Trends

Time For Multifamily Housing?

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Fairfield Garden Court, Plymouth, IN

Easterday Construction has been involved with multiple multi-family housing projects over the years.  The Garden Court projects have figured prominently in our experience.  Currently many of the economic indicators are reportedly pointing towards the need for more multi-family housing.  Rental properties are projected to be in demand.  A recent article here points to the Top Ten Reasons for owning multi-family housing.  Check out the article and contact us if you’re interested in a foray into this type of investment.

Construction Material Prices Jump

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Construction materials prices rose 1.4 percent in March, the largest monthly increase since April 2011, according to the U.S. Labor Department’s April 12 producer price index (PPI) report. On a quarterly basis, construction materials prices increased 2.7 percent and are 3.8 percent higher than March 2011. Following a similar pattern, nonresidential construction materials prices moved up 1.6 percent for the month, 2.9 percent for the quarter and 4 percent year over year.

Excerpt from ABC Construction Economic Update, April 12, 2012

CUTPL Knox Box Presentation

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I will be discussing adding a Knox Box (or two) to the Culver Union Township Public Library (CUTPL) building tonight at the library board meeting.  This discussion was prompted by one of the board members seeing my previous post regarding Knox Boxes and Culver Garden Court.

I’m pleased that others in the community are picking up on this.  I still believe this is a positive step forward for our community and can lead to greater safety in emergency situations.  Knox Boxes can be installed on commercial, industrial, municipal and residential buildings as well as private residences.  When combined with a safety walk-thru to familiarize the emergency personnel, this installation can improve safety for both the occupants and the first responders.  It can save emergency repair costs as well!  If you’d like a quote on installing a Knox Box in your home or business, please don’t hesitate to call!  You can also use the Contact Us page on our website here.

Now if they just hook the treadmill to a generator…

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I have this vision of rows of these in lieu of office cubicles, each one hooked to a generator so that all the little office worker bees have to generate their own power for their computers.  I guess that would reduce goofing off on the internet since you’d have to walk to goof off.  People would start bringing real cards to work because online solitare would be too much effort!  How many of you remember the bike generator in Soylent Green?  “Soylent Green is people!”

This is the TrekDesk.  It comes in several models and is supposed to be adaptable to any treadmill.  Their site quotes the American Heart Association, saying that 10,000 steps a day can reduce your chances of a heart attack.  It also quotes the National Institute of Health saying that walking reduces the risk of Cancer and quotes the American Diabetes Association saying that walking reduces the risk of Diabetes.

It’s an interesting concept for a home office, though I can’t imagine being able to work and read a computer screen while walking or running at any kind of workout pace.  I guess any movement is better than none.  Seems like it might be a kind of smelly office space too.

 

Culver Garden Court Emergency Services Walk-thru

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Tonight we’re going to have a walk-thru at Culver Garden Court for Culver’s Emergency Services personnel.  We’ve invited any of the Culver Fire Department, Culver EMTs  and Culver Police that would like a tour of the building.  As this is housing for the elderly, we feel it is important to familiarize them with the facility.  This is something we have done in the past with other Garden Court facilities we have built.

Culver Garden Court has the first Knox Box in Culver.  (Wikipedia description here.)  A Knox Box is a small safe that is installed at the front door of a building.  It will contain a master key to the facility.  In case of a 911 call, whether a fire, medical emergency or other, the emergency service personnel arriving at the site will be able to access the key using a key to the Knox Box.

Now that the program has been initiated in Culver, I would anticipate that other Culver facilities will want to install them as well.  While the boxes are somewhat expensive, they are generally less expensive than the cost of the door replacement due to the the fire department taking an axe to the door.  It is also a life safety issue.  Opening the door with a key is the most efficient way to get to a life in jeopardy on the other side.  In my opinion the Culver Schools, the Culver Library and the Culver Town Hall should all have Knox Boxes.  In the spirit of the one installed at Culver Garden Court, the Culver Cove, Beachside Condos and Beach View Condos should consider them as well.  Knox Boxes can also be installed on private homes.

I believe the next step for Culver should be to develop a policy regarding Knox Boxes.  There’s a lot of responsibility involved in their use.  All the Knox Boxes in a community have a master key.  A chain of custody for these keys should be established.  A policy should be adopted on how to handle them.  (Some communities have controlled access safes in each emergency vehicle to establish accountability and a chain of custody for anyone that accesses the key.)  Depending on the type of policy developed, Culver may want to apply for a grant from the Marshall County Community Foundation (MCCF) to implement a program. (Thanks for the suggestion B3!)

I would also like to see a standard set for the location of the boxes.  The Knox Box company has a recommendation, but it should be established.  It does no good for the box and key to be there if emergency services have to search for it.  A second step forward here would be a program that initiates emergency plans for the buildings with Knox Boxes.  An emergency services walk-thru for each of these buildings, similar to what we have planned tonight, would help them if they ever had to enter that building in an actual emergency.

I plan to follow up tonight’s meeting with a discussion at the Town Council to get them thinking about implementing this policy.  I believe doing this by ordinance would be appropriate, but that would be up to the council to make that determination.