Tag:Tips
App Anxiety
Like almost everyone I know, I’ve become a cell phone junkie. That said, I hate to talk on the damn thing. I’ve considered stealing a voice mail message I heard once: “Hello. This is Kevin’s phone. If this could be a text, hang up and text me. if you absolutely must leave a message, I’ll listen to it… eventually… and maybe decide to reply. if it’s still relevant by then…” To paraphrase Gary Gulman, the phone is just a seldom used app on my phone and if you call me on it, I’m immediately mad. How dare you!?!
I use the camera on my phone… though not for the selfies that most people do. I generally am using it for work. I’m a big fan of Twitter. I’m currently managing 6 twitter accounts and I strive to change the voice of each. I use Instagram… and Facebook… but mainly because I think I need to for work. If I know it’s your Birthday, I’ll probably send you a text. I don’t do the smarmy, self-congratulatory Facebook wall posts. Facebook is way to saccharin for me. I prefer the sarcasm of Twitter and I’ve recently found Reddit which I like as well. Reddit can be REALLY harsh… And those people are darkly funny!
Despite my love of the technology and the wild west of Twitter and Reddit, I’ve always had concerns. All the stories of scams and phishing concern me. Some are overblown, but when you’re offered a “flashlight” app that requests access to your contacts… well, that just doesn’t seem right.
So when our government tells me that TikTok is full of spyware, I don’t have a lot of trouble believing that. They have banned it on all Federal government devices. Even Indiana has banned it on State devices. While I’ve watched more than a few TikTok videos sent to me by friends, I have no desire to add that app to my phone. Yes, I’m pretty boring, but I still value at least a little bit of my privacy. As attested above, I rarely give out my cell phone number because I don’t want calls on it, but I’m starting to get more and more calls on it and a lot of spam calls on it. Is that because people I know are downloading TicTok and “Flashlight” apps and giving access to their contacts? Is that how my number is getting out there?
Even with all the warnings, use doesn’t seem to be going down. TikTok remains the trendy thing. I am disappointed that institutions that should know better continue to push it. We attend the Notre Dame Women’s Basketball games and they do a TikTok challenge. Often they’re bringing little girls out to watch videos made by the players and asking them to emulate them. You know that those kids immediately want to have the app and be like the big girls they idolize… I was at a local town meeting and a young (20’s) participant said that Culver needs to expand their social media presence to include TikTok. She said that she was embarrassed to admit that she, like many in her generation, is on the app 2 or more hours a day. This is someone I consider smart and with her drive, she has a bright future. Is she at risk because she has things on TikTok that could come back to stymie a future political career or job opportunity? Not that there isn’t a risk of that with any social media, but we’ve been told that this TikTok is specifically harvesting information for a hostile foreign government. If reports are correct, Chinese children on the app are bombarded with STEM encouragement. American children are bombarded with mindless drivel and worse, things that are causing body dysmorphia and the resultant depression. That’s problematic.
I guess this isn’t too surprising when millions of Americans are sending off DNA samples to trace their ancestry, despite the accompanying sign-offs that say the company can do what they want with the DNA information provided. How much more personal can you get? At what point will that information be available to employers, insurance companies, divorce lawyers and others that may use it to harm us? At what point will it become common place enough that it’s required? Will the history questionnaire at the Doctor be replaced by a tube to spit into, at which point they’ll know anything they want about you and your ancestors?
As with anything, it is the camel’s nose under the tent… And doesn’t that metaphor really shows this has gone on forever!?! Bad things would be stopped if they happened all at once, but work up to them bit by bit and most people will go along.
Robotics Challenge
We attended the Vex Robotics Competition at the Plymouth High School Gym on Saturday. We have attended a few times in the past and it is always interesting.
I’m no expert, but here’s what I have gleaned from a few competitions I’ve observed.
- The competition is put on by Vex Robotics.
- The competition is multi-level where you have regional competitions with winners that can proceed on to State, National and World competitions.
- Each year the challenge is different and the components allowed for building the robot challengers are different.
- There is an autonomous challenge where each robot must perform without active guidance and a guided challenge where the robots are remote controlled by their teams.
The competition on Saturday was multitasked and was called “Spin Up”. Two teams of two robots competed – a red team and a blue team. The field of play is approximately 10′ x 10′. In two opposing corners there were two goals – a high goal and a low goal. In the alternate corners there were spinners with blue and red sides. scattered around the playing field were yellow disks that were collected to score points in the high and low goals.
Robots were sent to the spinner corners and they attempted to turn the spinner to show their color. Then they also had to defend the spinner so the other team couldn’t turn it back. Meanwhile they were also collecting disks and for lack of a better term, were spitting them into the high goals. To make that more interesting, the red high goal was over the blue low goal and vice versa. This meant that a missed shot scored for the other team. A score in the high goal was worth more and was safe from removal, but there was also the ability to remove disks from your opponents low goal, reducing their score. There was also a skill demonstrated where the robots shot out a string with a ring on the end, which appeared to be a strategy to tangle up your opponent, but that wasn’t clear and not all of the robots did this.
For those of you familiar with Battle Bots, this is a much less aggressive competition, i.e. no flame throwers, chain saws or axes, but there was still some mixing it up between the robots as they jockeyed for position and attempted to get the better of the opposing team.
There was obviously a lot of strategy, variation of design and some teamwork that made differences. Most of the robots spit the disks from fairly close and one at a time. One robot we watched tossed three disks at a time and didn’t miss until the upper goal was so full that disks were falling out, while another shot from across the field with pretty decent accuracy. Some had no trouble climbing over the small curbs defining the low goal, while others used that curb as a stop to set up their shots. The decisions between offense and defense were interesting as well. They were not allowed to “pin” their opponent, so a strategy of pushing and blocking was generally employed. We observed one team that would time a bump of the shooting robot just in time to throw off its shot, with every miss being a point for them in the low goal.
My understanding is that while most teams are school sponsored, that’s not a requirement. There were some teams that were quite obviously wearing school colors and were adorned with school mascots, while others were more creative in their team attire. Whether school affiliated or not, there was obviously a lot of non-traditional learning going on. Aside from the obvious STEM connections, the teamwork and strategy demonstrated were impressive. After qualifying, teams must form teams with other competitors in order to move forward in the competition. This is a process of evaluating their opponents and assessing skills that could add to their own. Negotiating and selling skills were employed!
There were several hundred spectators there. Most assuredly, the majority were family members of the competitors, but I would recommend taking the time to watch a competition, if you get the chance. We had no horse in the race, but enjoyed the competition just the same. These kids are future engineers and programmers, and seeing those skills put to work at the high school level is impressive. Well worth the time and price of admission (free)!
Culver needs an Infrastructure Czar
I had lamented about this in the past, but decided to put my thoughts together here for a post as I see this happening over and over again. Culver is doing a great job at obtaining grants and adding improvements to the Town. Unfortunately, these projects seem to continually suffer from a two step forward, one step back syndrome. We have “plans” for what will come in the future, but we continually use different consultants for different projects with no one tasked with seeing the big picture.
This is not the job of the Town Manager. While the Town Manager is generally aware of all the projects and project plans, we have yet to hire one that is a Urban Planner or Landscape Architect. We hire them for the management skills, administration skills, grant writing skills, public relations skills, etc. Some towns choose to go with a “Clerk of the Works” in lieu of a Town Manager. That person has a different skill set and in my opinion, what a Town Manager brings, is what is best for Culver.
But…
The best example of the problem I think needs to be addressed is the various improvements that have been completed over the last couple decades in the area of State Street, Lake Shore Drive and the Town Park. This occurred over the tenure of multiple Town Managers and again, I don’t think this is on them.
- The brick street that was State Street was deteriorating in front of the fire station. The Town decided to pull the brick and redo the street in concrete. Once construction started, the deteriorating condition of the storm water inlets was pointed out. It was also suggested that the other infrastructure (water and sewer lines) should be examined. The decision was made not to do this, patch the storm water inlets (and sewer manhole) the best they could and move on.
- The storm water lines continued to deteriorate and eventually the lines on Lake Shore Drive needed to be replace. These connected to the State Street storm lines, so the new concrete street in #1 was cut (reducing the integrity of the soil compaction, concrete and reinforcing steel) to replace those inlets. As part of this work, the sidewalk from the Park parking lot to the public pier was removed and replaced.
- The Town moved forward with the trail project that runs through the Park. This ran from the end of Washington Street, through the Park and up past the Beach Lodge. The newly placed concrete in #2 above had to be removed and reworked in order to make the trail ADA accessible.
- The Town reroofed the Beach Lodge. This while planning for the Beach Lodge renovation was underway. Approximately 20% of the new roof had to be removed in order to complete the addition to the Beach Lodge.
- The Town moved forward with the Beach Lodge project the year after the Trail was completed. Additional costs were incurred protecting the new trail in #3 as it passed through the construction area.
Okay. While there is not a infrastructure Master Plan and there is no guarantee when or how much grant money comes in for projects, these issues were unforced errors. All of these projects were on the overall to-do list, just without a master plan or time frame. #1 was a Town Manager/Street Department project. #2 was contracted to the Town’s Engineering firm. #3 was contracted to the Town’s Landscape Architecture firm. #4 was a Town Manager project. #5 was contracted to an Architecture firm. Again, not faulting any of them, as they can only work with the information provided, but no one had the overall vision. They were each working in their own silos as directed.
The past several Town Managers have depended heavily on Culver’s Utilities Superintendent. Again, it would be unfair to blame any of the above on that person. They are tasked with keeping things working, not having a vision for the future. They often are not called in until the grant has been obtained and the architect or engineer have been hired. They can help oversee the current project per the plans, but at that point it’s often too late to adjust for the connections.
There are other examples, such as Cavalier Drive, where the sewer line was not extended to either end of the street & the street does not serve all of The Paddock on the north end and the South Main Street Trail, where once the trail leaves Davis Street, where there was a curb, it drops down to road level without planning for future South Main Street improvements. (South Main Street is currently hard to traverse due to sunken inlets in the street in the travel path of car tires. Improvements including curb and gutter and curb inlets would be a prudent consideration.)
Now there are four significant projects planned for Culver. None of these are particularly objectionable. The Plan Commission and their subcommittee, the Technical Review Committee, have reviewed and approved the multi-family development at 415 Lake Shore Drive. While it does not follow the Comprehensive Plan completely, it does transition from Commercial to Residential, which was a Comp Plan goal for this parcel. But how does this increased density change the vision for this area? Why was it not required to follow current detention requirements? (Yes, the existing site was fulling impervious, but there are existing drainage problems in this area and this was an opportunity to alleviate some of them.) What should be done as part of this project to prepare for the next project? Maybe there’s not much that can be done because of the state of development in that area, but has it been considered?
The second one is municipal projects at the intersections of South Main Street, Davis Street and Ohio Street. The town is expanding their well field. They are considering a new facility on Davis Street where the restaurant was torn down. How will these new uses affect development? Will they increase traffic? Is there anything that can be done to improve the poor intersection traffic at this location?
The third one is a storage facility on Tamerack Road, south of the cemetery. Again, this does not quite follow the Comp Plan, but it’s been reviewed and found to be reasonable by the Plan Commission. How will this affect future projects? This facility is designed to house recreational vehicles, so it will increase traffic from large vehicles, trucks and trailers. Does this lend to an upgrade in South Main Street? Remember the trail that just went in, mentioned above? Will it make sense to widen South Main Street? Add curbs? How will that affect the trail? Does this put more need for the extension of West Shore Drive to S.R. 17 as discussed as a goal in the current Comp Plan (page 89 shows new connections to S.R. 17 via extensions of Academy Road and West Shore Drive)?
The fourth project is The Dunes. There’s been talk in town that residents were blind-sided with this, but in reality, that property was annexed and rezoned “R-2” years ago with the goal of denser residential development. There were advertised public meetings at the Plan Commission and Town Council. Again, the trail project should have anticipated this, but didn’t. What other things have been missed along here? What else should be considered? As with the storage facility, does this suggest upgrades to South Main Street and the West Shore Drive extension to S.R. 17?
This is where an Infrastructure Czar would come in. (Call them what you want, but this was a starting point for me.) This is someone charged to see the big picture and how all the new projects interrelate with the existing facilities. Someone trained to see this. Trained to have the vision. I’m not really advocating a new position as I don’t think it’s warranted, but the Town hires consultants all of the time. Whether this is a single person or a firm, the consultant fees would be minimal and money well spent and paid for by saving the reworking of things as pointed out in the Lake Shore Drive list of 4 above.
A prime example of a current issue most probably being increased by the last three on this list is the unsafe intersections involving South Main Street, Davis Street and Ohio Street. Some of the money being dedicated to these projects by the Redevelopment Commission could be channeled towards improvements here. (Really should have been considered with the trail project.) This could be low end, utilizing better signage and more traffic control or higher end with widening of streets and adding turn lanes, etc. There is also the really radical and progressive option of turning this intersection into a round-about! Wouldn’t that blow some minds!
The point is, once these developments are complete, there will be no options for asking for additional land or other concessions and an opportunity will be lost. We need someone with vision who can think outside the box on these things. Someone to challenge the status quo so improvements can be considered. Infrastructure Czar, Master Planner, The Vision… Call them what you want. Someone needs to be in-charge of monitoring the big picture.
Construction Career Month in Indiana
Governor Holcomb has declared October “Construction Career Month“. It’s great to see this recognized, but we at Easterday Construction Co., Inc. (ECC) promote this year in and year out.
Over the years, we have sent dozens of employees to various forms of construction training in order to advance their careers. This has varied from National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) accredited Apprenticeship Training through Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) to leadership seminars to task certifications, such as welding to various safety training events. We believe strongly in helping our employees advance their careers.
Over the years, we have also participated in Culver Community Middle School Career Days. It has been interesting having the opportunity to spark interest in the construction trades, dispelling myths and touting benefits. One of my favorite things, that seemed to garner interest, was to point out that with a successful career in construction, you can drive through your community and see the results of your efforts in the building projects with which you’ve been involved. In my case, there are four generations of Easterday Construction projects in Culver and the surrounding communities.
One class was particularly memorable as it had a student that was a daughter of one our our superintendents. Not only did she listen raptly, I heard that she repeated my presentation at home. It was obvious she was proud of the work her father performed. While these kids are too young to be concerned with the financial side of obtaining a higher education, they were generally surprised to hear that construction offered a career path with similar outcomes to many college degrees. Hopefully, sometime in the future, this will make them think hard about taking on college debt. Maybe they’ll come to see me to talk about the advantages of construction apprenticeship… where ECC picks up the cost of their education.
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MacKenzie Ledley - Executive Director, Pulaski County Public Library
Planning Conundrum
March 20, 2023
Kevin Berger
Commentary, Marshall County, Tips
Community, government, Tips, Trends, Volunteering
Because I can’t say no, and because I generally believe in giving back to the community, I agreed to be on the Subdivision Ordinance Review Committee for Marshall County. (Currently I’m on the Plymouth Comp Plan Committee, (2x) and the Culver Comp Plan Committee (3x)) Marshall County Plan Director, Ty Adley, wisely recognized that the proposed new sewer districts working their way through the County could result in an increase in requests for new subdivisions. Apparently, for the first time in many years, a subdivision application was made last year, alerting him to issues with the old ordinance.
There’s lots to change and I think we can make major improvements. Apparently there have been some updates, but never a rewrite. There are issues where it ventures into Zoning requirements and thus creates some conflicts.
One of the larger discussions at the last meeting was how to balance fairness and good planning when it came to subdivisions that could reasonable be expected to be gateways into additional property. So in Sketch 1 to the right, there are properties A, B, C & D all under separate ownership. Properties A, B & C are of sufficient size to support 15 lots while parcel D could reasonable support 90 lots. The owner of parcel B comes to the county and proposes a 15 lot subdivision. They would be required to access the highway from one point. They would, at a minimum, be required to stub their road to their property line (2) with parcel D, to allow access to that property. If the county determined that they wanted to limit access points to the highway, they would require road stubs connection parcels A & B as well. (road stubs 1 & 3 on the diagram.) This is good planning. Good planning would also suggest that the road connection to the highway be sized to accommodate the potential growth. This might include Accel/Decel lanes, turn lanes and a traffic blister or island. It might include heavier duty pavement specifications due to the anticipated traffic from trash collection trucks, moving vans and the anticipated traffic from the adjacent developments. While the county doesn’t currently have But there’s the rub…
If the county requires the owner of Parcel B to include all of those things because of the potential development on parcel’s A, C & D there are a few possible results:
We didn’t really settle on any solutions, but I will follow up on this post with some potential ideas as I work through them. I think there’s a way to make at least some of this reasonably fair to the initial developer, though it will be hard to make it totally equitable.
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