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Looking Back In History, 11/20/13

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One year ago


Nov. 21, 2012

• For over four years, Central Arizona Raceway at the Pinal County Fairgrounds sat all too quiet on Friday and Saturday nights. But that is about to change. The speedway is holding its grand reopening this weekend, hosting about 100 racecars that will be fighting for first place from Nov. 23-25.  

• Rarely do governing board meetings for Coolidge Unified School District, a monthly time to discuss budget items, but this month Mountain Vista Principal Denise Taylor fought back tears when speaking about a student who had recently died of cancer. And she talked about how her students made that student feel special in their last days.

• Renovations begin on Highway 87 in an Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) project that was in cooperation with the Gila River Indian Community Department of Transportation, which will consist of repaving, widening and making intersection improvements to the highway.

10 years ago

Nov. 19, 2003

• The steaks were juicy and the service was excellent at the new high school culinary arts building last Wednesday where a joint district meeting was held. Governing boards from the Coolidge Unified School District and the Central Arizona Valley Institute of Technology (CAVIT) attended the meeting.

• This holiday season, as family members gathers at Eldon Woods’ home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, Woods will savor the joy of life and give thanks that he’s able to share this time with his family. This year had more than enough heartache for Woods. In the span of four months he attended four funerals.

• Natalie Bagnall was among the people demonstrating different home improvement and crafts ideas at the Community Expo at Coolidge Grain and Warehouse on Nov. 1. Among the demonstrations at the expo included landscaping, gemology, swine nutrition and other subjects. The plan is to continue to the expo every year.

30 years ago

Nov. 23, 1983

• Not only are the Coolidge Bears the top of Class A football team in Arizona, Coach Larry Delbridge was named Coach of the Year in the A-South polling of teams in the conference. Delbridge’s Bears beat Mohave 6-0 to take the championship Friday night, and Delbridge was announced as all-conference coach Saturday.

• The federation of libraries in Pinal County says they aren’t receiving the services they want from the county’s library and Thursday rejected a list of goals and objectives proposed by County Librarian Melvin Sappington. David Snyder, Casa Grande library director was a vocal critic of the library services.

• A new policy regarding the public display of affection by students on the Coolidge High School Campus was approved Nov. 17 at the Coolidge school board at their regular meeting. The policy states “The first time students are caught necking on campus” the students will be given a warning. If they are caught again, it will be a five-day suspension.

 

40 years ago

Nov. 22, 1973

• “At Wit’s End” an Arizona State University production featuring Coolidge High School graduate Sid Cotter is scheduled to appear on television today. Cotter, 21, is the son of Phil Cotter, formerly of Coolidge and the brother of Betty Jones, a Coolidge resident. Cotter is majoring in radio and television broadcasting at ASU.  

• Coolidge merchants will kick off the Christmas shopping season Friday with a parade and visit from Santa Claus with treats for the kiddies, and Santa will ride through the downtown area in the fire truck. Youngsters are invited to decorate their bikes and ride behind the truck and Santa.

• Coolidge concluded a frustrating season on a losing note, as the Bears locked horns with the Snowflake Lobos and fell to defeat, 26-15, Friday night in the northern city. Coolidge rushers were held to minimal yardage in the encounter. The Bears leading rusher was Wayne Johnson with 36 yards.

50 years ago

Nov. 20, 1963

• It is now unlawful to park or drive automobiles and trucks between curb lines and property lines.  A new ordinance, No. 40, governing parking, and also another new ordinance regulating shooting of fire arms within the city limits, were passed as emergency measure by the Mayor and City Council.

• The number “5” will be a talisman in this year’s annual Boy Scout finance drive, hopes Brad Sizer, Jr., in charge of the 1953 campaign to kick off November 30. The drive will last only 24 hours, with reports and monies due the next day. Each canvasser will be responsible for contacting five persons for monetary gifts.

• The second bridge tournament at the Hohokam Country Club was held Wednesday night. Mrs. A. L. Nowell of Coolidge and Mrs. Twain Clemans of Florence are tournament chairmen. Winning couples were Mrs. Dalton Cole and Mrs. Nowell. In second place was the team of Mr. Twain Clemans and John Zellweger.  

60 years ago

Nov. 21, 1953

• Dr. J. T. O’Neil of Casa Grande, member of the Pinal County Junior College Board, spoke on behalf of the proposed college where he appeared as guest speaker at last week’s dinner meeting of the Coolidge Lions Club. Dr. O’Neil urged members to get out and vote in the county elections.

• October 21, 1963, is an important date in the life of Eid Sweis, Coolidge High School mathematics and physics teacher, and one he is not likely soon to forget. That was the day Mr. Sweis, together with about 30 other persons from various parts of the world was sworn in as a United States of America citizen.

• Coolidge square dancers who attended the first Pinal County Square Dance Festival in Casa Grande Nov. 15-17, report it was a whopping success. About 100 Coolidge dancers, including two callers, attended the festival at the Francisco Grande. A highlight of the evening was a performance by an Indian dance group from St. Johns.

Green Landscaping: The Most Innovative &; Healthy Thought to Keep the … – Your

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Going green landscaping is a single term used to describe different ways which landscaping is being evolved to meet different needs of the future. Now most of the people have knowledge that going green refers to make the environmentally pleasant by using organic products and creating less amount of wastage. They do not manufacture any products or they do not consume any materials for their projects.

There are a wide range of techniques available. Many of them have a lot to do with the actual landscaping as the overall idea being done is to apply the eco-friendly methods and consume more and more green materials which means using more recyclable materials, more efficient construction methods, and last, more economical designs.

Traditionally, landscaping may be an aesthetically pleasing, but it may also lead to many harmful effects on the environment that many of the homeowners may not even realize. With the adoption of the latest techniques and by adopting Eco-conscious practices one can easily help to eliminate such negative results. Green landscaping requires the extended use of knowledge and mechanical equipments, the limited consumption of natural resources, production of the solid waste and lessen the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers.

While planning for landscaping, always takes to think about lifestyle and the time require maintaining it. Most of the people do not have the enough time from their busy work schedule to replant each spring, while others do not want to mess with replanting. It is sure that not all of us are avid gardeners and it is usually suggestible to go for a green landscaping as because it is pretty and nice idea to change the look and view of the outdoor space from time to time.

There are various components which will help with green landscaping like natural fertilizers or compost, native plants, mulch and even the ornamental grasses. To implement such ideas and thoughts, consulting with a landscape specialist for the best result of that particular area is usually an excellent idea. Most of the landscapers will be really happy to talk about various plans even going to do the work. They can assist in locating plants and other materials which are well in that particular area which also provide a beautiful outdoor setting.

One of the leading landscape designers”Garden Deva” brings the most innovative and creative ideas and thoughts for your landscape with the team of experienced professionals. They create the most beautiful and safer place for all the children to play and for your perfect morning and evening work.

To know more information related to their different services for an edible gardens, call them on the helpline no 0423 385 568. For further details, please visit the following link: http://gardendeva.com.au/

Hudson gardening business breaks ground on expansion – Hudson Hub

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Hudson — At the end of Georgetown Road in southern Hudson will be the new office for KGK Gardening Design Corp.

Ken and Joyce Kuryla with their son, Derek, along with the KGK work crew and city officials broke ground on the new office space Nov. 8.

The main floor will be 1,117 square feet and the basement an additional 1,107 square feet. A future assembly center is planned with 1,116 square feet for meetings, weddings and special events, Ken said.

“We’ve outgrown the [current] office,” Ken said.

There will be no retail in the new office, and the garden art shop, “About Gardens” at 219 N. Main Street will close before the new facility opens, Joyce said.

KGK Gardening and Design plan to finish the building early spring of 2014, Joyce said. The building and assembly center are on 19 acres.

Derek said the assembly hall will have a rustic barn look with plenty of landscaping for enjoyment and photo opportunities.

KGK Gardening and Design employs 50 crew members during the summer and 15 during the winter, Ken said.

Mayor William Currin said the business was started 29 years ago and has been an asset to Hudson.

Economic Development Director Chuck Wiedie said KGK has been a landmark in the city for a long time.

“I think the company that’s been grown in Hudson and expanding here in the spring is great,” Wiedie said.

Council member Alex Kelemen said the company fills a need in Hudson and the location, which had to be rezoned from suburban residential neighborhood to industrial/business park earlier this year, creates an unusual use in an industrial area.

Council member Dan Williams said it’s great to see a local person succeed.

“He grew up here,” Williams said. “This is the type of development we like to encourage. It’s nice use of the property.”

Ken thanked his staff who were present for the ground breaking and the city of Hudson.

“I’m proud to call Hudson home,” Ken said. “Hudson is great, and we intend to make it better.”

Email: lfreeman@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-541-9434

Facebook: Laura Freeman, Record Publishing

Twitter: @LauraFreeman_RP

US architects work on a Qing dynasty garden in the heart of Washington

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If all goes according to plan, in a few years’ time a part of urban Washington will resemble a sprawling Qing dynasty classical garden, complete with pavilions, lakes and ponds, ornate bridges and Chinese fauna.

The ambitious project, a collaboration between China and the US, is finally kicking into gear as money is being raised to break ground, and design and architectural plans are being finalised.

At the top of the agenda – ensuring the almost five-hectare National China Garden will retain the authentic look and feel of an archetypal Chinese garden, the odds of which are pretty good given that it is being modelled on the Geyuan and Heyuan gardens in Yangzhou, a city in Jiangsu known for its classical gardens.

The garden complex will be built within the US National Arboretum, a 180-hectare haven for nature buffs that includes a national agricultural research and educational facility and a living museum.

The project is being pitched as a “cultural bridge” between China and the United States, says Sandra Gibson, executive director of the National China Garden Foundation in Washington.

“If you think about the concept of a garden in Chinese culture, it’s about much more than going outdoors and watering a few plants and flowers,” she says. “It’s a much more robust concept than that. It should be a place for beauty, equanimity and shared interests, for the long term.”

To that end, the foundation brought in international architecture firm Page Southerland Page, which outside the US has offices in the Middle East and London, and has been involved in designing US embassy compounds in countries as far flung as Madagascar and Rwanda.

Thomas McCarthy, a principal at the company, is working with partners in China to ensure the authenticity of the environment, including an adherence to the principles of fung shui and placing various structures relative to the wind, water and mountains.

“The work is predicated around the essential recreation of a classical Chinese garden and embodying those fung shui principles that are already encompassed within a Chinese garden,” he says.

Geyuan Garden is known for the use of bamboo and rocks as its principal elements, with the rockeries representing different seasons. The Washington gardens will also be inspired by the Heyuan Garden, which is known for its winding pathways and corridors and Western architectural flourishes, as well as halls, pavilions and green landscapes speckled with vivid flowers.

“There are very specific portions of these gardens that are being replicated,” McCarthy says, adding that this extended to water features like the famed narrow lake that meanders through Yangzhou and the equally well-known White Pagoda, a city landmark. Pavilions, terraces and bamboo gardens will all be diligently recreated at the National China Garden.

Although the land was donated by the US Congress, China will be supplying labour for the landscaping, rockeries, lighting fixtures, art objects and furnishings. Gibson says that China will also provide the materials for 22 structures on the site – buildings designed in keeping with Chinese traditional architecture and where calligraphy classes will be held, classical music will be performed, and photography and artworks will be exhibited. There will also be two teahouses, one overlooking the lake.

Because of the National Arboretum’s vast collection of plants, trees and flowers – including an Asian collection – the flora and fauna for the National Garden will come from its own mix, including bamboo, maple and pine.

“The goal is to make the landscape as close as possible to that in Chinese gardens, and we can use the stock of Chinese ornamentals that has been cared for at the arboretum,” McCarthy says.

The China Garden project was first initiated almost a decade ago in an agreement between the US Department of Agriculture and the State Forestry Administration of China, Gibson says. But a number of factors – primarily economic – caused things to stall.

In 2008, a new US farm bill allowed for private fund-raising and provided the almost five-hectare undeveloped parcel of land at the arboretum. A few years later, China’s former ambassador to the US, Zhang Yesui, and American agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack moved things forward by signing a new memorandum of understanding. The US$60 million project will now be funded in its entirety through corporations and individuals.

From a design perspective, McCarthy says that the goal is to offer a “synthesis of Eastern and Western concepts of how to shape space”.

“Classical Chinese garden design provides the opportunity for contemplation of mankind’s relationship to nature and the strength and perspective that insight offers,” he says.

“The thing that excites me the most is the interaction of the landscapes and the buildings. The rocks and the rockeries are going to be absolutely spectacular, and if you consider rocks as embodiments of mountains, and combine that with pavilions and other structures in that interaction with nature, it can be really profound.”

Permaculture’s Artistic Side

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Garden design with water features

Photo by Karla Akins
Garden design with water features 

Look at your yard (or your lack, thereof). Is it producing as much as you want it to? Are you growing all the flowers, food and herbs as you’d like? Is it a pretty space? If you live in an apartment, do you feel like you have absolutely no space in which to grow plants, compost or catch rain water? Some of you probably feel like you have nothing to work with.

No matter your homestead reality, permaculture can help you move closer to the space of your dreams. Permaculture is a design system that mimics nature in a way that is aesthetically pleasing while also functional, productive, and sustainable.

Permaculture pond

Photo from transitiontownsca.org
The natural beauty of a space transformed by permaculture

To find out more about the connections between art and permaculture, we talked to art director and permaculture designer, John Bushe’.  John works with permaculture in multiple ways. He applies permaculture to homes and land, and he also uses permaculture principles to design and grow businesses and municipalities in the U.S. and Latin America.

Artist and permaculture designer John Bushe

Photo provided by John Bush
Artist and permaculture designer John Bushe at Enchanted Rock

Hi, John. Please tell us your view of the role of art in permaculture.  

Permaculture itself is  an ecological design system that is replacing our current failing agricultural system.  You can apply its principles to a garden, a business, your life or even art.

Permaculture’s a functional way to organize chaos.  Whether I’m designing a landscape or a website, aesthetics should be a huge part of that design. We want our environments to look and feel good, right?

If you go to school and learn art, you gain skills but you don’t learn the ecological side and don’t necessarily learn to make art that’s functional, that serves a purpose beyond aesthetics. If you go into a museum, you’re not going to come out of there with food or drinks; you get entertainment.   Now if Michelangelo had turned the David into an atmospheric generator (collects water from the air) that would be something, wouldn’t it?  That is possible now.

Permaculture creates resources like food while serving an artistic purpose in the home and yard.  Of course, some permaculture designers are better gardeners and not as good on the aesthetics of the design. If you hire a permaculture designer, you’ll want to find out if their strengths match up with your needs.

I studied art direction in college and art and design in high school, and no one ever talked about the relationship between art and nature. If you like art and nature, permaculture is an excellent way to work with both.

There are specific artistic design patterns  associated with permaculture – like the spiral – but really, the whole system is an artistic application of common sense design ideas that are right in front of our noses. I live in an urban condo with a tiny back porch. It’s so small and intricate, but I’ve had a blast designing it for maximum food, flower and herb production.  It is a much different system design for this small space compared to what we do on large pieces of land.   Soon, we’ll have tilapia back there. This project is important to me because I want to show people that they can do a lot with very little space.


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Do you have a specialty inside of permaculture?

I like to say I  specialize in “resourcery.”  For years, I’ve acted as a catalyst for businesses, cities and individuals to transform over to the resource economy. “Don’t throw away waste; find new ways to use it.” That’s zero waste philosophy, the most powerful goal in the universe, in my opinion.

Now we’re learning to see things that weren’t there before with different eyes. Artists are so good at this. That’s why upcycling has become such a huge movement over the last few years.

Ultimately, bringing ecology into art and design takes the conversation from scarcity to abundance. In the past, artists have had to go to stores and buy paint brushes, paint, canvases, etc. The zero waste conversation turns everything into a potential art supply. Everything is a potential canvas. You can produce food, water, entertainment, beauty and abundance by applying the zero waste-permaculture philosophy.

You can go to a landfill and find materials to make art, an epic building, and probably even a 3D printer! With food waste, you make compost that helps you build fertility in the soil to grow food, etc. You can help end hunger by teaching people about making compost out of food waste, saving seeds from local organic produce, and then planting them. When you have way too many seeds for your own household, you get to start sharing them with others. Zero waste solves everything, and it is just one of 12 permaculture principles!

It’s interesting because this is all really just forgotten knowledge. We go visit Mayan ruins and marvel at the art and design, but we don’t apply that knowledge. The Maya caught rainwater in big vessels called chultunes. The Aztecs built chinampas to make use of the best soil from the bottom of riverbeds in their gardens. Permaculture helps us to remember these kinds of common sense design ideas.

Aztecs building chinampas

Image from mrmoyer.pbworks.com
Illustration of Aztecs building chinampas

Do you have a specific example of landfill waste that artists can use for supplies?

Pretty much anything and everything can be turned into art supplies and resources. I have a disassembled blender at home. I can use the wire wrapped around the motor to make a sculpture. The plastic can become ink for a 3D printer. There’s copper in there, and steel, too. There’s e-waste in there that can be used to build a cell phone If you’re interested in building something like a phone, you can just look up directions online.

So, when I’m creating permaculture designs and thinking of ways to make a space look kick ass while also producing a big yield, I look around the community. Cheap or free resources are usually just sitting there waiting to be used.

Upcycled materials make a container garden

Photo by Brian Patrick Flynn
Upcycled materials make a container garden

Permaculture’s a beautiful animal. I truly believe that, by applying permaculture principles in conjunction with the goal of zero waste, we have the key to heaven on earth.

***

To contact John with questions about your space or to find out how to become a permaculture designer, write him at jbush@adbongo.com.

What do you think of permaculture’s potential to change the world? Please tell us in the comments section below!

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Beautiful Garden winner Alice Menge’s tips

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    Tips from Alice Menge:

    • For spring, think small: “I love spring bulbs, but planting them under a large maple with a root system like a loofah is not a task I want to do each year. So I rely on Siberian squill, crocus and very early narcissus that will bloom before the maple fully leafs out.”

    • Cut and mate: “If I’m looking for plants to fill a specific spot, I’ll sometimes take along cuttings or blossoms from neighboring plants so that I can see how the textures or blossom color will work with the new plants I purchase.”

    • It’s not the heat, it’s … : “It seems to me that our climate has become more humid, and some plants that did well in my garden a decade or two ago no longer work. So I took out a dwarf blue spruce and Winnipeg Parks shrub rose because they don’t do well in high humidity.”

    • Stay in your zone: “I like the Black Beauty elderberry because it gives me the texture of a Japanese maple without the concerns for hardiness.”

    • Try alternatives to mulch in shady spaces: “Mulch doesn’t work well in the shade garden because it harbors slugs, and we have an overabundance of earthworms in that section that ingest the mulch almost as fast as I put it down. So I under-plant the hostas and shrubs with moneywort and violets.”

    Bill ward

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    Dover Prince’s Trust team shortlisted for award

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    Young people from Dover who have turned their lives around with help from The Prince’s Trust will find out this week whether they have won an award.

    The group, which has been nominated for an award at the youth charity’s annual ceremony which takes place this Thursday, worked on a community project in a disadvantaged area of Dover.

    Members of the Prince's Trust team in Dover who are up for an award.

    The group is one of three from across London and the south east shortlisted for the Morgan Stanley Community Impact Award at the Prince’s Trust and Samsung Celebrate Success Awards which take place at the Emirates Stadium and will be hosted by Kiss FM DJs Neev and AJ.

    Idris Elba, who has previously presented an award at the ceremony’s national final, said: “The Celebrate Success awards show that with the right support – through organisations like The Prince’s Trust – it is possible to achieve your dreams. I am living proof of that.

    “I left school at 16 with dreams of attending the National Youth Music Theatre but was disheartened when I realised how much it would cost. The Prince’s Trust gave me a £1,500 grant and, in doing that, they set me on the path that would eventually change my life.”

    When 16 unemployed young people, all facing their own life barriers, began brainstorming ideas for a community project, they collectively decided to create something that would appeal to people of all ages.

    They succeeded as the work they did will enhance the lives of residents in the St Radigund’s area of Dover for years to come.

    Taking part in Team, a Prince’s Trust programme that gives unemployed young people the skills and confidence needed to move into work, they were determined to make a positive impact on their community and set about redeveloping the outdoor space at Triangles Community Centre at Poulton Close.

    Carefully planning their week to ensure all their tasks were completed, the group fund-raised for materials, sourcing donated items wherever they could.

    The Team repainted the community centre’s outdoor shipping containers, branding them smartly with the logo. They added interactive games such as a word search, noughts and crosses and snakes and ladders to encourage children to use the space in a positive way. And they cut the grass back for families to use for picnicking and playing games.

    Making full use of a Team member’s previous experience in landscaping, they also overhauled the centre’s front garden, planting new plants, painting a fence and reinforcing and weatherproofing the benches, hoping to encourage more senior members of the community to enjoy the space.

    Once that was complete, they focused their energies on the patio area, designing and installing an imaginative sensory garden. They re-laid the paving stones to include a hopscotch pattern and added birdfeeders and wind chimes.

     

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    McMillan plans show expansive new recreation spaces

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    Public Spaces

    McMillan plans show expansive new recreation spaces

    by Aimee Custis   •   November 18, 2013 11:46 am

    Opponents to redeveloping the McMillan Sand Filtration Site often say it’ll result in a loss of recreation and park space. But a recent video of the proposed plan by development team Vision McMillan Partners shows a compelling vision of a site with a large park and recreational component.

    The newest plan, which the Historic Preservation Review Board called “very tangible and commendable” earlier this month, consolidates the site’s green space, and ensures it’s available to the whole neighborhood, rather than as piecemeal private yards.

    While the fight to get redevelopment moving at the 25-acre site is far from over, winning HPRB approval is one more major hurdle cleared in bringing a 6-acre public park with pool and rec center, dedicated new affordable housing, and rowhouses and apartments to the long-shuttered site.

    Aimee Custis is the Communications Manager at the Coalition for Smarter Growth. A policy wonk by training and a transit advocate by profession, she moved to DC in 2008 to learn everything she could about walkable communities and public policy. Also a photographer, she photoblogs at aimeecustis.com. 

    Their name on ice! Billionaire family buys naming rights for Prospect Park …

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    We guess LeFrak-side just did not have the same ring to it.

    The LeFraks, a family of heirs to a real estate fortune worth billions, have given Prospect Park’s long-awaited ice skating mega-plex, formerly the Lakeside Center, a cash infusion of $10-million on the eve of its opening and, as a result, will get their parents’ names plastered across the facility. It is unclear just how the money will be used, but park administrators say that it is bound to last a good long time.

    “The generous LeFrak gift will help ensure the building remains a citywide attraction for the next 100 years,” said Farrell Sklerov, spokesman for the Prospect Park Alliance.

    The rec complex is set to open in December as the Samuel J. and Ethel LeFrak Center, named after the late parents of real estate and oil tycoon Richard LeFrak and his three sisters, who Forbes ranks as the 74th-richest Americans. The gift comes at a time when all of the $78-million budget for building the park addition has been secured, but the managers of Brooklyn’s backyard say they have some ideas about what to do with the extra bundle.

    Sprucing up the entrance road and maintaining the surrounding areas are among the projects being considered, Sklerov said.

    The long-awaited pond project will take up an area the size of 20 football fields and will boast indoor and outdoor ice skating in the winter, roller skating in the summer, a huge water fountain, and year-round educational programs. The only work left to do before the grand opening is additional planting and landscaping, Sklerov said.

    Samuel LeFrak grew up in Brooklyn the grandson of a real estate developer and attended Erasmus Hall High School in Flatbush. His family’s company made its fortune building middle- and working-class housing en masse, erecting some 200,000 houses and apartments in the New York metro area over the course of the 20th century. Today, his son Richard LeFrak heads the family real estate company, the LeFrak Organization, which owns 2,500 apartments in Brooklyn alone, a spokesman for the family said.

    “Our family is proud to honor, through this gift, the memory of our parents, who would have surely embraced this magnificent Prospect Park redevelopment project that will bring so much joy and happiness to the people of Brooklyn,” Denise LeFrak said in a statement.

    The LeFraks’ names are already stamped on a theater at Queens College, and a 4,600-unit development in Queens called LeFrak City, famously home to street rap pioneer Kool G Rap.

    ©2013 Community Newspaper Group

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