never approved some of the suggestions, like the housing vouchers, saying in response to Free Press questions that the Department of Neighborhoods strongly objected to the imposition on families, uprooting them from their neighborhoods.

The task force posted its recommendations in February 2017.Shortly after, El-Sayed left his city post. (He later launched an unsuccessful Michigan gubernatorial bid.)

KIRTHMON F. DOZIER, DETROIT FREE PRESS

Sonia Brown, also known as Auntie Na, talks about the community bazaar she sponsors as part of her community outreach program Saturday, October 19, 2019 in Detroit, Mich.

By the next year, El-Sayed and Duggan were exchanging fiery words in a public spat over the citys handling of the demolition program and the former health department directors concerns. In an interview with Michigan Radio on April 12, El-Sayed said Duggan didnt want to pay attention to the fact that Detroits demolitions program is poisoning kids with lead up until this year.

Duggans administration fired back.He is misrepresenting the very studies to which he refers and even his own tenure as Detroit's healthdirector. El-Sayed then upped the ante in a statement, calling for a citywide halt to demolitions during summer months of 2018.

City officials said their work didnt end when El-Sayed left the city. Dr. Khaldun,who took over for El-Sayed at the city health department and is currently Michigans Chief Deputy Director for Health and Human Services,began reviewing the documents and recommendations with the task forceto understand the data.

Dr. Khaldun directed the department to do a more comprehensive analysis of the association between demolitions and EBLLs (elevated blood lead levels), even as she moved forward in taking immediate steps to reduce potential exposure to lead dust, city officials said in a statement.

Khaldun adopted some of the task forces recommendations: improving public communication about demolitions:additional training for contractors; a demolition checklist for contractors and independent inspectors; wind advisories for demolitions to avoid days with high wind speeds, and standard street and sidewalk wetting procedures to reduce possible environmental contamination.

She also launched Detroits Interagency Lead Poisoning Prevention Task Force in 2018, which developed a community health worker program with door-to-door outreach in (the top)fiveZIP codes, providing in-home lead testing of children and pregnant women, cleaning kits for any potential lead dust in the home, and in-home testing for lead paint.

She also launched the summer moratorium on select demolitions in 2018, according to the city.

Khaldun did not respond to a request for comment for this article.

The city said two separate analyses by the Detroit Health Department, found there was no evidence of an association between demolitions and elevated blood lead levels in 2018 and2019.

There was a statistically significant association between demolitions and EBLLs (elevated blood levels)in previous year (sic), most notably 2016, mayoral spokesman John Roach wrote in an email.

Butone of the citys most recent analyses, which included data from 2014-18, did find a relationship between elevated blood lead levels among Detroit children and demolitions.

Over the five-year period, the likelihood of having an elevated blood lead level was 19% higher among children who had a demolition occur within 400 feet of their home and were tested for lead within 45 days of the demolition. Among children exposed to two or more demolitions, the odds of having an elevated blood lead level was 63% higher compared withchildren with no demolition activity.

The study also found the relationship between demolition activity and elevated blood lead levels varied by year.Specifically, in 2017, a statistically significant relationship was found between one or more demolitions and childrens blood lead levels. In 2014 and 2016 a relationship existed only in the case of twoor more demolitions.

In 2016, the odds of an elevated blood lead level were 136% higher among children exposed to twoor more demolitions the highest increase found in any year. There was no relationship between demolition activity and lead levels in either 2015 or 2018.

The latest results, according to the city, demonstrate that improved protocols are working. The health department rescinded the moratorium,which stated nonemergency demolitions would be halted in five at-risk ZIP codes across the city,in early August but noted other safety protocols remain in effect. The department said it plans to perform an analysis on an annual basis.

KIRTHMON F. DOZIER, DETROIT FREE PRESS

Some of the abandoned homes along Yellowstone Street, near Auntie Nas Village, Saturday, October 19, 2019 in Detroit, Mich.

They support the notion that the health and safety protocols implemented and strengthened within the demolition program over time are effective in protecting childrens exposure to lead, the city said.

And now, four years after first raising concerns in 2016 about a potential link,El-Sayed says he believes the results of five-year study show the administration took the necessary steps to address the potential link.

The new evidence shows that the risk of lead poisoning in relation to demolitions has been addressed, El-Sayed said.

And so, I think this is how you want government to work. You want, when there's a challenge, that government takes those challenges seriously and then works to address them, and makes them go away, and that is what happened in this case.

Between January 2014 and September 2019, the city spent more than $532 million on its demolition blitz, tapping a mix of city and federal funds,according to the citys independent auditor general.

If a bond measure is approved by voters in November, spending on blight removal over the next five years, including funds allocated outside of the bond proposal, could be as much as $500 million, according to a report by council's legislative policy division. That means by 2025, the city may have spent upwardof $1 billion on blight remediation.

For Councilwoman Raquel Castaeda-Lpez, who has spent much of her tenure fighting for environmental justice, questions remain. Castaeda-Lpez voted no twice on advancing Duggans blight bond measure to voters.

She said she first became concerned with health effects of the demolition program while door knocking and visiting residents.

There's always more that we can be doing, said Castaeda-Lpez, who has pressed city officials in memos for greater protection for children against lead exposure. Even looking beyond lead what are the health impacts of doing these demolitions on this massive scale on people's health overall?

Detroits 48206 ZIP code had the highest rate of elevated blood lead levels for children tested under 6in the state in 2018. And, as with all lead exposure cases, its difficult to pinpoint the exact origin. But Kiara Head wonders about the impact of demolitions in her neighborhood, near Linwood and Joy Road.

There have been many in the nine years she haslived there with her mother. And she worries about her four children.

She thinks sometimes of the old three-story apartment building that towered over her neighborhood for years.

The building at 2753 Hazelwood once housed several families. The century-old apartment building had been vacant for years when the demolition crew rolled down Heads west side street.

The demolition was a familiar scene. It was early May 2019 and Heads four children were outside playing as they curiously watched the commotion across the street. The 13,000-plus square-foot building had been an eyesore for quite a while, so many gathered outside to watch it tumble down.

Read more from the original source:
Children Were at Risk so Detroit Promised to Halt Demolitions. But That Didn't Happen. - Type Investigations

Residents are up in arms over a decision by the Mountain View Whisman School District to install fences around all of its campuses, criticizing a plan that they believe will block access to open space while doing little to improve campus safety.

The plans have been in the works since last year, and propose installing 6-foot chain-link fences that encircle both classroom facilities and adjacent park space at schools across the city. District officials say the fences are necessary and borne out of a need for better school security -- campuses with porous borders are difficult to monitor and impractical in era of school shootings.

The idea of school fences came up in the wake of a 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Fla., when the district held a town hall meeting on proactive safety measures to prevent or deter a school shooting in Mountain View. A district-run survey later found that parents and students supported fences at schools, which was later baked into the district's Measure T bond that passed in March.

The coronavirus pandemic and the need for strict visitor protocols has since accelerated the timeline to build the fences, said Rebecca Westover, the district's chief business officer, though she did not provide a firm date for when construction will begin. An early draft of the Measure T spending plan shows that fences and other perimeter controls are expected to cost just shy of $7.4 million, which includes the cost of gates, access controls and some higher-cost ornamental fences made out of iron.

Though the plan for fences quietly won the board's approval, and Measure T passed with a comfortable margin at the ballot box, it has since boiled over as a citywide controversy. Residents from several neighborhoods -- particularly those near Monta Loma and Landels elementary schools -- have come out in strong opposition to the plan, arguing it is tantamount to taking away what little park space they have. While the public will still have access to the fields outside of school hours and on the weekends, critics say chain-link fences will still create an unwelcoming environment while doing little to actually protect students.

Monta Loma resident and parent Jill Rakestraw said people in her neighborhood are "extremely upset" about the proposal, which would place fencing along most of the perimeter of the school -- leaving only small sliver of space for a pedestrian walkway. An alternative uses less fencing, but cuts off even more of the campus.

During a Zoom forum last month between Monta Loma residents and district officials, Rakestraw said it was clear that people did not want the district to move forward with the plans.

"The anger and sadness from the community speakers was palpable," she said. "They really don't want to lose their neighborhood park."

Part of the issue is that a significant portion of the city's fields and open space is owned by the school district, despite being widely considered to be public parks. Excluding the North Bayshore area, an estimated 44% of the city's open space is owned by Mountain View Whisman, all of which is technically off-limits during school hours from 7:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Superintendent Ayinde Rudolph said on-campus intrusions have been a recurring problem for years, and that school principals have consistently raised concerns about safety and security. Residents, knowingly or unknowingly, are constantly ignoring the rules and entering campus during the day, sometimes to walk their dog or use the restroom. He said he has personally seen people using the track at Crittenden Middle School in the morning, that and it leads to uncomfortable situations where teachers and students have to chase them off.

"I don't think we should be placing any teacher in the position of asking a community member to move off the field," Rudolph said.

And while residents largely see Mountain View as a safe community, Rudolph said the district must take seriously the threat of a school shooting. Potentially because of the "time warp" that is COVID-19, he said residents are quick to forget the shootings at the Gilroy Garlic Festival and the Six Flags in Concord -- both of which occurred just last year in the Bay Area.

"Maybe the community is right that nothing is going to happen, but we all would agree that if it does happen it's going to be a catastrophe," Rudolph said. "Us putting up perimeter fencing is an insurance policy to help buy time for our students to find a place to be safe."

Frustrations mount

Residents upset by the plans for fences got a chance to speak their mind at the city's Parks and Recreation Commission meeting last week, many of whom said they felt blindsided by the decision. Many said they had no idea that voting for Measure T would lead to their local park being barricaded by chain-link fences, and believed that the district-run outreach to date -- surveys and information meetings over Zoom -- were tailored for district parents rather than the public at large.

Resident Paul Donahue, who lives near Bubb Elementary, said he wasn't confident that the gates will be unlocked outside of school hours, and that worried the fences would be unsightly and give off the impression that the public no longer has access. He also argued that the district's justification for the fences relies too heavily on anecdotal problems -- complaints of school-site intrusions and dog bites -- rather than something more concrete.

"I think that they're using public funds based on anecdotal data that isn't really backed up by meaningful, real data," Donahue said.

Monta Loma resident Tiffany Dale said she doesn't think a fence would have stopped the Parkland shooting, but that encircling schools with chain-link barrier would certainly change the feel of the community. Kids live in a lot of fear already, she said, and there's no reason to add to that by putting them behind fences. Andre Valente, also from Monta Loma, called the justifications for perimeter fencing "absolutely flimsy" and that it would destroy the character of the neighborhood.

Though the Parks and Recreation Commission has no oversight of the district's plans, commission members nevertheless urged the school district to find common ground with the community, revise its plans and work on its communication with the greater public -- not just school parents. Commissioner Joe Mitchner, previously a trustee with the Mountain View-Los Altos High School District, said he had not been aware of the proposal until that evening.

"I'm pretty in the loop on school issues, I've served on a school board and I also live within a third of a mile to two Mountain View Whisman schools. This is the first time that I've seen these design plans," he said.

Commissioner and former councilwoman Ronit Bryant, who lives near Landels, said she believes the temporary security problems caused by COVID-19 are being conflated with the longer-term threat of an active shooter, both of which should be handled separately. While Bryant said she does not want to "live in fear all the time," she said she would much prefer shorter, four-foot fences with a decorative design.

"A 6-foot chain link looks like a prison. It doesn't say 'safety' to me, it says 'prison' -- you communities stay out, you children stay in," Bryant said. "It's not a look I would like for my community."

Bryant also criticized the district's approach to date, and said residents should have been involved early on in the planning and design of perimeter security. Instead, she believes the plan was mostly decided ahead of time, and is now being justified to the community after the fact.

"To say we're all in this together, but we get to make the decision and you guys will have to eat it, is an unattractive look," she said.

In the lead-up to the Parks and Recreation meeting, Monta Loma resident Jim Zaorski said he believes a compromise can still be reached between residents and the district, but that he has been disheartened by the lack of engagement and "seeming lack of desire" to work with the neighboring communities. Each school site is different and requires a unique approach to campus security, he said, yet the district has picked a one-size-fits-all approach that threatens to broadly cut off public access to parks.

When district officials met with Monta Loma residents, Zaorski said it felt as though the district was willing to make small accommodations -- such as new fence styles and colors -- but wouldn't consider the larger question of whether the fences were needed at all.

"I think that this is a position that will inevitably result in the isolation of the district, both by physically separating its sites from the neighborhoods, and by politically driving a wedge between it and the community," Zaorski said.

Rudolph said it's an unusual situation to have so much of the city's open space tied up in school district property, underscored by the fact that Mountain View has grown significantly over the years without adding much in the way of new green space. While the district has been open to blurring the lines between city parks and school campuses, he said the fences simply enforce rules that have already been on the books for years.

Because residents see schools as a recreational asset, Rudolph said there is double standard in which tech employees in Mountain View are protected by security personnel and key cards required to get around, and even City Hall is mostly cordoned off from public access, yet teachers and students are expected to spend the day in a free-access environment.

"You can't walk onto a university anymore and walk in and out of the classrooms without a swipe card," Rudolph said. "We expect a modicum of safety for all of these other employees, but we are completely disregarding the concerns of our teachers, our principals, our students and our parents."

"Unfortunately the glory days of the 1980s and 1990s -- anything that was pre-Columbine -- has changed. That is just not the case anymore," Rudolph said.

Though initial plans by the district show 8-foot fences on some school sites, Rudolph said they have since reduced heights to 6 feet unless there is already an 8-foot fence in place. School board members are expected to review the plan on Nov. 5 and, absent any major revisions, will vote to approve it on Nov. 19. The City Council is also expected to hear a presentation on the school fences at its Oct. 27 meeting.

Go here to read the rest:
Proposal to fence off Mountain View Whisman schools sparks outcry over park access - Mountain View Voice

The Army has significantly improved its electronic surveillance along the Line of Control (LoC) to check infiltration, and work on converting the existing border fence into a smart fence integrated with several sensors is under way, several officers have said.

However, there is a rethink on converting the entire fence over a 700 km stretch into a smart one due to the high cost. A hybrid model is now being adopted.

The new hybrid model of the smart fence being tested will cost around 10 lakh per km and 60 km is being attempted this year, a senior officer on the ground said. This has some rudimentary smartisation. The earlier proposal for a hi-tech fence was to cost around 10 crore for 2.4 km. A 10 crore type trial was done in the Armys 19 Division last year, but it was too expensive so no more contracting was done, the officer said.

The fence will be integrated with LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) sensors, infrared sensors and cameras among others.

In recent months, the Army has beefed up troops close to the LoC to plug gaps and it has resulted in a drop in infiltration this year. Lt. Gen. B.S. Raju, General Officer Commanding, 15 Corps, said that while the multi-tier anti-infiltration grid remains in place, the first tier has been strengthened. Troops have also been given drones, both big and small, to monitor the ground.

The existing fence called the Anti-Infiltration Obstacle System (AIOS) is located about 700 m from the LoC. The double row fence consisting of concertina wire was constructed between 2003 and 2005. With its high rate of degradation every year due to snow, the Army came up with a proposal to install a smart fence with various sensors integrated into it and a pilot project was subsequently taken up.

For instance, Tangdhar sector gets 10-15 feet snowfall in peak winters, which means in some places the entire fence gets buried. Due to snow, the iron fence becomes brittle and consequently 60-70% of the fence has to be repaired every year, a second officer on the ground said. Every year, there is a major exercise over four months from March to June to bring that fence up, he said.

The fence is present along most of the around 740 km long LoC. While the damage to the fence is less south of Pirpanjal due to less snow, heavy snowfall in North Kashmir causes big damage, officials said. In addition to the fence, the Army has deployed long range surveillance systems to detect people and small vehicles, both during day and night. The fence too has been integrated with various sensors.

Originally posted here:
Hybrid model of smart fence being tested along the LoC - The Hindu

Rep. Wakemans plan sparks the end of security system overregulation

State Rep. Rodney Wakemans plan bringing clarity and uniformity to the construction industry regarding the installation and maintenance of low-voltage electric fences was recently signed into Michigan law by the governor.

The Saginaw Township lawmakers measure will close a loophole that has allowed some local units of government to misconstrue the law and further regulate low-voltage electric fences, a maneuver the Michigan Legislature was trying to prevent in 2018 when it passed a previous law to clarify standards. Wakeman said due to the misinterpretation, municipalities were adopting stringent regulations that effectively rendered low-voltage security systems unusable.

The whole point of a job provider investing in the installation of a security perimeter around their business is to protect valuable assets from theft and vandalism, Wakeman said. However, here in Michigan, weve witnessed excessive local regulations be implemented out of the misreading of the previous law, which resulted in drastically reducing the effectiveness of low-voltage electric fences even after companies invested a lot of money into installing them. This completely negates the purposes of these security systems. I am pleased to have had the opportunity to hear directly from businesses owners and security companies to help them find a solution to ensure businesses are able to better protect their assets.

Wakemans plan, House Bill 5602, is now Public Act 223 of 2020.

See the original post here:
Rep. Wakeman's plan sparks the end of security system overregulation - gophouse.org

Some ideas to decorate the fences in your garden or property. Thats coming up on This Land of Ours.

There are a lot of ways to make a fence decorative. The most common way to do this is to decorate a traditional fence. Add an old window, door, or a framed mirror to create a focal point along the fence. Glinting glass is a simple technique that adds instant interest and dimensionality to ordinary fences. Its kind of like using wine bottles in cob houses to create colorful light displays. Artwork can also make your fence more interesting.

Be sure to use materials durable for the outdoors. A vertical gardening fence made of vining plants is another idea and will make your fence feel like part of the landscape rather than an obstacle or eyesore.

If you really want to create one of a kind fencing, though, you can move beyond traditional fencing materials into using decorative of free form materials. Old bed frames, antique exterior shutters, mattress springs, screen doors, and more can all be employed to create non-traditional, but very beautiful upcycled decorative fences.

Listen to Cathy Isoms This Land of Ours program here.

Related

Go here to see the original:
Ideas to Decorate the Fences in Your Garden or Property - - Southeast AgNet

Theres a young cat that has likes the lavender plants that I grow Image Credit: AFP

I could never sit on the fence. Yes, I am opinionated and Im lucky enough to have an audience for those views, but I could never sit on the fence. Its wobbly, rotten in places and needs to be replaced come the spring.

Ive talked to my neighbour, Postman Pat as I call him he does work in the Post Office and he just shrugged when I broached the subject with him. Social distancing? Thats fine to a point, but its more a case of antisocial distancing. Its not like Im knocking on his door every half-hour wanting to borrow a cup of sugar or a used tea bag. Not at all. Fences do make for good neighbours, after all. But come the spring, well have to do something.

The hardware superstore had an offer on last week for two big buckets of fence stain for the price of one. Given Postmans Pats reaction to doing the work now, I cant see the fence stain being used anytime soon. Maybe hell warm up by then.

Theres ayoung cat that has discovered the lavender plants I set by the side of the fence. As bold as you like, it comes by each day yes, over the rickety fence from Postman Pats yard and checks out the bushes and plants. It has taken to the lavender, lying in it, rolling around, covering itself and Ive even seen it nibble it. It just ignores me when I stand at the patio doors, wave like a madman and chap my hands and yell at it. I guess Postman Pat must think his new neighbour is nuts and shouts at cats. Yes I do, but no, Im not nuts.

Theres also a cheeky little robin that lives in a big holly bush at the corner of the garden. It skidaddles when the feline with the lavender fetish comes rolling and sniffing. I guess it doesnt want to see if the cat has a thing for him and his feather friends either.

An occasional visit from starlings

ordered a new bird feeder online and as soon as it came I put it up and filled it with winter seed suitable for small birds. The robin has been brave enough to try it a couple of times. Mostly, the bird feeder attracts sparrows and an occasional swoping visit from some starlings. They remind me of gangsters, a small mafia, lots of jostling between the silver-dotted black-suited gang members trying to figure out who can muscle in on the action. They all skiddadle when the cat with the lavender fetish comes by for its fix.

Postman Pat isnt too happy. Ever since I put the bird feeder up, some of the sparrows waiting for the swallows to go hang out on his washing line. Thats fine. Except they do it when Postman Pat has hung out his uniform shirts. Birds and clean washing dont make for a good mix. I want to suggest that he gets a cat the lavender-loving one belongs to another neighbour. But that might not be a good idea because that one might take to living in my lavender patch if its so inclined. Then hed think I really am nuts waving at another lavender-loving cat.

The big holly bush at the corner of the garden needs to be pruned back its all going into Postman Pats backyard too. I dont want to do it because its the robins perch. The trouble is if Postman Pat cuts the branches back that are growing through the rickety fence into his backyard, itll make the whole thing look lopsided and could kill off the holly bush itself. Then where would we be. Maybe its better to just fix the fence instead but Im undecided on that now.

Mick OReilly is the Gulf News Foreign Correspondent based in Europe

Here is the original post:
Why I can't sit on the fence - Gulf News

Westend has decades-old private fences that deviate from plot boundaries and impair visibility at intersections.

Espoo There are intersections in Westend where visibility is virtually non-existent.

Visibility is hampered by old fences that extend in some places beyond the plot boundaries.

Its really dangerous when you dont see anything at the stop sign. That is, even if the car is stopped at a stop sign, you will then have to drain the car ahead before you can properly see the intersection. You can only hope that you will not drive on anyone, says the resident Henri Turunen.

Its stressful that every time you leave home by car, you have to drive at intersections where visibility is really poor.

You do not see the intersection area properly at the stop sign. The picture is taken by the reader.Picture: Henri Turunen / Readers picture

Hurdles delimiting private plots, but they are partly on city lands. From the plot map you can see that at many intersections the official boundaries of the plots run obliquely. For some reason, however, the fences were once built at right angles.

If the fences followed the plot boundaries, Turunen would not have a problem.

For newer houses, the fences are made correctly and have good visibility. The problem concerns old fences, which are nearly two meters high solid fences. You cant see anything through them.

Some of the fences are constructed to comply with the official boundaries of the site. When the fence is built obliquely within the boundaries of the plot, the visibility at the intersection is also better. The picture is taken by the reader.Picture: Henri Turunen / Readers picture

Turunen has been in contact with the city of Espoo for the first time about a year ago. A letter has been sent from the city to the owners of the plots urging them to check that the fences remain within the boundaries of their own plot.

These fences are very old. They must have been there for 40 to 50 years. Some of the plots have old permit papers, so this investigation takes time, says the road master Ari Aho From the city of Espoo.

If the private land has shrubs or tree branches that hinder traffic, the city usually gives the landowner two weeks to clear the roadside. If nothing happens during that time, visit the city to remove the tree branches and shrubs that are obstructing traffic.

The city suddenly does not set out to remove such fences, especially when there is no more detailed information about their history. The matter is under investigation, says Aho.

.

View post:
HS Espoo | Drivers drag their cars centimeter towards the intersections in Westend, as there are so strong fences in the area that you can't see...

Denny Hamlins confidence in competing for the NASCAR Cup Series championship remains high despite giving up a chance to compete for the win at Kansas Speedway.

On lap 180 of the Hollywood Casino 400, Hamlin was forced to pit under the green flag after hitting the wall off Turn 4. The damage was severe enough to require right-side tires and his Joe Gibbs Racing team to give care to the right-rear fender. But in doing so, it knocked Hamlin off the lead lap and back into the 28th position.

Fortunately, Hamlin and crew chief Chris Gabehart were correct thinking that the race would see more cautions before the checkered flag. After missing out on the free pass to teammate Erik Jones, Hamlin took the wave around under the lap 199 caution, and the final caution on lap 222 allowed him to further make headway through the field. He finished 15th.

Obviously, we damaged the car, and at these tracks, you cant have any damage on the car, Hamlin said. I was fortunate to get a couple cautions there to get us back on the lead lap. That was as far as I could go with the damage that I had; it just hurt the FedEx Camry so bad.

To finish 15th with that damage, that was the best we could probably hope for. Still, definitely had a race-winning car today. Just threw it in the fence.

Hamlin, who had a two-race winning streak going at Kansas, won the second stage Sunday afternoon and led 58 laps. It was the second-most laps led behind Kevin Harvicks 85.

With two races left in the Round of 8, Hamlin is 20 points above the cutline.

We can win every week, he said of his outlook. Every week, were up front. I think we can win next week. We can win the week after that, and we can win the week after that. Not too worried about having to go out there and win because I know we can do it.

Original post:
Hamlin 'just threw it in the fence' in tough outing at Kansas - RACER

WASHINGTON -- A small but potentially significant group of voters say they remain truly undecided less than three weeks before the Nov. 3 election.

They have been derided as uninformed or lying by those who cannot fathom still being undecided, but conversations with a sampling of these voters reveal a complicated tug of war.

Many, like Amanda Jaronowski, are longtime Republicans who say they're wrestling with what they see as a choice between a Democrat whose policies they cannot stomach and a Republican incumbent whose personality revolts them. Some voted for third-party candidates in 2016 because they were repelled by their choices -- Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton -- and they're thinking of doing so again.

Jaronowski, of suburban Cleveland, supports Trump's policies and fears her business could be gutted if Democrat Joe Biden is elected.

But she says she abhors Trump personally, leaving her on the fence about who will get her vote.

It's a "moral dilemma," Jaronowski said as she paced her home one recent evening after pouring a glass of sauvignon blanc.

"It would be so easy for him [Trump] to win my vote if he could just be a decent human being," she had said earlier during a focus group session.

While polls show there are far fewer on-the-fence voters this year than the unusually high number in 2016, the Trump and Biden campaigns each believe they still can win over numbers that matter.

John Welton, 40, a Presbyterian minister from Winfield, Kan., who has spent much of his career moving from parish to parish, is also undecided. His political views, he said, have been shaped in part by watching how trade deals have hurt once-vibrant manufacturing communities and his congregants' livelihoods, as well as by his own "pro-Second Amendment" views.

Welton said he is turned off by Biden's support for tighter gun restrictions. But he said he is also put off by Trump's bullying and demeaning of opponents on Twitter and his divisive rhetoric.

On the other hand, Welton said he has been pleasantly surprised that Trump has made good on his campaign pledge to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan, though thousands still remain.

In 2016, Welton ended up voting for Clinton, but barely. He circled the block at his polling place before making a decision. This year, he's hoping a second debate between Trump and Biden will offer him some clarity.

"I remain pretty swayable," he said.

Cathy Badalamenti, 69, an independent from Lombard, Ill., is also struggling with her vote once again. In 2016, she voted for a third-party candidate after twice supporting Democrat Barack Obama.

"I'm not happy with anybody," she said of her choices this time. She said that's especially hard in a family of ardent Trump supporters who have balked at her indecision.

"Believe me, my son, my kids are looking at me and thinking, 'How can you not like Trump?'" she said, describing difficult Sunday night dinners in which she tries to redirect the conversation from politics to the Cubs.

Badalamenti credits Trump for a booming economy before the pandemic, but she said she's turned off by his knee-jerk reactions, worried about his interactions with world leaders, and feeling that he should think more before he speaks and tweets.

Biden worries her, too: "I think he's trying to make a good effort, but at the same time he doesn't know what's -- he's only being told what's going on."

'DIFFERENT ATTRIBUTES'

Longtime Republican pollster Frank Luntz, who has been running focus groups with undecided voters throughout the election campaign, including one Thursday night that included Jaronowski, sees a common refrain among many of the undecideds.

"They're judging on two completely different attributes, and they can't decide which is more important to them," he said. "They don't like Trump as a person, but they don't feel badly about his administration or his policies. They really like Joe Biden as a person, but they are so nervous about what he's going to do if he were elected. And so they can't figure out which is more important to them."

With two historically unpopular candidates, the 2016 race produced unusually large numbers of voters -- double digits on the eve of the election -- who told pollsters they were either undecided or planned to vote for third-party candidates. Many of those voters rallied around Trump in the final weeks of the campaign, helping to hand him his victory.

Polls suggest there are far fewer on-the-fence voters this time around, but both campaigns believe they have the edge in an election where every vote could count.

"Frankly, I like our chances with them because President Trump has delivered results," said Nick Trainer, Trump's director of battleground strategy. He said that just like in 2016, those who identify as undecided tend to be right-leaning and support conservative policies such as lower taxes and a strong military.

Biden's campaign, which is ahead in polls nationally and in a number of battleground states, voices similar optimism and argues that those who are undecided historically break for the challenger.

Having so few undecided voters to move "is problematic if your candidate is not leading," said Becca Siegel, the Biden campaign's chief analytics officer. She adds that the campaign's focus on unity and bringing the country together is "extremely persuasive to this group."

The Biden campaign has hope of winning over people like Jaronowski, a guidance counselor who comes from a family of lifelong Republicans.

Jaronowski, 37, who lives in Independence, Ohio, said she ended up supporting Clinton in 2016. Jaronowski said she was repulsed by Trump, who she said she hates "with the fire of a thousand suns." But it was hard nonetheless, she said.

This year, though she opposes Democratic policies, she said she has deep respect for Biden, whom she calls "a very good man."

But she and her husband own a consumer debt-buying company and fear that a President Biden could cancel that debt, which amounts to tens of millions of dollars.

"Voting in Biden, that's a very scary thing personally," she said, adding that the decision would be far easier if she didn't think he was such a good person.

Others are making their own calculations.

Sam Hillyer, 35, an Arkansan who lives in Fayetteville, voted for third-party candidate Gary Johnson in 2016.

This time, he said, "it's down to either Donald Trump; Jo Jorgensen, the Libertarian candidate; or possibly not voting in the presidential and voting for the other candidates." Hillyer, a dispatcher for a trucking company, has written off Biden, convinced that the Democrat would raise taxes and take a more interventionist approach to foreign policy. And, he said, it "doesn't help with all the new kind of shady scandals popping up."

Hillyer said he closely aligns with Jorgensen on most issues but rejects the candidate's support for abortion rights.

Living in a strongly Republican state, he said, gives him more freedom than if he lived in a battleground state with electoral votes that are up for grabs, in which case he would vote for Trump without hesitation to try to stop Biden.

For now, he said, "I go back and forth maybe a couple times a day."

In this Thursday, Oct. 16, 2020, photo undecided voter Rebecca Westrate poses for a photo at her home in Round Lake, Ill. Four years ago, undecided voters late support for Donald Trump helped push him to victory. While there are fewer on-the-fence voters this time around, a small but potentially significant group say they remain truly undecided less than three weeks before the November 3 election. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

This Friday, Oct. 16, 2020, image provided Amanda Jaronowski shows her in Cleveland, Ohio. The lifelong Republican who lives in the suburbs of Cleveland supports the president's policies and fears her business could be gutted if Democrat Joe Biden wins in November. But she abhors Donald Trump personally, leaving her on the fence. (Joy Lewis Photography via AP)

In this Saturday, Oct. 17, 2020, photo Cathy Badalamenti poses for a portrait in her Lombard, Ill., home. Badalamenti has also struggled with her vote once again. In 2016, the Independent eschewed both Trump and Clinton and voted for a third-party candidate, despite having voting twice for former president Barack Obama. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

In this Friday, Oct. 16, 2020, photo undecided voter Tracye Stewart holds her official Virginia ballot in her office in Richmond, Va., Friday Oct. 16, 2020. Stewart, who voted for Donald Trump in 2016, said that shes more ideologically in line with Trump than Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden. But her regular, and sometimes tearful, conversations with a friend shes known since 3rd grade has given her pause. Stewarts ballot remains on her desk at home unfilled. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

This Friday, Oct. 16, 2020, image provided Amanda Jaronowski shows her in Cleveland, Ohio. Jaronowski is part of a small but potentially significant group of voters who say they remain truly undecided less than three weeks before the November 3 election. (Joy Lewis Photography via AP)

In this Saturday, Oct. 17, 2020, photo Cathy Badalamenti poses for a portrait at in her Lombard, Ill., home. Badalamenti has also struggled with her vote once again. In 2016, the Independent eschewed both Trump and Clinton and voted for a third-party candidate, despite having voting twice for former president Barack Obama. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

In this Thursday, Oct. 16, 2020, photo undecided voter Rebecca Westrate poses for a photo at her home in Round Lake, Ill. Four years ago, undecided voters late support for Donald Trump helped push him to victory. While there are fewer on-the-fence voters this time around, a small but potentially significant group say they remain truly undecided less than three weeks before the November 3 election. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Original post:
Group of voters still on the fence as election nears - Arkansas Online