Thoughts provoked by Penn Jillette
I received a copy of this article (right) from USA Today from a friend. Didn’t realize that we were both kindred spirits and fans of Penn Jillette before this. Back in the ’90s I actually subscribed to PC/Computing Magazine mainly for his one page op-ed on the last page.
Reading this article, I find it is amazing that colleges once know for opening young minds have become some of the most closed minded places in our nation. Freedom of Speech is more and more limited to freedom to parrot the current group-think. Heaven forbid anyone’s safe space is challenged. Obviously this isn’t just a college phenomenon, but it’s disappointing to see the degree to which it occurs there.
I often ponder how much this is due to the prevalence of the Internet. I have to admit I’m one of the people that would be lost without it, so I’m not advocating against it. (Of course I’m not! Here I am pontificating on it to a select few that would never read what I write without it!) But… when it has become so easy to find “news” that just agrees with your existing view, it means you are never challenged by other ideas. It’s too easy to find the source you like and just nod along.
I am rarely home in time to watch the evening news, so my main source of news is the Sunday morning recaps. I generally watch Fox News Sunday, then CBS Face the Nation, then NBC Meet the Press and finally PBS’s Washington Week. (Occasionally while on the treadmill, but sometimes that gets my heartrate up too much!) That generally gives me a reasonable smattering of viewpoints from Liberal to Conservative including a few in the middle. Sometimes I hear something infuriating, but then that’s why I watch and attempt to see that viewpoint. I don’t agree with either side all of the time. There are two many gray areas… Something that is ignored in our current political climate of Hard Right and Hard Left pandering to their respective bases and ignoring most of us in the middle.
Mr. Jillette says that Lenny Bruce was shocking in the 60’s and would be shocking to most college students in 2017. A jolt to the system can be a good thing. And this is a play… named “Buyer Beware”… so attendance wouldn’t have been required… and there was forewarning in the title… It’s unfortunate that the group decided that not only would they not attend, but that the option to attend should be removed. Maybe some of their peers were open to being shocked… Maybe it would have been good for them.
Sand Hill Farm Ground Breaking Ceremony
From Left to Right, Bob Porter – Culver Utilities Superintendent, Jack Jordan – State Representative, Dale Cramer – Lake City Bank, Joel Samuelson – Culver Town Council, Kevin Berger – Easterday Construction Co., Inc., Tammy Shaffer – Culver Town Council, Ginny Munroe – Culver Town Council President.
I was pretty impressed with the turn out for the Sand Hill Farm Ground Breaking Ceremony last Tuesday, November 5th. There were around 35 people there including representatives from the Town, County and State. Town Council President – Ginny Munroe, County Commissioner – Kevin Overmyer and Lake City Bank Representative – Dale Cramer all spoke in support of the project. I truly appreciated the kudos. We broke out the gold shovels and made a showing of it for the Press.
Speaking about Workforce Housing at the Stellarbration on November 5th. From Left to Right, Kevin Berger – Easterday Construction Co., Inc., Brian Meek – Elkay Wood Products, Karen Shuman – Culver Community School Corp., Don Fox – Culver Academies
The theme from everyone was how this was a first step towards addressing Culver and Marshall County’s workforce housing needs. Currently, Marshall County has an unemployment rate of less than 3%. The general “rule” is that once it gets below 4%, everyone that wants to work is working. Since there are still jobs going unfilled, the next step would be to recruit labor from outside the County. That’s difficult when there isn’t housing available for those new workers. Sand Hill Farm hopes to be a first step towards addressing this. This is Easterday Construction being a community partner/leader.
Along with the several of our area newspapers, we received coverage from the three major networks, ABC 57, WNDU 16 and WSBT 22. See WSBT links for video clips of the Stellerbration event and ABC 57 and WNDU 16 for a little more about the Sand Hill Farm ground breaking. They were all kind with their video editing and made us look good!
Housing was the signature piece of Culver’s Stellar Communities application and I truly think we wouldn’t have scored as highly without the Phase I portion of this project underway. It showed that even without winning Stellar designation last year, Culver moved forward, addressing the needs identified in our Strategic Investment Plan. Having Regional Cities also put money towards this project was positive too. It showed a regional commitment that the State values. At several of the presentations, I was pleased to stand with Culver’s three largest employers, Elkay Wood Products, Culver Community School Corporation and Culver Academies, as their representatives spoke about the needs this project was addressing and how this needs to be just the start.
Excavation underway at Sand Hill Farm. Some of the hill is going into the building pad.
Tuesday was a true ground breaking as we made our presentations with an excavator working in the background. Currently the building pad is nearly complete and the excavator should be cutting in footings in the next week. the site looks quite different.
We’re racing the weather to get the slab done so we can work through the winter. Since it is slab-on-grade construction, that means a fair amount of underground utility work needs to be completed as well. Cross your fingers for us!
It sounds like the Town will delay their street work until Spring. That shouldn’t affect us as long as they are complete sometime in June. The goal is to be open next summer before the new school year starts. That would meet many of our goals, i.e. increased Town population, increased school enrollment and an expanded labor pool.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Thanks to Nancy Tyree at MCEDC for the pictures.
Sand Hill Farm Ground Breaking Ceremony
The Town of Culver and their Workforce Housing Committee have been working on solutions to workforce housing for the past three years. Housing was the centerpiece of our Stellar Communities plan the last two years. As the culmination of this hard work, Easterday Construction Co., Inc. and the Town of Culver are excited to announce the ground breaking ceremony for the Sand Hill Farm Apartments on November 8th at 3:00pm. The ground breaking will be at the site, 540 West Jefferson Street, in Culver.
Sand Hill Farm apartments will have a mix of one, two and three bedroom apartments totaling 24 units. The development is geared towards the goals of increasing housing opportunities, attracting new families, increasing population and increasing school enrollment.
This will be a great kick-off to our Stellarbration at the beach lodge immediately after this. Hopefully you have that event on your calendar as well.
Thank you to all that helped make this possible! We hope you can take the time to help us kick the project off right.
Blast From the Past: Restroom Renovations
I have a potential client that asked us about upgrading some institutional restrooms to make them more modern and inviting. They asked us if we had any experience. Of course two projects immediately came to mind. We completed work on the Grace Baptist Church restrooms in 2010. The existing restrooms were functional, but need expansion and modernization. We were able to accomplish that within the tight parameters. We were able to move an adjacent mechanical room to the second floor and expand into that space.
Before
After
In the case of the St. Mary of the Lake restrooms, we changed the chase locations and were able to mostly stay within the same footprint. So yes, we have experience in bringing old restrooms up to code and modernizing their aesthetic!
Relay for Life – 17
The article to the right appeared in the November 3rd issue of the Culver Citizen. Everyone here at Easterday Construction Co., Inc. is proud of our part in making this possible. Several of us walked at the event in memory of Kathy Pearson, a dear friend and co-worker, who was taken by breast cancer. Thank you to Julie Heise for organizing our group. She brought her whole family out for the event. Thanks to Scott & Connie Bennett for their help as well.
Congratulations to the organizers for winning the national award. Just from the effort it took to get a team together, we understand the phenomenal effort it took to put the event together. From the band to the food to the organization of the event, we were impressed with it all. Great Job!
