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/

This Saturday, September 16, Habitat for Humanity of Kanawha and Putnam will be holding a rare event. It's Double Dedication Day. That's right, two homes will be officially dedicated and the efforts of all volunteers will be celebrated. Just about a month ago, Shirley Cole's home was dedicated. Shirley (center) is pictured here working with Angel Young and Wendy Tipton. This Saturday, Angel,Wendy and their families take center stage as their homes and hard work are recognized.


Angel, her husband George and their children Auchea and Timothy now own a home of their own in Jubilee Heights. Let no one ever, ever doubt their committment to their dream. They volunteered 130 hours over and above the 500 required!!! George brought his buddies from work to the site and they cleared weeds and brush from the creek bank next to their home. They have plans to do some landscaping there. They also are planning improvements in the back yard. I don't think I've met more committed or hardworking souls than George and Angel Young. This was our affiliate's 106th building project and we were fortunate to have Bayer Material Science and Bayer Crop Science sponsor the house. Bayer is a well known and respected community partner and provided financial resources for this project. In addition, Bayer employees worked hundreds of volunteer hours to make this home a reality for the Young family. Bayer is very, very serious about making decent housing available in Kanawha and Putnam counties.

Wendy, her daughter Keaira and son Keshawn are thrilled with their new home. Wendy's hard work was matched only by the kid's steady patience. They are just beginning to understand that Mom's hundreds of hours on the jobsite means a new, safe and decent place for them to live and grow. The first time I met Wendy, she was applying sticky, stinky waterproofing to the foundation of a house. It was not her house but she had waterproofed nearly the entire cinderblock foundation for another Habitat family. She talked alot about plans for her children. Over and over she told me how a new home would make her kid's lives safer and happier. Wendy knew that her work on this home would be repaid by others when her home was built. Even with waterproofing tar on her face, arms and hands, Wendy's smile told me she could see a brighter tomorrow.

Wendy's home was sponsored by The Segal and Davis Family Foundation. This wonderful organization has a well-deserved reputation for supporting causes that advance the health and well-being of the children in our community. The Foundation provided financial support and volunteer workers to help Wendy build a stable homelife for herself and her children.

As is always the case, our regular volunteer crews worked like the pros they are. The Tuesday crew was terrific, the Wednesday crew was wonderful and the Thursday crew was top-notch.

Like every Habitat homeowner, Angel, George and Wendy have worked very hard for a long time for their chance to purchase a home. By any standard of measure, they have earned this opportunity. They have all made an important investment in their future.

That future has begun and everyone who helped make it happen is invited to the Young's dedication at 11:00 and the Tipton dedication at 1:00 on Saturday. The number of people who worked on these houses is huge and space won't allow a complete listing of them all but Angel, George, Wendy and the children will never forget your effort, given willingly, freely and cheerfully. You who volunteered worked hard. Wendy, Angel and George worked hard. Come out and see what hard work has accomplished. Then let's get ready to do it again, another deserving family is ready for their dream to come true.

Work continues at the site of our latest project. If you are wondering where this project is, we are building a new home at 1210 First Avenue on Charleston's West Side. We are building this home in partnership with DuPont and things are coming along very nicely. Having grown up on the West Side, I'm happy to see activity in that part of town. Apparently, the residents of that neighborhood are happy as well. The lot on which we're building has been vacant for a long time and had become overgrown and dangerous. Now that it's been cleared and a brand new home is going up, the neighbors have commented on how glad they are to see the property put to productive use.

Even though our activity congests their street and poses parking problems, many residents have gone out of their way to be helpful. If you are planning on volunteering at the First Avenue site, please consider carpooling to help ease the crowding on the street.

To get to our build site, take Kanawha Boulevard to Hunt Avenue. This is one block east of Florida Street and Cabell Field. Turn onto Hunt and go one block, then turn left onto First Avenue. Our site is on the right at the end of the block. We'll be there Tuesdays through Saturdays for the next few weeks. Sometimes, necessity will force us to change worksites with little forewarning. As always, call before you come out to confirm where we will be working. You can reach our office at 304-720-0141 for updates.

Here is a quick statistic...
Habitat for Humanity has now completed or neared completion on 400 homes in the Hurricane Katrina-affected region. Habitat is by far the region's most active and successful private sector rebuilder.
The numerous one-year retrospectives on TV and the internet demonstrate that this area is in for many more months of cleanup and many more years of rebuilding. To learn more about the work of Habitat and others who are helping, go to Habitat International's site at http://www.habitat.org/. Here you can find stories and statistics on this ongoing work.
The solution to this and other housing problems world-wide is made up of millions of individual efforts. Thanks to all who have been one of the parts of the solution!

Partnership. I think it's safe to say Habitat for Humanity is known for buidling successful partnerships to overcome the obstacles that trap good people in bad housing. It is a cornerstone in our mission. The year 2006 has seen many such partnerships make dramatic and welcome changes in the lives of deserving neighbors. The Bayer Corporation, The Segal & Davis Family Foundation and Blessed Sacrament Church have stepped forward to strengthen our community by sponsoring homes for Habitat families. Later this year, the Kanawha Valley Board of Realtors will sponsor and build a house. This demonstrates that blending the community spirit of organizations and businesses with the determination of volunteers produces some wonderful results.

On Friday, August 25, another local corporate partnership project kicked off a Habitat building project of their own. Volunteers from E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company gathered together to begin construction of Habitat's 109th house. Led by Plant Manager Bill Menke, DuPont has provided financial support, materials and labor to build a new home for Jerry Burns. Jerry has been volunteering his time and effort to Habitat's work since December 2004. DuPont management, employees and contractors will be working through the fall months toward completion of the home later this year. Our regular Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday crews will also be on the project. DuPont has been in our community for 80 years and has a committment to supporting the community. Habitat welcomes DuPont's participation and wonderful support.

Shirley Cole thanks volunteers at the dedication of her new home.

On Saturday, August 18, some remarkable people came together to celebrate a remarkable achievement. This summer, the members of Blessed Sacrament Church of South Charleston sponsored and built a Habitat for Humanity home for Shirley Cole. It is Habitat's 108th home overall and the 24th in Jubilee Heights. Blessed Sacrament has long been one of Habitat's strongest supporters and they certainly know how to put their faith into action.

Shirley has spent hundreds of hours working on the homes of other Habitat families and has attended many hours of homeowner education classes. Beginning on July 5, Shirley worked side by side with dozens of Blessed Sacrament volunteers to make her dream into a reality. Many parishoners are members of Habitat's regular volunteer crews. Charlie Stark, John Providenti, Mike Habenshuss, Ron Baehl, Jim Sapp, Bill Frame, Bob Galloway and Evan Cebula worked on this house in addition to their other Habitat work. David Lewis of Monarch Services Corporation provided his expertise on the house's electrical systems. Teens from Charleston Catholic High School , and churches in Pennsylvania and Illinois worked together and learned the value of cooperation and service

Father Jim O'Conner of Blessed Sacrament guided and inspired the workers and proved he is pretty handy with a hammer. Mike McCready and Joan Garton spent many, many hours planning and building this wonderful home. Special thanks go out to them.

Habitat for Humanity is deeply thankful to have such a committed partner as Blessed Sacrament. The people mentioned here played an important role in this effort, but many others also worked and sweated to get the house built. The community, young and old, blended their efforts to change the life of one of their neighbors. It truly was a remarkable effort accomplished by remarkable people.

Since all of you are planning to attend the August First Friday Lunch, I decided that I'd better get specific with the times. I decided this right after someone told me I had no times listed at all.

We don't want to keep you any longer than necessary but we do want to make sure we have the time to cover all of our topics and answer all questions.We have reserved the room at the Southern Kitchen starting at 11:30AM. Go ahead and order lunch and dig in. We like to begin the discussions at 12:00. We will be done by 1:00, but any remaining questions or comments can be addressed after we turn the room back to the restaurant.

I encourage all of you to stop by the Southern Kitchen between now and Friday, August 4th to try it out. If you find something especially good, list it here as a comment to this post. Likewise if you try something not so good that we should avoid.

I think I'll go there today for lunch.

For a long time, I've been trying to get someone to take an aerial photo of Jubilee Heights for us. Sooner or later someone will. In the meantime, I've been looking at a satellite photo of Jubilee Heights on the "Google Earth" website. It is a free site and I encourage all of you to check into it if you haven't already. Google Earth is a photographic portrait of the world as seen from a satellite. You can zoom in for a close inspection or pull back to understand the bigger picture. I typed "South Charleston, WV" into the search box and Google Earth flew to a point near the mound in SC. I was able to scroll a little west and south and there was Jubilee Heights! The photo displayed was from early 2005. The foundations for House #99 (Casto) and House #100 (Peoples/Barker) are in place but no construction has started. It looks like the last house completed was Virginia Butler's. Hopefully Google will update their satellite shots soon.
For viewing Jubilee Heights, Google Earth is great. It is a fantastic tool for viewing any part of the world.

Even though we've missed a couple of monthly sessions, we are still convinced that the First Friday Lunch is a good idea. Trying to find a spot where our small attendence is welcome has been a bit of a problem. The places we've met before did all they could, but saving their meeting room for our little group has to hurt their lunch service. We've met at the Golden Corral and at Shoney's (both buffets) but didn't fill half of the room they provided. Rather than test their courtesy any more, we searched for a place that may be able to accomodate our group without hurting their lunch crowd.

So....Friday, August 4th, we'll have our First Friday Lunch at the Southern Kitchen in Kanawha City. This Charleston landmark has a meeting room on the second floor with it's own entrance from the front of the building. You don't have to wander through the restaurant , just take the steps from the parking lot. This time, it's not a buffet. You can order from the regular menu. If any of you have eaten there before, you know that this is superior home cooked food (be sure and check out the pie selection) and very reasonably priced. Those of you who haven't had the pleasure of a Southern Kitchen visit should run down there right now and check it out! Remember, it's locally owned and operated...a rarity in these days of franchised and formula eateries. This place has a real personal touch and they make you feel like family.

Considering the accellerated pace of building so far in 2006, there is a lot to plan, figure out, learn about, explain and comment on. Get there when you want but be ready for a noon start to the meeting. As usual the staff will have some short discussion to present but we want to know what you want to know. Do you have questions about streets in Jubilee Heights? Curious when we'll be building in North Hills? Wondering how the Mountaineers will do this year? We'll even give equal time to Herd fans.

Come to lunch. Learn stuff. Leave smarter.

New Online Volunteer Scheduling Coming Soon

Pretty soon everyone will be able to sign up online for volunteer spots. This won't effect the regular Tuesday - Thursday crews much, but it will help us better coordinate volunteers for special projects, Friday and Saturday construction volunteers and also ReStore volunteers.

We expect to have this system up and running by June 15th.

Shawn