The 10th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
—ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu.
Easterday Construction Co., Inc. received a Silver Level STEP (Safety Training and Evaluation Process) achievement award from Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. (ABC) for our ongoing efforts to advance our safety program. Thanks to our Safety Officer, Will Pearson, for both administering our safety program and for completing the award application. Thanks to our superintendents and entire crew for realizing the value of safety to our company and every individual employee of Easterday Construction.
H.B. 1182, legislation defining Complete Streets for Indiana streets and highways, passed the Indiana House but didn’t make it through the Senate earlier this year. This Bill followed a national trend to look at streets in a more holistic fashion, taking into account pedestrians, bicycles and public transportation, rather than just the minimalist approach of expediting the transit of cars from point A to point B. The Complete Streets ideal also looks at issues concerning stormwater control and optimizaton of pavement.
Culver recently received a grant for renovations to Main Street as it runs through the downtown business district. My understanding is that plans are underway to facilitate these improvements. I spoke to Town Manager, Michael Doss, and he did not believe that the Complete Streets standards would apply. (That was shortly after the grant was obtained and now his remarks appear sage-like as the legislation failed to move forward.) Some of the proposed standards may be of value though and hopefully will be considered by the designer. Improvements that make the downtown business district more pedestrian and cyclist friendly should be helpful. We also have a continuing stormwater issue in Culver that could be improved by changes to impervious surfaces in the downtown. Corrections to the existing stormwater system as well as other infrastructure should be considered as part of this project. It would be prudent to make sure that we’re not tearing up the new street in a couple of years to correct underlying problems.
Culver does not have a lot of new road construction planned, so opportunities to employ this type of design is limited. Now that the review of the the Culver Zoning Ordinance is coming to a close, it might be time to revisit the Subdivision Ordinance. That document has not been updated in decades. The Culver Comprehensive Plan is also past due for a review. Some of the new research and trends should be considered for implementation in our planning documents. Even without updates to these planning documents, there is the potential for doing this type of design through PUD’s under the current ordinance – something I would hope to accomplish with Sand Hill Farm.
Since 1998 the Library of Congress has been the home of the Bob Hope Collection of documents, photos, videos, films, posters and other materials. At the heart of this treasured collection is his astounding file of some 85,000 jokes. A new exhibit opened the summer, “Hope for America: Performers, Politics & Pop Culture.” Bob Hope and his contributions to entertaining the troops are honored in the Fall 2010 issue of On Patrol, the Magazine of the USO, in an article titled “Hope for America” by James H. Billington.