Former ECC employee Leroy Bean honored by Culver Chamber of Commerce
From the Pilot News:
Awarded Volunteer of the Year was Leroy Bean, whom Stallings (Culver Chamber President) said “epitomizes what a volunteer is.”
Born in Chicago in 1941, Bean was in Culver by 1942 and has lived here 66 years since, marrying Margaret Poor in 1961 and having two daughters, Kimberly and Cheryl, besides three grandchildren, three step grandchildren, and five great grandsons. Bean retired from Easterday Construction after 42 years in Nov., 2004 joining the Lions Club along the way in July, 2001. Bean became “Station Master” in 2002 at the Club’s headquarters, the former Culver train station-depot in the town park. “If Leroy asks you to take that job over,” quipped Stallings with a smile, “you have to say ‘no.’ He basically runs that place. Everything that happens there, Leroy’s involved in it.”
Bean has been in charge of rental of the station since 2003, and over recent years has volunteered at the Kiwanis Club’s Twin Lakes camp, helped with Christmas in April several times, worked with Culver’s food pantry, removed snow from sidewalks of neighbors and residents; put up Christmas decorations on Main St. and Lakeshore Drive, and held seats on the park board and Lakefest Committee.
Bean, expressing his appreciation and surprise at the award, said simply he’d “rather be out volunteering somewhere!”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
As stated in the above article, Leroy was an employee of Easterday Construction Co., Inc. for over 40 years, much of that time serving as a Project Superintendent. He started as a truck driver and worked his way up, developing his skills as a carpenter and supervisor along the way. We still count him as a friend and are proud of his continuing accomplishments since leaving us. We wish him the best and hope to nominate him for this award again in the future. – Kevin
Sandhill Farm – Suwanee Town Center
Last week Becky and I took a week and went to Georgia and Florida. We drove down to Atlanta on Thanksgiving Day and spent that weekend with one of my best friends, Kim Whitten, who was also my secretary at my previous employer. We spent the weekend with her family before going on to Florida and Key West. We came back and stayed with them for the weekend on the return leg of our trip as well. Even when I lived there, I referred to the area as Atlanta, but in reality, Kim lives in Suwanee, Georgia. (Yeah, like the song.)
In touring around our old stomping grounds, we went to see Suwanee Town Center. Rather than trying to revive the old downtown, Suwanee chose to create a new town center. It is a P.U.D. in its truest sense, combining public service space, park space, commercial space and a range of residential types. Read more about it here and here.
The Suwanee Town Center states their vision as “live…work…play…shop.” This is something I would like to emulate in my proposed Sand Hill Farm development. There are differences. The Sand Hill Farm property is approximately 2/3rds the size and I have no vision for Sand Hill Farm to take the place of Downtown Culver. Also, in keeping with the vision presented by the Culver Redevelopment Commission, I would like to keep an option open for a light industrial aspect to the development.
SPAM in Moderation…
I didn’t have much experience with blogs when I started this. I tried to read up on some of the basics before starting and WordPress recommended that I use moderated comments. Wow! I have been amazed at how quickly this blog was found and assaulted by Spammers. This blog is hosted on our ECC website, so it’s not like we’re out in some public arena. Still, I get spam comments nearly every day. Occasionally one is creative or at least makes a minimal effort to look like a real comment – Something like, “I like your site. – Eric” before adding a link to something inane. Others are nothing more than a jumble of words or letters followed by multiple links to porn sites, cheap drug sites, hair growth sites, hot stocks and wild claims on how to increase your proportions, whether your male or female… In 2004, the Federal Goverment tried to curb spam with the CAN-SPAM law. (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing) While I’m impressed with the catchy acronym, I can’t see that the $11k fine and other requirements of the law have had any effect on my inbox. If you’re interested in more on this law try here: http://www.ftc.gov/spam/
An article I read recently cited a study by an internet security company that claimed that their research showed that Indiana was ranked #7 in unsolicited email with a whopping 88% of email messages being unsolicited junk. Our neighbors in Illinois must be even more gullible as they were ranked #1. A rather dubious honor…
The original SPAM created by Jay Hormel came to being in 1937. According to their website, “After more than seven decades in the marketplace, the SPAM® family of products is still the tasty, high-quality kitchen staple made of 100 percent pure pork and ham that the world has come to know and love.After more than seven decades in the marketplace, the SPAM® family of products is still the tasty, high-quality kitchen staple made of 100 percent pure pork and ham that the world has come to know and love.” Mmmmmm… Mmmmmmm…!!! Anybody familiar with email (and apparently blogging) hears “spam” and thinks first of the annoying avalanche of unsolicited junk that clogs our email inboxesevery time we open them. I’ve been using the spam-blocking options available from my email provider as well as after market add-ons as a secondary defense, but still end up with a phenominal amount of trash.
Internet Spam may have gotten it’s name from the Monty Python Troupe and their skit about a couple trying to order breakfast, but finding that everything offered on the menu has spam in it. The wife loudly proclaims, “I don’t like Spam!” while a chorus of vikings drown out all conversation with their chanting song, “spam, spam, spam, spam…” Still a hilarious bit thirty years later! And wholly appropriate! Unfortunately I don’t know how to embed the video here, but you can find it on You Tube by searching “Monty Python Spam” and for a while anyway, you can link to it here: Monty Python Spam Skit
If you find a miraculous way of dealing with spam, let me know. Until then, I hope you’re not offended that comments will be moderated and I will continue to have to deal with SPAM in moderation… <pun intended>
Kevin
UPDATE: I’ve added a plugin from Askimet that has made a world of difference in the amount of spam I’m having to handle. I only installed it this week, 1/5/09, but I’m impressed so far! It’s a free program and the installation into my WordPress blog program was painless.
Columbus Day
It’s Columbus Day. Just another Monday and I’m here at work. Easterday Construction Co., Inc. is open. Our crews are working. Most of our clients are working.
Most of the Government Offices are closed, though. Anybody else think something stinks when the majority of us are working today so the people that are supposedly working for us can take a paid holiday?
Kevin
Impervious Pavement Discussions before Culver Boards
At the Culver BZA meeting on September 18, 2008 there was a variance request for expanding a nonconforming use. The request was to allow an existing two car garage to be expanded to a three car garage. This was an old garage that sat across the setback lines. There was no doubt that the the existing structure should be replaced. The expansion of the nonconforming use in and of itself wasn’t a big deal, but in the overall big picture, it was not only a structure issue, but an impervious surface issue.
Just two days earlier at the Culver Plan Commission meeting, there was discussion regarding the poor condition of the storm sewers in Culver and their inadequacies. That was regarding another section of town that has poor drainage and another project that was adding impervious surface. Even if the solution of adding new and larger storm sewers to correct these issues was economically feasible, it wouldn’t be environmentally appropriate.
