Culver – Page 84 – Easterday Construction Co., Inc.

Former ECC employee Leroy Bean honored by Culver Chamber of Commerce

December 16, 2008 by

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!”

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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

December 14, 2008 by

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.

Impervious Pavement Discussions before Culver Boards

September 25, 2008 by

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.

Pippenger Porch

August 22, 2011July 1, 2008 by

We were recently called back to complete some remodeling on a home that we had been to several times in the past. One of the projects we completed for the previous owner was the addition of a screened porch and new rear entrance. Before the addition, there had been a small landing in front of the lower level doors. The door on the upper lever was disconnected from the lower level with a steep slope between the two.