|
Five large strides to ease the local housing dilemma were taken at Safford's regular council meeting Monday night, and within weeks, residents should see the first shovelfuls of dirt being turned for various developments.The developer of one of the larger planned subdivisions, which was also the topic of the hottest discussion, asked for a rezoning from single family dwellings with a minimum lot size of 10,000 feet to single family with a minimum lot size of 6,000 feet. This development, the Greenberg II Subdivision, is located west of 20th Avenue and 18th Street in Safford and north of Golf Course Road. The subdivision will have about 140 homes, and one of the main points of access to the property is land that abuts 18th Street.Chuck Greenberg, owner of the property, said he realized when he bought his property that access through 18th Street would a fundamental issue, but according to his deed he has physical and legal access to his property from that street."From that moment, we never stopped trying to come up with a solution," he said.One of the problems the developer is facing is finding an alternate access road for the subdivision.
JOHN Bolton, the US ambassador to the United Nations will leave his job within days, the White House announced yesterday, as the Bush administration conceded that it could not keep its man in the powerful position in the teeth of Democrat Senate opposition. Mr Bolton's attempt to hang on to his job, already tenuous, became even more problematic after Democrats who had blocked his nomination won control of the Senate in November elections. .
Mississippi will receive more than half of the money available for housing projects to develop alternatives to Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers, FEMA announced Friday. The state landed two of the five projects - totaling more than $280 million - through the Alternative Housing Pilot Program. "This is a giant step forward for Mississippi's recovery and rebuilding effort," said Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss. "It hastens the day when daily FEMA trailer and camp-style living will be just a distant memory to those who've coped with Hurricane Katrina's lingering effect for 14 agonizing months." Congress set aside $400 million in the Emergency Appropriations Act for the alternative housing program. Five states - Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Florida and Alabama - were eligible to apply for funding between September and October.
Vincent Cortez Brown, who left the 2005 mayoral race amid revelations that he tried to cover his past as a convicted felon, is wanted by police again. Durham police started looking for Brown on Sept. 28, when a warrant was issued for his arrest on charges he defrauded a man of nearly $30,000. They have yet to find him and are seeking the public's help. Brown, 46, who claimed in his campaign to be a lay Baptist minister and a former Navy SEAL, allegedly was paid for architectural work he never performed. CAMP LEJEUNE Marine who wrote to schoolchildren killed A Camp Lejeune Marine who had once been pen pals with students at his old elementary school, writing them from Iraq, was killed Tuesday on his second tour of duty there.
Fleetwood Enterprises Inc., a maker of RVs and manufactured homes, on Thursday posted a wider fiscal second-quarter loss as sluggish demand for housing and trailers hurt results. Quarterly losses deepened to $20.4 million, or 32 cents per share, versus $1.9 million, or 3 cents per share, in the prior year. Weaker demand for RVs and manufactured houses drove sales down 16 percent in the quarter, to $526.6 million from $629.5 million a year ago. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial forecast a loss of 32 cents per share on sales of $526.9 million. A year ago, demand for Fleetwood's products surged in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, while this year's hurricane season was relatively quiet. "Approximately $60 million of the sales decline reflected an atypical comparison with the prior year, when we provided emergency living units from both the housing group and the travel trailer division for disaster relief in the Gulf Coast area," said Elden L.
December is when publications like to forecast upcoming trends for the new year. Mark Nash, author of a number of books on real estate, has come up with some good ones, based on a survey of more than 900 industry professionals. Here's some of the features homeowners should be looking to put in their dwellings in 2007: Upscale garages. "It's no longer the out-of-sight-out-of-mind dumping ground. Today's garage owners want them decked out with cabinet and storage systems, mini-refrigerators, insulation, heating and air conditioning and durable but residential-looking flooring." Man caves and Mom caves. "Personal dedicated space for one person in a household where they can go and work on projects or chill without being disturbed." Two home offices.
|
