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An interstate closing nearly shut down a small town for six months. I-35 is now open near Pattonsburg and business is up but not back to normal. They`re still doing some work on the interstate but as far as the lanes there all open now.
Antique owner Patsy Cox hopes open lanes mean business as usual in pattonsburg.
Cox said, "When the roads opened, oh I was elated." Just six months ago construction on I-35 made it hard for travelers to get to Pattonsburg or even see it from the interstate.
Businesses in the town of less than 300 rely on tourists and travelers. Cox said, "It`s going to take awhile to get back on my feet like I was but I`m going to keep trying." Cox says business has picked up since lanes opened up but 80% of her business suffered for six months.
Kansas City-based Alternative Energy Sources Inc. said today it plans to construct a third ethanol plant, though it continues to seek construction financing for all of the facilities. Alternative Energy said it has taken an option on 100 acres at a business park in Greenville, Ill., which is 45 miles east of St. Louis. The site is served by the Illinois Western Railroad on tracks adjacent to the acreage. It also has easy access to the interstate highway system. Alternative Energy's announcement said construction on this third plant would begin within the next year, with the plant in operation in late 2008. Like two others the company announced, the Greenville plant would produce about 110 million gallons of ethanol a year. This is the third site on which Alternative Energy has acquired an option with plans to build an ethanol plant.
EDMONTON (CP) - A construction company received the highest penalty ever imposed in Alberta on Friday for a fatal accident involving the nephew of the company's directors. H & H Stucco and Siding Ltd. was fined $345,000 under the Health and Safety Act for failing to ensure the safety of the young man, who died after falling from a fourth-floor balcony. Alex Eisenkrein, 26, was passing materials to a co-worker at a condominium construction site in March 2003 when he fell about 10 metres onto the concrete below. Eisenkrein, who was the nephew of the company's directors, was blind in one eye. There was no guardrail on the balcony and Eisenkrein was not wearing any form of fall protection. Herman and Jeannie Eisenkrein stopped running the business, based in Beaumont, Alta., one week after their nephew's death.
(CBS) BLYTHE, Calif. Part of Highway 95 was closed Tuesday after a fatal accident involving a mobile home and a big rig, according to the California Highway Patrol. The three-vehicle accident occurred on the southbound Highway 95 outside Blythe at 8:40 a.m. Tuesday morning. The Riverside County Coroner's Office was called after reports of a deceased person that was "completely trapped" in one of the three vehicles involved, according to the CHP. The crash initially closed both the north and southbound lanes of Highway 95, according to the CHP. A SigAlert was issued after 9 a.m., indicating a "long term closure" of "one to two hours." Southbound traffic was rerouted through the Agnes Wilson Bridge to reconnect with the highway in Arizona, according to the CHP. Blythe CHP dispatchers could not immediately provide additional details.
A nonprofit organization that is paid by Sarasota County to provide affordable housing strategies will reportedly pursue the conversion of investor-owned local mobile home parks to resident ownership through a prestigious foundation. On Sept. 26, Community Housing Trust of Sarasota Chief Executive Officer Martina Guilfoil told the county commission she would contact the Ford Foundation and determine whether it would consider financing area buyouts to keep existing parks intact. "It (the foundation) has funds for conversions to cooperative ownership," she said. "I'd like a representative to visit Sarasota and show us how we could work on a pilot project. Hopefully, it could be done with Ford Foundation money, and as a last resort public money." The Ford Foundation was created in 1936 by Edsel and Henry Ford.
A CONTRACTOR has been found guilty of a catalogue of health and safety errors after a worker fell to his death. Warrington Crown Court heard David Moran, aged 31, had no demolition or construction qualifications for the cash-in hand job at Chesford Grange, Woolston, where he was killed in September 2002. He died after falling eight feet through a fragile roof he had been instructed to work on. .
HENDERSON, Nev. Henderson residents have until Thursday to submit written comments about proposed city regulations on blasting for residential development. It's the second time in less than a month a committee involving explosives contractors, developers, city officials and residents has asked for comments. Construction blasting to clear hillside sites for new homes has been blamed several times this year for damaging nearby buildings. The city has at times issued stop-work orders to blasts in the Lake Las Vegas area and at the Canyons development south of Horizon Ridge Parkway. One proposal would limit blasting to two hours on weekdays instead of any time from eight A-M to four P-M. Another would limit blasts to one-second in duration instead of up to three-seconds.
London's mayoral race enters the "crucial" final three weeks today with challenger Joe Fontana hoping to close ground on Mayor Anne Marie DeCicco-Best. Whether he will succeed is anybody's guess, although a leading local government expert remains skeptical. "Now is a critical time in a close race," Andrew Sancton, a professor at the University of Western Ontario, said yesterday. "But I just don't see any evidence (Joe) Fontana is making any headway." Earlier this month, a poll of 1,000 Londoners conducted by Acumen Research Group for The London Free Press and A-Channel suggested DeCicco-Best has a 20-point lead among decided voters. The poll, conducted Oct. 15 and 16, indicated DeCicco-Best has the support of 58 per cent of decided voters compared with 38 per cent for Fontana, the former London North Centre MP who resigned his seat to run for mayor.
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