Entry Level Housing Sample

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Earlier this month Bill Hollingsworth, an Affordable Housing Developer, made a presentation to some of the key leaders involved in Culver’s Entry Level Housing Task Force.  The presentation was a combination of education for the Task Force members as well as an introduction to his company and the work he has completed in this arena.  He is currently working on a building rehabilitation project for an artist enclave which he was able to fit under the Affordable Housing umbrella.

As part of his presentation, he included some pictures of a new construction Affordable Housing project.  I thought I would share those pictures here.  The Affordable Housing moniker has some negative connotations.  This helped dispel that concern with the task force.

The Sand Hill Farm property is under consideration for this project.  It would require a PUD zoning in order to complete a project similar to what is shown here, but I think it would be a welcome addition to Culver’s housing stock.  At this point Mr. Holllingsworth has made an initial contact and has shown interest in pursuing this project.  The task force is hoping to leverage this into additional market based housing as well.

Sand Hill Farm Update

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Sand Hill Farm
Sand Hill Farm

There have been several status changes to Sand Hill Farm this Spring.  The first was the retirement of the County drainage easement through the property.  It was replaced by a new easement to the Town of Culver.  This was part of the agreement with the Town that saw the relocation of the storm drain from running diagonally across the property to a new location along the property line.  This also included removal of a large area of brush and scrub trees which generally improved the property.  The second was the inclusion of Sand Hill Farm in the talks regarding Entry Level Housing for Culver.  I have served on Culver’s Task Force looking into this issue and helped with the Request For Proposals (RFP) that went out to developers earlier this month.  I have been contacted by one developer who has shown interest.  We shall see how it proceeds from here.  The goal of the RFP is to explore opportunities to obtain an Affordable Housing project that can be parlayed into additional market rate housing through an additional portion of the property.  

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Culver Boys & Girls Club Auction

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Easterday Construction Co., Inc. was a sponsor for Friday night’s Culver Boys & Girls Club event.  Becky and I attended and, as usual, had a good time.

It is impressive to see the amount of effort put into decorations and other accoutrements for the event.  I know from personal observation how much time and effort board member Carol Zeglis puts into the event and I’m sure she is not the only one.  

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Culver Triathlon

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I borrowed the picture and logo above from the Culver Triathlon website.  The organizers came before the Town Council to request help with closing the streets for an hour during the biking portion of the event on August 8th.  According to their presentation, this is the second fastest growing triathlon in the nation and they are expecting more that 500 participants this year.  I don’t know, but I would say a conservative estimate would be that each participant equates to two spectators.  That would be doubling the population of Culver that day.

And here’s the rant…  

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Marshall County Visitors Guide

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Marshall County Visitors Guide '15I received a copy of the Marshall County Visitors Guide in the Culver Citizen last week.  Then I received a copy in the Pilot News.  Really!?!  Yes, this is a rant…

Lets start with a little history…  Easterday Construction Co., Inc. has been a member of the Culver Chamber of Commerce since well before I came to join the company.  I served on the board for several years, during which time we were asked to budget for a page in the Marshall County Visitors Guide.  I had the distinction of being the sole no vote on that item every year.  I saw no value in it for the majority of our membership.  The cost of this ad at more than 25% of the annual Chamber budget seemed ill-advised considering some of the other programs that we were successfully pursuing.  Needless to say I was overruled.  The arguments for supporting the guide were mainly two:  1)  Culver was prominently displayed in the guide and 2)  It was designed to reach an audience outside Marshall County to attract tourism.  My rebuttals were that Culver was prominently displayed anyway since our town is the primary tourist destination for the County and that with the advent of the Internet, how often was a paper guide book of value?

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