Jubilee Heights Celebration Monday, October 8

Even though there are a few more houses to build, the long and arduous work of building streets, sewers, utilities and all the things that makes Jubilee Heights a neighborhood is done. We think that is worthy of a celebration! So, everyone is invited to attend a dedication ceremony on Monday, October 8 at 11 AM. This event will allow everyone who played a part in the development of Jubilee Heights to come together to celebrate the completion of the infrastructure and hear a little about our future plans. We hope you will join us.

Look for parking signs near Rock Lake Presbyterian Church. We’ll have vans shuttling people to Jubilee Heights and back.

Feel free to call or email Jessica Hudson with questions about the event. jhudson@habitatwv.org or 720-0141

Jubilee Heights Streets Done

At long last, the streets in Jubilee Heights are finished!

Major Update on Streets at Jubilee Heights

As of this morning the wearing course of ashphalt is being applied to the streets inside the Jubilee Heights subdivision! Paving shoud be 100% complete today and the rest of the associated work should be done next week.

FINALLY!!

Update on Street Construction at Jubilee Heights

Not a lot to report since the last post, but the curbs are nearing completion and being backfilled. In areas where the curbs are finished and have passed inspection, the base stone has been installed and compacted. Asphalt paving should begin the week of August 13. Once paving begins we will work elsewhere until it's finished so we don't interfere with the paving or cause any vehicular damage to the fresh asphalt.

In other news - IT'S HOT! Please everyone, take it easy and drink lots of water out there.

Update on Jubilee Heights Street Construction

I know everybody would like to know exactly what's going on with streets at Jubilee Heights. So would we!

As of today here is where we stand:

The general contractor hired a sub contractor to install the curbs. They started this work two weeks ago and the work did not go well. When the South Charleston City Engineer came to inspect the curbs he was not satisfied with the work and rejected nearly all of them. This required the curbs to be torn out and rebuilt. As of this writing most of the rejected curbs have been torn out and are being rebuilt. They should be finished early next week.

If the curbs pass inspection then they can be backfilled and paving can begin. Once paving contractors move in the project is two weeks from completion.

We'll post more details as they become available.

First Avenue Update

Thankfully the Contractor Yard was very responsive and found a contractor to repair the damage done by the falling shingles. We are back to work there now, and in fact worked there Saturday. Some of you might have seen the article in Sunday's paper or the new story on Channel 3.

In case you didn't see it, here is a link to the newspaper story:

http://www.wvgazette.com/section/News/2007072116

Accident at First Avenue House

The good news is, thankfully, nobody was hurt. This is the first time anything like this has ever happened, but it just goes to show how quickly a significant accident can happen at the job site. A good reminder that we all have to be vigilant anytime we're on the job site.


What happened is that when the boom truck was lifting the pallet of shingles to the roof to be off loaded by volunteers, the pallet began to swing and the operator tried to move the boom to steady it when the entire pallet slipped off the forks. The full pallet of 33 bundles fell onto the roof, through the roof, through the floor and into the crawlspace.


Here are some pictures.

House 116

House 116 on First Avenue has trusses up but will stand waiting until further notice.

The curbs at Jubilee Heights are scheduled to be laid this week. Paving will commence shortly thereafter. It is possible that we will lose access to the site this week and have to work on the West Side. Check the volunteer hotline (720-4470) for up to date information.

Update on West Side Site

The cinderblock is finished on the new house at 1208 First Avenue. Next week the St. Michael work camp will waterproof, install the foundation drains and backfill the foundation.

New Job Site Starting Up Soon on Charleston's West Side

Last week footers were dug for House 116. This house is on First Avenue next door to the one we built last Summer and Fall and will be the home of Connie Andrews.

Block is being layed as of today and we will be waterproofing and backfilling next week when the second St. Michael's workcamp comes next week. We don't expect to be framing this house before mid-July.

New Habitat Volunteer Manager

Please welcome our newest Habitat staff member, Donna DeHart. Donna will be recruiting and coordinating volunteers so Tim can concentrate on his Office Manager duties.

Please let Donna know about anyone you know that would like to volunteer for Habitat, either by joining one of our regular crews, as a Friday or Saturday volunteer, or to help out with Family Selection, ReStore or anything else.

She can be reached at dehart@habitatwv.org or at the office (720-0141).

Work Camp Season

We'll have our first work camp of the summer here next week. Many of you remember Rose Koch and her St. Michaels group (from Chicago). They are coming next week (June 11) and then returning in two weeks (June 25) with a different bunch of kids.

New Volunteer Hotline

Now there is a phone number you can call to find out where we're working on any given work day. It's called the Habitat Volunteer Information Hotline and it will be kept up to date on the latest information about where we'll be working and what we'll be doing. You can even call it in the morning if the weather is bad and you want to see if we've changed sites.

The number is 720-4470.

House Transition

For the next couple of weeks we'll be in transition between houses. Here's the scoop:

• The Kanawha City renovation is on hold for a while.
• The St. Albans house (Spencer - Arborland Acres) is nearly done. We need to pour the driveway and seed the yard and we're done. The dedication for this house is scheduled for May 20.
• Two houses are underway in Jubilee Heights. One foundation is nearly finished and the other will be a week behind it.

Call the office before you head out to volunteer, just to make sure you're heading to the right place.

New Roof Protection System

For a while now we've been looking into a passive system to protect volunteers who work on roofs. Every system that we could find involved wearing harnesses and safety tethers, which we found to be too clumsy for our purpose.

We have found our solution in a a brand new product called Horizontal Undereave Guard System (HUGS) is really amazingly simple and is completely passive. We have ordered a HUGS system and will begin using it on the next house we frame.

You can see the HUGS system on their website: http://www.hugsafety.com/