Quote from Larry P. Arnn
“The sacrifices that are demanded of Americans today may be necessary, but they must never become customary. The purpose of our government is to keep us alive, yes, but also to keep us living and working, as is our right.”
Larry P. Arnn, President of Hillsdale College – Excerpt from the Imprimis, March/April 2020, Volume 49, Number 3/4
The Paddocks Apartments Progress Article
Jamie Fleury did a nice article on The Paddocks that appeared in the Pilot News and Culver Citizen this past week. As always, we appreciate the press. We continue to get emails from people interested in these apartments so it would appear the need is there. The last I check, there are 15 on the list for when things open up. It’s always good to have that confirmed beyond the market study and the Stellar Committee’s (and before that the Entry Level Housing Committee’s) gut feeling.
The Paddocks, though not known by that name at that time, was the signature project in Culver’s Stellar Communities application in 2016 & 2017. Seeing it come to fruition should be a great boon to Culver and the Town’s efforts to boost our population by providing housing for Culver Community School teachers, Culver Academies staff and ACPI employees.
All the siding is on the first townhome building. As you can see in the above picture, we’re preparing to install the stone veneer accents. Those will be field stone following Culver’s Design Charrette recommendations.
The first building passed it’s NGBS inspection from Energy Diagnostics last week. That’s the outside consulting firm we are using to verify compliance. That allows the first building to move forward with drywall installation next week.
We’ve also been having meetings with Cardno regarding the landscaping. The project will have a sustainable landscape. There will be some limited turf, but there will be other areas with prairie plantings, low-mow fescue and pollinator plantings. We are planning a presentation to the Town since this will fall outside their normal ordinance requirements.
Keep checking here and at the Sand Hill Farm site for updates.
Strange Days Indeed
Nobody told me there’d be days like these
Strange days indeed
John Lennon from Nobody Told Me
The above lyrics are a bit of an understatement lately. Everyone’s anxiety is showing. Stress levels are high.
Personally, I’m not stressed about getting sick; I’m stressed about all of the other craziness surrounding Covid-19. The disease itself currently has a surreal feel to me. It has not touched me personally closer than a friend of a friend’s friend. I am cognizant of the threat because my parents are in their eighties. Dad has had heart problems. Both of my siblings have had lung issues. There are health issues with Becky’s family as well. The threat to them is real… but still surreal…
The current top stress for me though is taking care of employees. Construction is considered an essential service and three of our current projects are for businesses that are essential services. Fortunately most of our work is open air at this time, which minimizes the risk. On The Paddocks project, we have multiple buildings under construction. We’re striving to separate the subcontractor crews into different buildings and are providing separate temporary toilet facilities for each building to help with separation. Everyone wants to work, but there is starting to become an issue obtaining materials. Aside from that, the biggest drag on the projects is discussing the virus. That’s probably cut productivity by 10%-15%! Despite being considered essential today, there’s no guarantee that we’ll be considered essential tomorrow. The changes have come fast and the rumors preceding them have varied. Everyone that is still working, is concerned that the next day could be their last.
The other stress right now revolves around what is being imposed by various politicians, government agencies and bureaucracies. (I wonder how many of them understand the thinking behind “Chesterton’s Fence”…) I am averaging one webinar or call per day discussing what has changed since the day before, i.e. what is being done to us. I’ve navigated the SBA morass to try and figure out PPP, both here and for Berger Audiology. I’ve sat in on conference calls with businesses that have been shutdown. I’m buying lunch once a week for employees to try and support local businesses. Some of the stories are heartbreaking and some of those businesses may not survive this.
I’m also very concerned with the three to four trillion dollars in debt that the Federal government assumed with the various virus bills over the last few weeks. It always helps me visualize that when I write it out, so $3,000,000,000,000 That’s a lot of zeros. And that’s on top of a $1,000,000,000,000 deficit already projected for this year. (An interesting/depressing article here.) That debt is real and may well affect me personally in retirement as well as the livelihoods of future generations.
And then there’s the more existential stress. What are we allowing to be done to us out of fear? Businesses are being told to close. Churches can’t hold services… even with social distancing. We’re not allowed to gather in groups greater than 10? The Bill of Rights, Article I, states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Is the loophole here that the State Governors and City Mayors are ordering and enforcing a prohibition on assembly, not Congress? That’s not the way that usually works.
Stress is high all around. We can’t succumb to the fear though. Things CAN be worse…
The Paddocks Apartments Update April 3rd, 2020
A lot has gone on at The Paddocks apartments in Culver since our last post here. Things have been busy in the field so that’s cut into writing time. The latest thing to get underway is some of the masonry. All of the buildings have masonry accents. For the apartments, those accents are split face block on the sides between the balconies/patios. The picture above shows progress on the masonry accents on the first (west – Apt bld 100) apartment building.
The first townhome building on the south side of Cavalier Drive is up and weathered in with shingles on the roof and windows & doors in place. It had inspections on plumbing, electrical and HVAC ductwork rough-ins completed yesterday by the Marshall County Building Inspector. These buildings will be well inspected since we not only have the local inspector looking at them, but they are being visited by an inspector from IHCDA (Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority) and from an engineering firm working for the lender. We are also going for NGBS (National Green Building Standard) Silver status which means there will be another inspector coming out to inspect the HVAC system and the building envelope to meet those standards.
The first two apartment buildings (100 & 200) are up and weathered in with shingles on the roof and windows & doors in place. Most of the HVAC system rough-in is done in both of these buildings. Plumbing rough-in is nearly complete in the building 100 and underway in building 200. Electrical rough-in is underway in building 100. The balcony decks are in place on both buildings. We have ordered the stairs and railings. They will be aluminum in a similar style to what was used at Sand Hill Farm apartments. The masonry accents are now in place on building 100 and are underway on building 200.
Apt Bld 300 has second floor framing underway
The last apartment building (300) has the foundation and slab in place and framing is currently underway. Roof trusses were delivered today. It should be weathered in within a few weeks, weather permitting
Along with the building construction a lot of the site work is in place. The drive for the first townhome building has the base stone in place. The pad for the next townhome building is prep’d and ready for footing excavation. The sites for the last two buildings, another townhome and a community building, are close to grade now. The site water, sewer and storm infrastructure are complete in some areas. We’ll be preparing the main parking lot for its stone base soon.
Social Distancing in Text
In light of the recent dictates for social distancing, should we go back to putting two spaces after a period when we type text?
For those of you new here, see my previous post: Two Spaces.
