government

Constitution Day

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we_the_people_american_constitutionToday is Constitution Day!  The United States Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787 by thirty-nine brave men.  Constitution Day is not something you hear about too much, but if you’re interested, there is information here and here. 

Did you hear anything about it today?  I guess it’s not too surprising that Constitution Day is not something celebrated.  The Constitution seems to be largely ignored lately, most obviously by representatives of the three branches of the Federal Government.  It’s not an overly large document.  It’s about 19 pages long in this PDF here.  Take a moment to read it.  It’s really quite elegant.  What do you think?  Should we all mail a copy to those representing us in the government?  If they took the time to read it, they might be shocked at the limits of their power.

A Garden Court for Culver (part II)

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Culver Garden Court Article from the June 18, 2009 addition of the Culver Citizen

A special meeting of the Culver Town Council was held on June 9, 2009 to discuss the possibility of a Garden Court in Culver next year.  As discussed earlier here, I had approached several property owners around Town about the potential for a Garden Court project on their land.  I was given the opportunity to discuss it with several of them and one, Mr. Wade McGee, has chosen to pursue it with us.  Mr. McGee and I met with the Town Council on the 9th and discussed various goals including water extensions, sewer extensions, fire protection, annexation, rezoning and future plans for that property as well as the adjacent properties.  Some members of the Plan Commission and the BZA attended that meeting as well and the implications regarding their various needs and requirements were also discussed.

All and all the meeting went well.  In premise, it was agreed that Mr. McGee would continue to work with Garden Court on their proposed facility and would request annexation, while the Town Council agreed to extend water and sewer to the property and to support the rezoning of the property from S-1 Suburban Residential to R-2 Residential.  This change is in keeping with the Comprehensive Plan and with other goals currently being pursued by the Town Council.

Following that meeting was the regular Town Council meeting.  At that meeting, Reverend Liechty, President of Garden Court, Inc., renewed their request for the Town Council to support the new Garden Court for Culver and to renew their financial pledge towards the project.  A letter was requested verifying that a Garden Court would be acceptable on the proposed property.  All these things were agreed to by the Council.

It looks like we’re moving forward!

A Garden Court for Culver

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cgc-article-in-culver-citizen-3-26-09I was asked to write an article for the Culver Citizen explaining a little about Garden Court and the positive reasons for bringing one to Culver as well as the obstacles preventing the project.  It was printed in the paper last week along with a sidebar I wrote giving a little description of the umbrella group that is Garden Court.  I have copied  the article and sidebar below:

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Too Good to be True?

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On August 8, 2005, President George Bush signed H.R. 6, the Energy Policy Act of 2005.  The legislation contained market incentives in the form of a tax deduction for owner investments in commercial building energy efficiency.  The tax deduction is equal to the expenditures made by the taxpayer, subject to a cap… a cap of $1.80 per square foot!  That can be $180,000 on a 100,000 square foot building!  This applies to interior lighting systems, HVAC systems, hot water systems and the building envelope.  To get the entire deduction, the building must be certified to have achieved a minimum of 50% energy savings when compared to the standard requirements. I was just to a seminar on this subject last week and apparently less than 2% of the buildings eligible for this program have taken advantage of it.  How can this be?  The tax deduction pays for the lion’s share of the project renovation costs and then the energy savings go on forever.  Those savings transfer to the bottom line from Day One on. The simplest form of this program is changing light fixtures.  The new high efficiency fluorescent fixtures achieve major savings over the metal halide fixtures currently in use in most production plants.  The fluorescent fixtures also encourage the user to shut the lights off when not needed because they are instant on, rather than suffering the 10-minute warm up period experienced with metal halide.  This makes the use of motion sensors an option to further enhance saving opportunities. The thing about government grant programs is that they are “use it or lose it” carrots.  Despite adding an extension to this program, the low participation means this program will expire at the end of 2008 with little chance of further extension. Sounds too good to be true?  Apparently that’s part of the problem.  We have pitched this to several companies that could benefit, but have been unable to get them to pull the trigger.If you’re interested, more information is available at the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers’ website at www.ashrae.org, or at NEMA’s Government Relations Energy Policy site at www.nema.org/gov/energy.

 

 

 

Kevin

 

 

Update:  Another source of information has come to my attention.  You can also check out www.lithonia.com/taxdeduction

Update:  The program has been extended into 2009.