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A state emergency management committee says hundreds are still in need seven months after the floods of last mother's day weekend. Some lawmakers are now calling on the state to step in with funding. In the meantime, a fundraiser is set for next week to helps defray estimated needs of about 2 million dollars. New Hampshire Public Radio's Josh Rogers has more. .
The sound of cinder blocks hitting the dirt is music to Roslyn Robinson's ears. The Johnson City woman spent her entire life dreaming of the day she'd own her own home. It was a struggle, but her dream is now her reality. "This is awesome," Robinson said. "This is more than I could ever want or hope for." Robinson sheds tears of joy as crews deliver and assemble her new three-bedroom home. She originally bought a home through Mountain Villa Homes, formerly of Kingsport, more than a year ago, but she says the company took her money and ran. She claimed despite buying a modular home from Mountain Villa more than a year ago and paying a monthly mortgage on it, the company never delivered her home. Robinson brought her concerns to us. Just months after we aired her story, Mountain Villa settled.
Franklin School Board member Patricia Moore was named chairman of the Venango Technology Center's Joint Committee at its reorganization meeting Tuesday. Kathy Karl of the Oil City School Board was elected vice-chairman, and Dwight Proper of the Titusville School Board was elected treasurer. All of the votes were unanimous. Moore replaced Forest Area School Board member John Mehalic at the head of the table. The committee also unanimously agreed to retain Joseph J. Liotta III as its solicitor and to pay him a retainer of $135 a month. It was the first meeting for Franklin school district Superintendent Ronald Paranick, who will serve a one-year term as the center's chief school administrator. He takes over from Forest Area Superintendent Duane Vicini, who served in the post for the past year.
Real estate developer Gordon Group Holdings LLC, design firm Studio V Partners and other collaborators expect to launch a concept they say is an alternative to department stores within a year. At Trex, a retail trade show in New York on Thursday, architect Jay Valgora, who founded Studio V in New York, said the concept, called "Epicenter," combines bricks and mortar, Internet and catalog retail services. "Epicenters draw on high tech and low tech," Valgora said. They are meant to inhabit spaces in malls left vacant as traditional department stores increasingly close and consolidate. Spaces will offer customizable modular pods to a variety of retailers with shorter leases than traditional mall stores. Consumers will receive an electronic device to browse with. When they go into a store, they can scan products to purchase the items and have them shipped directly to their homes.
Australia's warships should built on home soil even if it costs more, a Senate committee has recommended. In its report on Australia's naval shipbuilding sector, the Senate foreign affairs defence and trade committee acknowledged that building locally may come at a cost premium. .
For most families, buying a home is the most expensive purchase they will ever make. Manufactured or modular homes may be their most affordable option.
“Manufactured homes have come a long way from 10-by-50 foot boxes," said Ron Pleus, director of the state's Manufactured Housing and Modular Units program.New ones cost between $25,000 and $100,000 and can include all the amenities typically found in conventional residential housing.Pleus's program is charged with regulating the 172 manufacturers and 279 dealers selling manufactured and modular homes in Missouri.Two basic housing types are regulated: homes built according to national Housing and Urban Development (HUD) standards and homes built to residential standards developed by the state's Public Service Commission (PSC).The first have steel frames and are moveable, even if in sections; the second are attached to permanent foundations.(Mobile homes are not regulated by Pleus's program.)With visits to dealer lots and on-site inspections, Pleus's regulatory staff works to ensure that consumers get a fair deal.“We freely inspect all homes consumers request us to," he said.
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