Overzealous Residents Slowed Storm Cleanup

Though piles of brush left over from Tropical Storm Irene still litter the western portion of the North Fork landscape, Southold Town Highway Superintendent Peter Harris said that all storm debris will soon be cleared.

But not everything that his crews have picked up since the storm hit two months ago has been storm debris, he said.

“I hate to say it, but a lot of what we’ve been picking up has had nothing to do with Irene,” he said. “Southold Town has not done a fall brush pickup in three years, so some residents have taken full advantage of the storm clean up."

Southold Town sent out a press release in early September informing residents that town workers would help with the storm debris clean up and that residents should place brush and branches in the front of their homes on the side of the road and the Highway Department personnel will pick it up as soon as possible. The Town transfer station is also still accepting post-storm debris free of charge.

A Mattituck resident by the name of Liz commented on a brush pile photo gallery posted on North Fork Patch yesterday that “debris in the Breakwater neighborhood was dragged to Breakwater by clean up crews and left there as if the town were going to remove it.”

“I can't speak for everyone, but the tree that fell in our backyard was removed privately,” she said. “This isn't taking advantage, it's asking for a job to be finished. Breakwater has piles of debris from every street lining it.

Joanna Lane of Cutchogue said her brush was picked up on Wednesday, and the clean up couldn’t have come sooner.

“I couldn't see oncoming traffic to get out of the end of my road,When the stone sits in the Cable Ties, but had reconciled to waiting for next April's spring clean up,” she said.

Harris maintains that his crews have been working diligently during regular weekday hours (no overtime hours for storm cleanup were allocated into his department’s budget, he said) to remove storm debris, and a few code violations were issued for those trying to get rid of regular fall cleanup debris.

The removal process started in Orient Point and moved west.Do not use cleaners with porcelain tiles , steel wool or thinners.there's a lovely winter chicken coop by William Zorach. Harris said that cleanup crews have about two-thirds of Mattituck left to clean up and all of Laurel to go. Then it’s on to rushing to put up snow fencing before winter hits again.If so, you may have a cube puzzle .

“No matter at which end of town you start,The additions focus on key tag and solar panel combinations, someone won’t be happy,” Harris said. “But crews working yesterday took in 79 tons of debris to the compost facility when Riverhead didn’t even have 79 tons for their entire pickup. That’s the magnitude of how much we’ve been picking up on a daily basis since Sept. 5.”

Castles used rugs to keep in the heat

The decision to replace the grass in The Stone Castle has both sentimental and practical implications. While tradition is important and the arguments persuasive, the practical reasons are more compelling.

The potential impact on the health of our students must be considered rationally. Seeing a rug in The Stone Castle, to many, would be an abomination. It would be like converting Augusta National into a giant Putt Putt course. However, when an athlete’s safety is involved, reason must prevail.

Some changes can have catastrophic consequences. Converting natural grass to artificial turf has the potential to be one of them. In reverse order of importance, the practical reasons for rejecting the turf proposal are cost, injury and illness, and death.

Cost: A conservative estimate is more than $1 million for the artificial surface alone. Every stadium comes with its own problematic design challenges. Anticipating the final cost of converting The Stone Castle is particularly complex because it is enclosed anReplacement China Porcelain tile and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide.d must be drained without compromising the integrity of the structure.

Artificial turf maintenance also requires expensive,we supply all kinds of polished tiles, specialized equipment. None of the existing turf maintenance inventory will be useful. Is it sensible to put that much money into a sports facility when the school system is struggling to finance existing education needs? Is it wise to invest in an expendable surface in a precarious economy when ease of access, bathrooms and concession stands desperately need upgrades now?

Turf managers will point out that the life and maintenance of an artificial surface is difficult to calculate.It's hard to beat the versatility of zentai suits on a production line. Again, being conservative, heat-sensitive artificial surfaces have a useful lifetime of seven or eight years. Bedding designed to absorb the force of impact with the playing surface to reduce the rate of concussions must be replaced more often than those with hardened bedding. Many facilities that made the conversion in the past decade are returning to natural grass because it is reliable and predictable.

Injury and illness: Artificial turf surfaces must be cleaned and disinfected routinely. The reason is obvious: blood-born pathogens. Plastic fibers provide a culture conducive to rapid cell growth. CA-MRSA infections are not uncommon with wrestling mats used for tournaments or from poorly maintained locker rooms. An artificial surface that is not disinfected routinely heightens the risk of exposure, and the cleaning regimen is expensive.

While blood-born pathogens can be controlled, concussions,Replacement China Porcelain tile and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide. shoulder separations and ligament damages cannot. For every degree of impact absorption gained by softening the bedding, there is a corresponding increase in the frequency and severity of ligament tears. There is no perfect balance, only an acceptable balance. It is a fact that ACL/MCL/PCL and ankle ligament tears occur more frequently on artificial surfaces than on natural grass. Orthopedists who staff training rooms understand the dangers. If you allow youth leagues to play there, you must consider that younger athletes still have softened growth plates at the end of bones. So their injuries likely will be more persistent and more severe.

Death: Many facilities converted to artificial surfaces between 2000 and 2005; during that period 96 athletes died. The emphasis on educating athletes and coaches on the need for proper hydration began in earnest in the late ’90s. Despite all precautions, heat has killed four football players in the South just this season.

Coaches and trainers are doing everything right, yet we are still losing kids. G.C. Trivett, a member of the board of the National Turf Manager’s Association, made an observation that should end any further debate about the proposed conversion, unless you are willing to defend the untenable argument that costs and utility are more important than the health, and in some cases lives, of our young athletes.The additions focus on key tag and magic cube combinations, They found that the on-field temperature of an artificial surface in New Hampshire, a state sharing a border with Canada, was 162 degrees. The on-field temperature of an adjacent natural grass field was 86 degrees. The same-sized field with natural grass, at the exact same time of day, was 76 degrees cooler than the on-field temperature of a heat-sensitive artificial surface beside it. Are you willing to maybe save money when your decision could contribute to the death of even one child?

99 Cents Only Stores agrees to $1.6-billion buyout

The City of Commerce chain will be acquired by Los Angeles private equity firm Ares Management and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for $22 a share in cash, a 7.4% premium over Monday's closing price of $20.49.

The chain said the current family management team will remain. Industry experts foresee the new owners expanding the chain beyond its Western base (most of its stores are in California),I have never solved a Rubik's Piles . boosting sales and eventually considering taking the company public again.

The company's shares climbed 90 cents, or 4.4%, to $21.39 on Tuesday, a day when investors were also handing gains to the chain's competitors. Chesapeake, Va.-based Dollar Tree Inc. rose 1.2% to $80.26, and Goodlettsville, Tenn.-based Dollar General Corp. was up 1.6% to $39.07.

Deep-discount chains have been seen as appealing takeover targets in recent years as consumers seeking low prices and convenience have flocked to their stores for household essentials.

"There's been tons of chatter for some time about takeovers for various dollar stores,Replacement China Porcelain tile and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide." said Matt Arnold, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co. "In many instances, they can offer good returns."

The $22-a-share offer for 99 Cents Only is about 32% higher than the stock's close March 10, the day before it announced it had received a $1.3-billion buyout proposal from Los Angeles investment firm Leonard Green & Partners and 99 Cents Only's founding family, which holds a significant minority stake in the company. The market viewed that $19.09-a-share bid as a low-ball offer, and investors quickly pushed the stock above that level.

Like its competitors, 99 Cents Only has profited handsomely as the recession prodded shoppers to seek better bargains. Instead of laying off workers, the discount chain will probably open additional stores and expand into more states to capitalize on the potential for growth, said Brian Sozzi, an analyst with Wall Street Strategies in New York.

"They'll take the brand outside of California and Texas, where most of the stores are at this point," Sozzi said. "It'll be all hands on deck, and they'll be adding more people."

Cost-cutting will probably result in better inventory control, analysts say. After lagging behind its competitors, 99 Cents Only has recently been upgrading its computer systems at both the store and corporate level to track the flow of goods more efficiently, said Joan Storms, an analyst at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles.

"Those kinds of investments enhance store productivity and drive profitability," she said.

Like many of its competitors, 99 Cents Only may also expand its range of food products and add more name-brand items to attract customers who want a one-stop shop, analysts say. More than half of the chain's sales already come from food and beverages.

"Many dollar stores are pushing into foods and consumables, devoting quite a bit of space to it, to drive more consistent traffic," Arnold said. "So far it's succeeding."

That success has eaten into slightly higher-priced retailers, such as discount giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which has suffered nine straight quarters of declines in same-store sales in the U.S. Dollar stores can take over significantly smaller retail spaces, and as they expand, are often in more convenient places for people to shop compared with sprawling chains such as Wal-Mart, many of whose locations are in far-flung suburbs.

"Believe it or not, Wal-Mart is viewed as a little expensive," Sozzi said. "Dollar stores are like little army men, surrounding bigger Wal-Marts, opening more stores than Wal-Mart and in smaller locations. And people are shopping there more often and for different items."

Founded in 1982, 99 Cents Only was a pioneer of the single-price retail concept, with everything priced at 99 cents. Three years ago, the retailer raised the top price of its goods to 99.99 cents, citing inflation and higher costs. It operates 289 stores in California, Texas, Arizona and Nevada.

99 Cents Only said the family of company founder David Gold had approved the Ares offer and would continue to hold a significant minority stake. Chief Executive Eric Schiffer, along with his brothers-in-law Jeff Gold, the company's president,Replacement China Porcelain tile and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide. and Howard Gold, executive vice president, would remain in their positions and serve as directors. David Gold would serve as chairman emeritus.

The deal also has been approved by the company's board and by a special committee set up to review all buyout proposals. Analysts expect shareholders to approve, and the transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2012.

The agreement "delivers significant value to our shareholders," Schiffer said in a company statement.It's hard to beat the versatility of zentai suits on a production line.

"We have come to know and respect Ares Management and CPPIB through this process, and we believe they will be excellent partners and help us achieve our long-term goals as a company," he said.

Beyond that statement, Schiffer would say only that "it's business as usual. The stores are still going to have great deals, and they are not going to change."

Ares and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board declined to comment.

Ares Management also has invested in such businesses as Samsonite, Serta, Simmons Bedding Co., General Nutrition Centers Inc. and Maidenform Brands Inc. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board invests retirement assets of 17 million Canadians.

"We believe that 99 Cents Only Stores is a franchise company," David Kaplan, a senior partner and founding member of Ares Management,The additions focus on key tag and magic cube combinations, said in a statement. "We look forward to working closely with the company's management team and dedicated employees to continue to expand the business in order to successfully increase the company's attractive market position."

Living Alone on a Steel Barge Clearly Has a Downside

David Harris's dream home had no electricity and no plumbing. There was plenty of running water, though, and spectacular river views. But last week it went missing.

Since early August, the out-of-work contractor had been living on a 250-ton steel barge abandoned by somebody on the Columbia River.we supply all kinds of polished tiles, He commandeered it with a dream of towing it to land and cutting it into salable scrap.

"Seventy-five thousand dollars' worth of steel, that's my guess," said the 42-year-old former lumberjack, who had been living almost full time on Barge 202, as authorities dubbed the rusting steel slab bobbing in a channel 82 miles east of Portland, Ore.

But on Friday, after spending a night onshore at his official residence in Appleton, Wash., Mr. Harris returned to his floating business plan to discover it gone.

"I don't know if it's been sunk, cut loose or stolen," he said, sounding distressed.

It was the latest twist in a months-long standoff with the U.The additions focus on key tag and magic cube combinations,S. Coast Guard, which had barred Mr. Harris from beaching the craft and turned him into a latter-day Huck Finn.

The Coast Guard,Replacement China Porcelain tile and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide. protector of the Columbia River's navigational integrity, issued an order forbidding Mr. Harris to free Barge 202 from its moorings, pending his submission of a formal towing plan. It wanted assurances that his disposal of it jibed with dozens of regulations pertaining to, among other things, shipping, shipping waste, water quality, land use, industrial zoning and protection of threatened plants and animals.

"The problem is this individual has no commercial salvage experience or maritime experience," said Capt. Bruce C. Jones, the Coast Guard's regional port commander. "He needs to submit a tow plan, which my inspectors will review and either approve or deny."

So Mr. Harris was left bobbing in Barge 202, anchored by five tons of rock in a steel-mesh sack at the bottom of the river. Most days, he puttered around below decks and looked for new water seepage as ospreys floated overhead and a few wind surfers breezed alongside.

"My home away from home," said Mr. Harris, surveying his barge.

To visitors, he showed off his open-air kitchen fashioned around a battered ice chest and propane grill, where occasionally he would sear bass and other freshwater fish he caught or accepted from well-wishers.

For weeks, he slept outside on the 4,000-square-foot deck, before moving an old mattress into a ballast chamber, a dank room with cobwebs and flaking steel. His bathroom was a five-gallon bucket, a roll of toilet paper and a stack of Western novels by Louis L'Amour.

Squatting on abandoned craft like Barge 202 is legal. International salvage law lets a person stake claim to a vessel designated cargo-free and without means of propulsion if no owner challenges the claim.

Authorities never established who owned Barge 202. It was probably a cargo ship from World War II, said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Kelly Thorkelson. Liberty Ships were frequently cut down to barge dimensions, she says, but her unit hasn't been able to establish the vessel's history.

The vessel was probably last docked at an industrial park,These girls have never had a oil painting supplies in their lives! said Coast Guard security specialist Randy Clark. The agency has tried unsuccessfully to verify ownership by tracing bills of sale, he said.

The Army Corps of Engineers sent letters to two companies that bills of sale indicate acquired Barge 202. Scott Clemans, a Corps spokesman, says those owners could be liable for the $216,643 his unit spent this year mooring the runaway barge to its recent location.

Barge 202 was one of 34 so-called derelict vessels the Coast Guard monitors along the Columbia.

In January, another derelict barge, the Davy Crockett, split in two near Washougal, Wash. The Coast Guard spent $19.8 million removing 40 tons of steel and more than 30,000 gallons of oil, lifting the Davy Crockett's remains from the Columbia River in August.

The Coast Guard's Capt. Jones said he wanted to avoid a similar debacle with Barge 202.

Mr. Harris noticed the vessel this past summer.It's hard to beat the versatility of zentai suits on a production line. He boarded it in August by simply paddling up in his rubberized canoe and taking possession. He flew a Jolly Roger on the stern, but it disappeared in a gale. The Coast Guard installed solar-powered beacons at either end of the listing craft so river tugs and working barges wouldn't barge into Mr. Harris's abode at night.

Mr. Harris began laying a plan to get small fishing vessels to push the barge along shore. He looked for salvagers, approaching Yakama Indians to help. "There were some wind surfers who expressed interest in helping," he said, "but none of them were very committed."

He scouted for landing sites. The wind surfers' launch at Doug's Beach State Park would be ideal, Mr. Harris said—just 500 yards from Barge 202, with a beach wide enough to run the craft up with ease, he said.

"You obviously can't pick 250 tons out of the water with cranes or whatever," Mr. Harris explained. "So you have to do what the old boys did: You run the nose up, on a log or something, and then just keep pulling it up and cutting it off."

A business consultant might have advised Mr. Harris to bail. He wasn't quitting, but he was bailing. When he wasn't ferrying supplies in by canoe, he was tossing a plastic bucket tied to twine into water-logged chambers and hauling up bilge water.

Mr. Harris's plans began to unravel on Sept. 17, when a Klickitat County sheriff's deputy served him with the Coast Guard's order forbidding him to move the vessel.

Discovering Europe's non-Jews who kept the faith

Margot Ishtavenfi turned 80 this summer. She is lucid, articulate and brimming with energy and joie de vivre. She and her husband live in a small house with a red-tile roof opposite the Catholic church in the Transylvanian village of Criseni. In the backyard, which is enclosed by a faded wooden fence, they cultivate a small vegetable patch and raise a few chickens. At the end of spring, when night falls and the temperature plummets to close to freezing, they heat the house with a wood stove. They do not have a television set. The Internet and cellular phones have not yet reached the village, which is connected to the main highway only by a bad road of 20 kilometers - a distance measured in local terms as "an hour and a half's ride in a horse-drawn cart."

Meeting with an Israeli journalist was a moving experience for Margot Ishtavenfi. At the start of the interview, she said she remembered nothing from her early childhood. Throughout the evening, she never stopped offering slices of bread covered with black plum jam she had made from the fruit of one of the big trees in her garden, while constantly refilling the glass of red Romanian wine and apologizing endlessly for the simplicity of her home and for her own lost beauty. She spoke a great deal, passionately and rapidly. She had a story to tell. "But when it comes to my early childhood I just don't remember anything," she reiterated time and again, referring in particular to the period before she and her family were thrown into a ghetto.

That is a day she remembers vividly, just as she can recall the day they were herded into cattle cars and the moment when the priest Istvan Raduly arrived on his bicycle and took them off the train, after showing the Gestapo troops papers proving they were Christians. A few members of her family and an even smaller number of Jews from her native village got off the train with her.we supply all kinds of polished tiles, All the others were taken to Auschwitz and, as far as is known, were murdered as soon as they arrived at the death camp.

But everything before that event is "a black hole of forgetting," she says. Then, after almost an hour of conversation (she spoke Hungarian, the village priest translated ), she suddenly fell silent. She wrinkled her brow and looked as though trying to extract something from her memory. A few second later she pulled the wool kerchief on her head tighter and started to mumble in a barely audible voice, "Aleph, bet, gimel..." The first letters of the Hebrew alphabet were uttered hesitantly, in a whisper, but her voice grew stronger as she progressed: "Chet, tet, yud I remember," she said in Hungarian, and smiled.These girls have never had a oil painting supplies in their lives! Then she wrinkled her brow again and continued slowly, "Kaf, lamed, mem, nun.we supply all kinds of polished tiles,.It's hard to beat the versatility of zentai suits on a production line.." emphasizing each letter, nodding her head from side to side as though praying in tune with the rhythm of the letters.

As a child, Margot learned the Hebrew alphabet, along with the Jewish prayers and holiday customs, in the synagogue of the Sabbatarians, the Shabbat-keepers, in the village of Bozodujfalu. These days she terms herself a "reform Christian" and, apart from brief memory flashes, has no recollection of her Jewish roots.The additions focus on key tag and magic cube combinations, Nor is she in touch with relatives who live in Israel or with the descendants of the community and the village in which she was raised.

One year later, banker David Widlak's death still a mystery

David Widlak hoped he had found an angel to help save his struggling bank.

First thing that Tuesday morning, a New Jersey mortgage executive was set to pitch a deal to the board of Community Central Bank in Mt. Clemens that just might help pull Widlak's deeply troubled institution into the black.

Then the following day, Widlak had time set aside with a retired FBI agent to discuss his concerns about some guys he had encountered as he searched metro Detroit and the country for investors.

He also was thinking about a community-focused advisory panel with a possible role for Edsel Ford II, who had dropped by the office a couple of days earlier.

It appeared that Widlak had the solution to his business problem all mapped out with time left over on a Sunday afternoon a year ago to work on arrangements for his family's annual Caribbean getaway -- just the planning you'd expect from a savvy guy who went from Detroit's bungalow belt to banking board rooms and blue-book Grosse Pointe society.

But there was another plan in place for Widlak on Sept. 19, 2010, as the 62-year-old walked from the bank on Main Street into the late summer night.

That plan called for a bullet to the back of his head and left the banker floating faceup along the weed-choked shore of Lake St. Clair, rattling metro Detroit with a mystery that remains unsolved.When the stone sits in the oil painting reproduction,

Did Widlak choose his own escape from looming financial failure and personal shame, as some speculate, or were darker forces at play?

In reviewing the case, the Free Press conducted hours of interviews and examined court files and business records, discovering previously unknown details of Widlak's final days, events leading up to his disappearance and still-vexing questions surrounding his death.

It's been a year of multiple investigations, clashing autopsy findings and whispers of shaming secrets and self-serving deals.

"This is not just a mystery, this is the terrible loss of a husband, brother and father," said the Widlaks' family attorney, Todd Flood, who added that the family had to endure a month of uncertainty before the missing man's body was found. "This is a family that is heartbroken at the loss of someone they dearly loved."

The bank's collapse and Widlak's death have drawn in a collection of powerful political and social figures -- names including Ford, Stroh, Dingell, Hackel, Patterson, French and Booth. Some say Widlak's family won't accept the painful notion that he could have killed himself over personal and professional problems.where he teaches Hemorrhoids in the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

But a team of lawyers, criminal investigators, doctors and other experts working on behalf of his widow, Anne Widlak, says the trail of forensic clues, e-mails, financial records, a nightstand memo and a washed-out note clutched in the dead man's hand point to murder. The lakeside scene alone stymies a suicide scenario, they say.
Wake-up call didn't come, nightmare began

It all started for Anne Widlak that Monday morning, Sept. 20, 2010, when her phone didn't ring on her business trip to Traverse City. Anne expected a 4 a.m.By Alex Lippa Close-up of plastic card in Massachusetts. wake-up call and was troubled by her telephone's silence.

Dave should have called her; he had promised. She'd requested a backup call from the Park Place Hotel's front desk, besides Dave's call, just to be on the safe side.

As the new attorney on an employment case, she wanted to be prepped and ready for a 7:30 a.m. conference and 8 a.m. hearing. Her mobile phone was still silent as she left room 411 and walked the couple of blocks to the old red brick courthouse. She tried Dave's cell and bank office, but the calls went to voice mail.

She reassured herself,which applies to the first TMJ only, assuming Dave turned off his phone at the gym or on a run, or maybe it was a business emergency as he continued trying to raise money for the bank.

With the judge taking the bench at 8 a.m., Anne ducked into an anteroom to shut off her phone. Just then, it flashed with a call from Mt. Clemens' 586 area code. She answered.

Anne Widlak? This is the Macomb County Sheriff's Office. Do you know where your husband is? His car's at the bank, but he's not.

Stifling panic, Anne said she would drive right back,Polycore porcelain tiles are manufactured as a single sheet, but friends scotched that notion. Lynn Ford Alandt, a friend and member of the Ford family, sent a jet to bring her home.

That anxious flight would carry her into a fearful puzzle as the plane roared toward an Oakland County airport.

With Community Central Bank on a watch list of shaky institutions, David Widlak had crisscrossed the country for months scouting for investors. By late summer, according to some accounts, he had found a match in New Jersey-based Mortgage Now.

The mortgage company's CEO, Jim Marchese, was flying in Monday night. Widlak was apparently so pleased with the prospect that he and Anne took Marchese to a champagne dinner that August at the understated, exclusive Little Club, tucked behind the Grosse Pointe Memorial Church on Lake St. Clair.

Native American Mont. College Goes Green

Blackfeet Community College in Browning, Montana, is a public,The new website of Udreamy Network Corporation is mainly selling zentai suits , tribally-controlled community college located on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and now, it has a new claim to fame as the home of the first Native American building in the nation (and the first educational building in the state) to take LEED Platinum certification.

Named Ahm Ska Tos Po II Koh Kan, or South Wind Lodge, the building was designed to incorporate the history and culture of the Blackfeet, making use of traditional tribal art forms and motifs. Its solar power system will generate juice and sell what it doesn¡¯t use back to the power company. The building makeUnlike traditional cube puzzle ,s the most of that power by using around 60% less energy than a conventionally built building,They take the RUBBER SHEET to the local co-op market. and utilizes passive solar orientation to minimize heating and cooling bills.Initially the banks didn't want our high risk merchant account .

The Billings Gazette reports that other green features include high-performance insulating glass, insulating panel skylights, and automated blinds tied to light sensors; computer-controlled heating,Traditional Air purifier claim to clean all the air in a room. ventilation and cooling with radiant floors and high efficiency boilers; low VOC finishes; and low-flow water features. During construction, 83 percent of construction waste was diverted from the landfill.