Donated Roofing
Culver LIttle League Dugout with “Easterday Green” Metal Roof
If you haven’t noticed, the Culver Little League has new dugouts. Last week we donated some Butler Manufacturing Company VSR roof panels for the project. This is a commercial standing seam roof panel, though the volunteers basically installed it as a simple screw down. It still looks pretty good and it’s Easterday Green! Ha! The panels have a 70% Kynar finish so they should give them years of service. We were pleased to be able to donate this material to the little league. We have been supporters for decades.
RAGBRAI ’13
This week Becky is off on her 11th fit of insanity, riding in RAGBRAI, the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa. This is the 40th year for RAGBRAI and there are 10,000 registered riders (not counting day-riders and pirate riders) doing this as well. This year’s ride is short… Only 405 miles! It is usually closer to 500 hundred. On Tuesday there was an additional 24 mile loop which made that day over 109 miles for Becky. (They add a loop one day each year making that day a “Century Day” with at least 1oo miles of riding.) Becky did the extra loop but struggled on that one. It was 98 and windy. She also tells me that Iowa is much hillier than people think!
Becky has developed a following on this that I keep updated daily with emails. If you’re not on that list and want to be, let me know.
Mary Ellen Rudisel Jordan
Architect Mary Ellen Rudisel Jordan
I lost a good friend last week. Mary Ellen was in a fatal car crash Thursday evening heading home from a client meeting in Wabash. She was an Architect that I worked with for the past two decades on projects too numerous to count. Some of them large, some of them small, some of them award winning, some of them mundane. She often referred clients to me with no expectations other than that I would treat them well. I often returned that favor, referring clients to her. I never hesitated to do so, knowing that she would do all in her power to meet their needs and respect their wishes. She had no ego and was excellent at listening. Her ability to do thumbnail sketches on the fly with clients would often lead to the client being able to realize their vision in a way they couldn’t without her help. When I had roughed out a design for a client, I sometimes would send it to Mary Ellen and she would make some minor change that would make things “pop”. She did this just as a favor as with the proposed fireman’s memorial here. Her input was always appreciated.
Sketch by Mary Ellen of the proposed Woodcraft Camp Museum
NFIB “Small-Business Confidence Sputters, Again”
Graphic borrowed from www.nfib.com/sbet
I received the results of an NFIB survey today that I thought would be worth sharing. You can read the entire report here, but the gist of it is contained in this quote:
“After two months of incremental but solid gains, the Index gave up in June. This appears par for the course, given that there is no reason for small employers to be more optimistic and lots of things to worry about,” said NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg. “Washington remains bogged down in scandals and confidence in government’s ability to deal with our fundamental problems remains low. Economic growth was revised down for the first quarter of the year and the outlook for the second quarter is not looking good. Nothing cheers up a small-business owner more than a customer, and they remain scarce and cautious while consumer spending remains weak and more owners are reporting negative sales trends than positive ones.
It certainly doesn’t help that the endless stream of delays and capitulations of certain provisions of the healthcare law adds to the uncertainty felt by owners. Until growth returns to the small-business half of the economy, it will be hard to generate meaningful economic growth and job creation.”
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MacKenzie Ledley - Executive Director, Pulaski County Public Library