Things at Long Beach City College are looking better. That’s the good news.

The passage of Proposition 30 has helped, LBCC Superintendent-President Eloy Oakley said.

“We’re able to get additional funding for student support services,” he said. 

“This is all good news. In addition, because the changes we made the last several years in reaction to the budget difficulties, we’re now able to put those cuts behind us and allocate money to the greatest needs of our students. But it will take us quite a while to climb out of that hole.”

At the end of last school year, there was not good news. The LBCC Board of Trustees voted to cut 11 instructional programs from the curriculum. This caused then-student trustee Jason Troia to lead a recall effort that has not come to full fruition — although his group recently announced it was pressing forward.

“Those programs were discontinued after the board took the action at the end of the spring semester,” Oakley said. “We are now taking those funds allocated and putting them into new programs.”

For example, he added, there will be a new cyber security program of study, which should filter into a new and burgeoning workforce — particularly at the Port of Long Beach.

“You’ll see those changes this fall and particularly over the next year, and you’ll see us talking more and more,” Oakley said. “I don’t foresee any major bad news this year in terms of budget outlook. There is still risk in our budget, but that is much smaller than previous years.”

A point of emphasis moving into the 2013/2014 academic year for LBCC officials will be the Promise Pathways initiative. The program concentrates on placing incoming students into the right math and English classes — using their high school achievement and transcripts more, rather than the standard assessment test.

“Many did not know they had to take it, weren’t prepared to take it, or it didn’t capture the experience they had (from high school),” Oakley said.

For the LBCC as a whole, officials said they wanted this to be a year of celebration — with education initiatives and infrastructure progress.

“We’re going to be doing a lot of celebrating at the college and talking about what the staff has accomplished,” Oakley said.

There will be major landscaping and signage changes at both campuses, along with a new Culinary Arts and Math facility at the Liberal Arts Campus. Taking a cue from the governor’s request of higher education, Oakley said online education and technology development would be a must. An example: degree audit software will be launched to track classes and work toward degrees.

“We’re gong to make greater use of technology going into the future,” he added. “We want to help our students learn wherever they are.”

In the next two to three years, about 30-35 new faculty could be hired, which he said would add fresh ideas onto the campuses. Overall, the outlook must be better.

“It was certainly a difficult year as a culmination of four difficult years,” Oakley said. “The board had to make many difficult decisions. They were very hard decisions, certainly for me personally and for the board. We care deeply about all of our students.

“I think sometimes in Long Beach we do lose sight of how much work we have done, though, through our partnerships — we are an envy in the nation.”

For more information about Long Beach City College, visit www.lbcc.edu.

Jonathan Van Dyke can be reached at jvandyke@gazettes.com.

Back garden plan for Freefolk thatched cottages

9:00am Thursday 8th August 2013 in News

Manor Farm Cottages in Freefolk

AMAZING thatch, shame about the back gardens.

That was the feeling of many people who live under the longest span of residential thatch in the UK – Manor Farm Cottages, in Freefolk.

Now Sovereign Housing Association, which owns the properties, has pledged to put up £100,000 to improve the 18 back gardens.

Anna Thornton, Sovereign’s housing officer for Freefolk, has been discussing ideas with residents since last October.

She said: “We invited one of our landscape gardeners to work with them, and he was able to produce computer-generated designs to show them how the area could look”.

Further discussions have covered materials and layouts.

The gardens, which have not been much more than yards, will now be revamped with a combination of gravel, grass and patio area with the possibility of some box hedging and additional garden borders.

Landscaping work, which will take approximately six weeks to complete, will begin towards the end of the summer.

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One of eight homes on the tour. Photo by Sue Misao

By Ann McCreary

Eclectic, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, means “selecting what appears to be best in various doctrines, methods, or styles.”

That’s just what organizers of the Methow Valley Home Tour have done this year in choosing eight homes with very different styles that offer “creativity inside and out,” said Barbara Newman.

Called “Eclectic Methow,” this Saturday’s (Aug. 10) tour features a home that incorporates recycled and found materials, an elegant remodeled home with a European style interior, and a contemporary home with simple, geometric lines.

“I think people are going to like the home tour this year because it will give them ideas they can personally use,” said Newman, who helped organize the tour.

Two homes belong to artists, “using things for decorating that you just wouldn’t expect,” Newman said.

Creative features in the kitchen. Photo by Sue Misao

One of those homes belongs to Tamra Jennings, a painter who moved to the Methow Valley two years ago with a piece of paper on which she had drawn a floor plan. She built a house in Twisp on the Methow River, creating unique furniture, décor and outdoor art from items most people would haul to the dump.

Her dining room table is made from the round top of a telephone line spool, mounted on a metal barrel. She finished the wooden top of the spool with an elegant, gold-hued paint. Her TV sits in a wall-mounted console she made from discarded fence boards that she reclaimed and refinished.

The counter and cupboards in her bathroom are made from an old apple crate. She covered the top with torn up grocery bags that she glued to the surface, painted and sealed. She built end tables, headboards and other pieces of furniture out of scrap wood.

“The idea is to take what somebody already has and make it into something else,” said Jennings, who had never made furniture  before building her house. “I’m just about finished with the house, and I don’t want to stop!”

Among the other stops on the tour, a hillside home in Pine Forest provides “a modest living space transformed into a viewing platform,” and incorporates cost-effective building materials, Newman said. “It shows that you don’t have to have a lot of money to have a very cool looking structure.”

A remodeled Wolf Creek home has an “Old World interior” reminiscent of Italy and extensive use of recycled building materials, Newman said. Another home has an interior rock-climbing wall.

Three homes have beautiful gardens, including one close to downtown Twisp that creates “a little oasis” in an urban neighborhood, Newman said.

The tour provides ideas for landscaping, building a new home or remodeling an existing house, Newman said. “It’s a lot of people’s creativity.”

The tour takes place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are available at Confluence Gallery and Art Center for $25 apiece or $20 for four. Tickets may also be purchased at the Mazama Store on the day of the tour.

Confluence Gallery is also featuring an “Inside-Out” art exhibit at the gallery to further assist with home projects.

For more information or reservations call Confluence Gallery and Art Center, 997-2787.

Consensus building and compromise
both for commercial
filming and the future
of the Northwest Quadrant of the Village’s downtown was the major outgrowth
of today’s meeting of the Village Board of Trustees.

Mayor Harriet Rosenthal and the
Trustees listened to strong opinions from residents on both issues and
discussed key points among themselves before asking Village staff to refine
regulations on commercial filming and the Plan Commission to further develop ideas
for the northwest part of Deerfield’s downtown.

Balance Sought
on Commercial Filming Regulations

After
tabling a proposed ordinance on commercial filming July 15, the Board
discussed the divergent needs of different groups of citizens and asked Andrew
Lichterman, the assistant to the Village Manager, to have the final version of
the law reflect that.

“We need to understand in what cases
there needs to be a limit. If it does not cause a disruption, it’s not a
problem,” Rosenthal said. “We have some consensus on (length of) notice (to
neighbors) and hours.” Filming would have the same time restrictions a
contruction.

There is a wider variation of
opinion on the number of times residents can have filming on their property and
how many days the project can last. The ordinance as it stands limits a person
to no more than two four-day shoots a year.

Village Manager Kent Street promised
some variety for the Board to consider. “We’ll come up with different ways to
look at it,” he said. He expects an ordinance to be ready for a vote in
September.

Plan Commission
to Consider Northwest Quadrant

After 18 months of study with
consultants and stakeholders in the area bounded by Waukegan Road on the east,
Deerfield Road on the south, Hazel Avenue on the north and the railroad tracks
on the west—the Northwest Quadrant of downtown—the Board asked the Plan
Commission to further hone the project.

The current proposal calls for extensive
landscaping in the parking lots around Village Hall, the First Presbyterian
Church and the Jewett Park Community Center which will reduce parking spaces
and automobile access through those lots.

In its current state, the plan drew
objections from representatives of the church and Chuck Malk, the owner and
developer of Deerfield Square.

“This arrangement will not be
accepted by the church,” Ray Craig, a member of both the church and Northwest
Quadrant Task Force said. “Elements of the plan should be pared down.” Malk
wants more retail development in the area.

Changes from the Plan Commission are
expected. “It’s going to the Plan Commission for a lot more discussion and
compromise,” Trustee Robert Benton said.

BYOB Gets Closer

A proposal to allow diners to bring
their own wine to Deerfield restaurants got its first reading today. The Board
plans a vote on the ordinance August 19.

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August 6, 2013

Government leaders in Charlottesville and Albemarle County are looking for ideas to increase cooperation among the various agencies that serve the homeless population.

The city has placed a request for proposal on its web site, asking for ideas. City leaders say, the winning idea could get up to $65,000 of funding.

Marco Brown says he has been homeless for several years. He spent Tuesday afternoon asking for money on Hydraulic Road.

“I had it all at one time,” Brown said. “I looked down on the homeless, but now I’m homeless myself.”

Brown says he became homeless after he was released from prison. As a convicted felon he found it impossible to find a job.

“I didn’t realize the consequences,” Brown said. “It’s very hurtful. My pride is more hurt than anything.”

Brown says standing on the side of the street begging for money usually brings him about $30 a day. Sometimes, he makes enough money to share a motel room with another homeless person. On days when he doesn’t get that much money, he says he sleeps “underneath bridges or just hide out in the woods.”

Brown says he would prefer to sleep in the Salvation Army shelter, but it’s always full.

Shelter director Ben Houchens confirms that.

“Probably twenty or thirty people are calling everyday to check on openings,” Houchens said. The shelter has 58 beds, but Houchens estimates there are up to 400 homeless people in the city.

Houchens is a big advocate for more collaboration, to get the Salvation Army working more closely with other agencies to solve this problem.

“There’s so many resources out there,” Houchens said. “But we’re kind of all going in different directions.

Ronnie White, Albemarle County’s housing chief, says the lack of collaboration is costing money.

“State and federal funding requires that cooperation,” White said. White says he has seen examples of grant money being denied because the city and county’s homeless agencies were not meeting collaboration guidelines.

However, even with cooperation, White and Houchens are skeptical whether homelessness can be completely eliminated in this area.

“I don’t think you’ll get rid of it,” White said. “There are some people that, that’s their way of life.”

Brown says, he doesn’t want it to be his way of life, anymore. He has other job skills to offer.

“Maintenance skills, landscaping skills, building and maintenance,” Brown said. “Just a jack of all trades. But just getting the opportunity to work.”

White expressed concern that, becoming better at helping the homeless may bring an unwelcome side effect.

“If we have an area that’s providing good services, we may entice other people in,” White said.

In other words, working harder to deal with the homeless population may just end up increasing the homeless population.