The Union County Housing Authority has a couple of energy-efficient homes for sale that will save the environment and you, some money.
For sale signs are up outside a new duplex on West Market Street near Lewisburg.
A project of the Union County Housing Authority, a federal grant helped make the homes green, to save energy and money.
“Well with energy costs rising so dramatically, the constituents that we serve are the folks who can benefit the most from having low energy costs,” said Bruce Quigley with the Union County Housing Authority.
The homes were built in about two months using many eco-friendly materials.
The unoccupied homes were monitored for a year to check energy-efficiency. UCHA officials said electric heating and cooling bills averaged only about $50 a month.
“These houses are significantly more energy-efficient than an Energy Star house. An Energy Star house is 15 percent more energy-efficient than a house just built to code. Our houses are 50 percent more efficient than an Energy Star house,” added Quigley.
Outside, the siding is recycled steel. A special heating system and overhangs help reduce costs to heat and cool the home.
“Orienting the building properly, having the overhangs be sized properly so you don’t get heat-gain from the sun in the summer, and you do get it a little in the winter when you want it,” said Quigley.
The inside features energy-efficient insulation, triple-glazed windows, L.E.D. lights, and Energy Star appliances.
Counter tops made of recycled paper and low-flow plumbing fixtures also help conserve resources.
“The environment`s very important, and if we can save on energy costs, it`s a great thing,” said project manager Gregory Walker.
The UCHA received a $500,000 HOME grant from the Department of Community and Economic Development to build the new duplex, as well as make two existing homes more energy-efficient.
One home on South Armory Drive is about 70 years old. New insulation and heating upgrades make it 30 percent more efficient than a home built to code, according to Quigley.
The homes, listed at $100,000 each, are intended for Prime Time home buyers, age 55 and older, and for people with disabilities.
Potential buyers must meet income requirements.
Open houses will be held Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. at the homes at 1308 West Market Street and 802 South Armory Drive in East Buffalo Township near Lewisburg.
Sometimes, life gets in the way. Yes, dear reader, the universe attempted to conspire to stop me from fully experiencing the brand new Lexus GS 350. Eventually, though, I won. And what a sweet victory it was.
It may sound a little dramatic proclaiming that I defeated the universe by simply driving a car. Quite fast. On a deserted and devilishly twisty road. But the obstacles that prevented me from putting my foot down in the days leading up to that glorious moment were numerous and frustrating. And, as it turns out, the GS 350 is more than just "a car".
When the keys to the GS 350 landed on my desk, I was eager to clear the throat of the 3.5-litre V6 at the earliest possible opportunity. Turns out, that was far, far later than I had hoped. First, the heavens opened. For days. This, of course, meant constant mind-numbing traffic and rather wet roads. All the while I was forced to creep along at exasperatingly leisurely speeds.
Next, I was greeted by a flat tyre. After slapping on the space saver, I was forced to continue the daily dawdle since the temporary rubber was rated at a maximum speed of 80km/h. After eventually having the tyre repaired, more and more hurdles appeared: a local community protest saw me trapped in a ridiculous gridlock on what effectively became a closed road, a not-so-crafty detour ended up making matters far worse, and that pesky tyre inflation warning light re-appeared...
Then, early one Saturday morning, it all came together. I was finally able to make full use of the 233kW and 378Nm on tap. And worth the wait it most certainly was.
The new GS range is made up of four models: the 250 EX, the 350 EX, the 450h F-Sport, and if you're feeling particularly flush, the 450h SE. Featuring LED DRLs and that distinctive chrome-edged spindle grille first seen on the CT200h, the new GS is a far more visually attractive proposition than its predecessor, particularly from the front. Things aren't quite as exciting from the rear, but the built-in diffuser, LED tail-lights and chrome-ringed twin exit exhausts do just enough to hint at what lies beneath...
The GS 350 shares its 2GR-FSE V6 petrol powerplant with the IS 350. The engine is mated to a six-speed sequential-shift automatic gearbox with paddle shifters, and in the heavier GS, it sees the zero to 100km/h sprint accomplished in 6.3 seconds. And what a glorious sound it makes in the process. Give the loud pedal an enthusiastic prod — in Normal, Sport or even Eco mode — and the V6 will make your ears tingle and your heart sing.
This, as you can imagine, is an addictive sound, and makes matching the claimed combined fuel consumption figure of 9.4 litres per 100km nothing short of impossible. Well, unless you have the willpower of a superhuman monk. Or you're deaf. And since we're neither of those things, we ended the test period on an, ahem, "respectable" figure of 14.4, and with virtually nothing left in the 66-litre tank.
The auto 'box does a fine job in Eco and Normal modes, shifting up through the gears quickly and slicking and allowing the GS 350 to settle into a comfortable cruise. However, select Sport mode (which is accompanied by an ominous graphic on the screen and a splash of red lighting), and the 'box will hold each gear to redline and propel the 4.85m-long vehicle forward at an almost obscene pace. Along with that gorgeous sound.
An LED-adorned analogue clock carved from a single lump of aluminium — which lights up when the vehicle is unlocked — sits in the centre of the dash. Below it, the 12-speaker sound system hub and dual-zone automatic air con reside. Above it lives the cabin's party piece: what is said to be the world's first 12.3-inch Electro Multi Vision display screen, which includes navigation and a reversing camera. This is controlled through the rather sensitive second-generation Remote Touch Interface, which while a better effort than the first, still takes plenty of getting used to.
Lexus as a manufacturer has a number of strengths. Chief among them is the fact that so much kit comes standard with their vehicles. Whereas the E-Class, 5-Series or A6 buyer would be forced to consult an expensive options list the length of the average boardroom table, the GS consumer gets all sorts as standard. Automatic lights, automatic wipers, leather, PDC, Bluetooth, cruise control, all the tasty morsels mentioned above, and plenty more, are all part of the package.
Solarize Madison appear the another of its two installers for its Solarize program, a grassroots accomplishment to advice homeowners to affected the logistical hurdles of traveling solar and to abound Madison Counties renewable activity workforce.
The bounded installers called are Arista Power, Inc., a Rochester-based developer, manufacturer, and supplier of custom-designed ability administration systems, renewable activity accumulator systems, wind turbines, and a supplier and artist of solar activity systems.
Arista Ability will be installing systems anon endemic by solar purchasers aural the county.
ETM Solar Works, a solar installer in New York and Pennsylvania, based in Endicott was called as the installer for barter that are absorbed in leasing a solar system.
Arista Ability and ETM Solar Works will be alive collaboratively with association volunteers and supporters to brainwash absorbed parties, complete website evaluations, and adviser barter through purchasing decisions.
Through Solarize Madison, participants can apprehend the action to install solar to be automated and for the amount to be decidedly bargain as the affairs is based on aggregate purchasing: the added who participate to install a solar activity arrangement through the program, the beyond the amount accumulation for all participants.
“Solarize Madison is an advantage for association of the county, and they can absolutely plan with added installers if they wish to install solar not aural the Solarize Madison program. The Solarize Madison affairs offers amount accumulation through aggregate purchasing and a automated accession process,” said Scott Ingmire, Director of Madison Canton Planning Department.
Solarize Madison was accomplished by the Madison Canton Planning Department and the Central New York Regional Planning and Development Board with abutment from the Renewable Activity Training Center at Morrisville State College with the ambition of bringing lower amount solar activity to Madison County.
The Solarize Madison affairs is accepting added allotment via a admission by the Central New York Regional Planning and Development Board for the Climate Change Innovation Affairs (C2IP) that provides Madison Canton with up to $30,000 to advance the use of activity attention measures and another activity development aimed at abbreviation greenhouse gas emissions. The Madison Canton Planning Department is alms fifteen $2,000 grants to homeowners to advice account the accretion costs associated with installing a direct-own solar photovoltaic arrangement in accession to the bargain amount accomplished through the aggregate purchasing.
Interested participants have to acceding by Sept. 30 to install a system. A ample basic to the success of the affairs is based aloft accord rate. The added systems installed, the beyond the amount savings. In accession to a business attack spearheaded by the installers and activity managers, participants are encouraged to advance the chat about the affairs and become ‘Solar Ambassadors.’ Participants will be appropriate to ample out a accord acceding and abutting of the affairs survey.
Whether he liked it or not, Rodney King had been linked over the past 20 years with unresolved issues of the post-Civil Rights era, police and minority relations, and his own “Can we all get along” plea to end the riots that consumed Los Angeles in 1992.
His apparent backyard pool drowning death on Sunday, June 17, came six weeks after observance of the 20th anniversary of the riots that left at least 53 people dead and more than $1 billion in property damage.
King rose to notoriety following a 1991 high-speed chase, ending with four LAPD officers caught on camera beating King. The officers were acquitted a year later, prompting outrage that led to six days of riots in Los Angeles.
King had agreed this spring to personal appearances and interviews as he promoted his book “The Riot Within: My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption.” He professed to be uncomfortable with all the attention, but also was willing to appear as himself on such shows as “Celebrity Rehab” in 2008.
A camera crew from the VH1 show accompanied King to Riverside County Superior Court in August when he faced a Moreno Valley DUI charge that was later reduced to a reckless driving plea. Several people approached King outside the courthouse requesting autographs.
King said then that he had a medical marijuana prescription, due in part to injuries he suffered during the then 20-year-old incident with police. He also told a fan he was “working daily” to improve his life.
“A lot's changed since 1991,” King said then. “My history makes me think about it a lot. I'm not comfortable around police. I'd rather meet them on a different basis.”
On Sunday, Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement that King’s call for reconciliation was how he should be remembered.
“Through all that he had gone through with his beating and his personal demons he was never one to not call for reconciliation and for people to overcome and forgive,” Sharpton wrote. “History will record that it was Rodney King’s beating and his actions that made America deal with the excessive misconduct of law enforcement.”
Attorney Harland Braun, who represented one of the police officers, Ted Briseno, in a federal civil rights trial over the beating, told The Associated Press that King's name would always be a part of Los Angeles history.
“I always saw him as a sad figure swept up into something bigger than he was,” Braun said. “He wasn't a hero or a villain. He was probably just a nice person.”
In interviews during this spring, King said most of the $3.8 million he had been awarded in civil judgments against the LAPD was gone, spent on himself, attorneys and relations.
He was engaged to marry one of the jurors in that civil awards case, Cynthia Kelley. She made the 911 call to Rialto Police after she was unable to retrieve King from the deep-end bottom of his backyard pool.
When King spoke in an interview for The Press-Enterprise that was published May 1, he focused on the quieter life he was trying to lead, his plans to marry Kelley, and why he decided to move to the San Bernardino County city of Rialto in 1999.
In the past quarter-century, few artists wielded the combination of a deeply weird, subversive vision and an easy command over myriad materials quite like Mike Kelley.
The Michigan-born artist, who worked nearly his entire career in Los Angeles, was compulsively collaborative -- working with Paul McCarthy, Tony Oursler and Sonic Youth, to name a few -- and always driven by an appetite for experimentation. Scanning the output of his three-decade career includes such far-flung endeavors as the noise rock band Destroy All Monsters, installations incorporating chintzy thrift store afghans and dolls, and a multimedia exhibition based on a trip to the Burning Man festival with fellow artist Michael Smith.
On the surface, Kelley's work was driven by an antagonistic sensibility, which often manifested itself in abject content and caustic ugliness. But Kelley, who killed himself in January at age 57, was unquestionably a devoted aesthete. His long-way-round approach to beauty never fully concealed that beauty was, in fact, the endgame.
In the past quarter-century, few artists wielded the combination of a deeply weird, subversive vision and an easy command over myriad materials quite like Mike Kelley.
The Michigan-born artist, who worked nearly his entire career in Los Angeles, was compulsively collaborative -- working with Paul McCarthy, Tony Oursler and Sonic Youth, to name a few -- and always driven by an appetite for experimentation. Scanning the output of his three-decade career includes such far-flung endeavors as the noise rock band Destroy All Monsters, installations incorporating chintzy thrift store afghans and dolls, and a multimedia exhibition based on a trip to the Burning Man festival with fellow artist Michael Smith.
On the surface, Kelley's work was driven by an antagonistic sensibility, which often manifested itself in abject content and caustic ugliness. But Kelley, who killed himself in January at age 57, was unquestionably a devoted aesthete. His long-way-round approach to beauty never fully concealed that beauty was, in fact, the endgame.
Mist makers work by employing sub-sonic vibrations on the surface of the pond’s water to create a thick mist on the surface of the pond. These mist makers are harmless to your fish, while creating an effect that will be a pleasure to watch and act as a talking point in any garden.
The Stowasis Disco Mister includes six small ceramic discs, which are the vibrating membranes that create mist on the surface of the water. For ultimate convenience this product comes with everything you need to install and safely power your pond mister, including colour changing LED lights, external transformer and 10 metres of cable.
But if you’re feeling really creative, you can also make use of the Stowasis Float for Disco Mister, which is a float attachment that ensures that the mister is operating at the correct depth as the water level changes. So all you have to do is plug it in and enjoy the show.
Or if only a show stopping light show will work for you then the Bermuda Pond Mister with Multi Light Change is the pond mister for you. As one of our most popular misters this product is capable of combining huge volumes of mist and 36 variously coloured lights, to create a truly particular display.