Daily Archives: February 18, 2017

Progress is being made in the renovation projects underway at the Willowick and Willoughby branches of the Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library.

Contractors report that they are on budget and about 45 percent finished. They are also on schedule for a late May completion date, said library Executive Director Rick Werner.

A discovery on the upper level of the Willoughby branch led to a slight change in design, when contractors uncovered a small piece of history one of the original brick exterior walls of the library.

The original structure of the Willoughby branch was one of the many Carnegie Libraries built across the country between the 1880s and 1920s.

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Andrew Carnegie, the steel magnate at the turn of the century, provided start-up funding to communities that were able to sustain a library on their own after he made the initial investment, said Willoughby Library Manager Debbie Mullen.

Willoughby was one of those fortunate communities and our library was built in 1909, she said.

Many of the Carnegie characteristics were lost as the structure of the library evolved over time to meet the need of patrons.

Renovations in the early 1960s to make the library compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act led to the loss of the grand stairway and the traditional Carnegie roof, Werner said.

Without adding much time to the work schedule or affecting the budget, contractors have found a way to incorporate the wall into the final design.

This is actually a wall from the original structure and its kind of neat to feature that in the library, Werner said. Its pretty well preserved from having been covered by the additions. It hasnt been weathered or anything, so we are going to leave this wall brick.

The wall is on the upper level, where the remodeled and expanded children and young adults sections will be located.

The previous young adult/teen section was not very big and it was stuck out in the middle of the rest of the library, Werner said.

Our experience with teens is that they like to have their own space and like to be by themselves, he said. We want them by themselves, but we want to keep an eye on everything going on in the library.

The architect designed a glass-enclosed teen area which will be complete with a couple of gaming systems for young adults to use.

For the first time, the library will have a space completely dedicated to teens, which is a really important group for libraries to reach out to, Werner said.

With the newly renovated teen section, the library might be able to expand its programming geared toward teens, Mullen said.

The library, which is mostly landlocked and unable to be expanded out in any direction, is looking to use the space they have in the most efficient way.

Basically, this renovation project is re-allocation of space in a way that makes more sense, Mullen said.

In addition to vastly expanding the children and young adults sections, the libraries in both Willowick and Willoughby will be increasing the number of computers available for public use, with Willoughby actually doubling the number of computers it currently has.

The buildings will be wi-fi-enabled for patrons who bring in their own devices and will have plenty of charging stations for patrons to use for their electronics, Werner said.

The one thing that the library is not expanding on is the number of self-checkout kiosks.

One of the things we did think about as we were planning both renovations is that we heard from the community and our staff that people actually like to deal with people, Werner said. Whereas some people like dealing with the self-checkout, there is still a very large group of people who like the interaction and the people on our staff like to work with the public.

The libraries realize they are going to take a hit on circulation this year as they dont have everything accessible, but, according to Werner, thats one of the prices to pay as renovations take place.

The goal is to be ready before schools let out and summer programming begins.

The library is on budget for renovations, with $2.2 million, including a contingency if a few things cost more than the budget allowed, Werner said.

The public can view renovation updates on the W-E Public Library website at http://www.we247.org, which includes a link to its Facebook page with updates.

Our board is pleased, Werner said. Our board is very focused on making sure that we finish this in a quick and timely manner and on budget, and right now we are accomplishing both of those goals.

Link:

Willoughby-Eastlake libraries make progress on renovations - News-Herald.com

COLUMBIA, MO. Three weeks from Sunday the mens basketball NCAA Tournament bracket will be revealed, a day the Southeastern Conference hopes will mark tangible progress for a sport the league keeps trying to improve with only subtle results.

If the tournament field is the ultimate measure of a leagues fitness, the SEC has fallen behind on Selection Sunday. The league has landed only three teams in the NCAA bracket three of the last four years. With 14 selections overall the last four years, the SECs total ranks seventh among Division I conferences, behind the Big Ten (27), Big 12 (26), Pac-12 (25), ACC (23), Big East (23) and Atlantic 10 (15). Eight of those 14 SEC teams won no more than one game in their tournament appearances from 2013-16.

ESPNs latest bracket projection has four SEC teams in the field Kentucky and Florida as 3 seeds, South Carolina as a 7 and Arkansas as an 11 but thats still behind the countrys top conferences. ESPN predicts the ACC with nine teams, the Big 12 and Big Ten with seven, the Big East with six and the Pac-12 with five.

However the bracket unfolds on March 12, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey believes the leagues efforts to upgrade the sport have made progress.

This year you look at the fact we have three ranked teams at this time of the year and, the number varies, but about six in the top 50, Sankey said in a phone interview this week. Thats a step forward from where we were last year. Thats not our destination, but its a step forward. Our teams, our coaches, our campus leaders deserve a lot of credit.

What would the SEC consider a satisfactory number of NCAA bids?

I guess 14 is too lofty a goal, Sankey joked. A step forward would be four, but I dont predict thats a destination. Weve still got a lot of basketball to play. Over time I think our expectation ought to be much higher.

In the past year the SEC has addressed the sport with a number of moves. Last year, Dan Leibovitz was hired as associate commissioner for basketball and former Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese as a special consultant. The SEC also mandated nonconference scheduling measures based on RPI rankings. Teams upgraded their schedules this year but still struggled against the other power conferences. SEC teams are 19-35 against the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East and Pac-12. Thanks to 5-5 split in the recent SEC/Big 12 Challenge, the conference owns an 8-7 season record against the Big 12.

Earlier this year, SEC teams lost 20 nonconference games to teams outside of the six major conferences, though some were to perennial mid-major powers: Florida and Tennessee lost to Gonzaga; Alabama and Vanderbilt lost to Dayton; Louisiana State lost to Virginia Commonwealth and Wichita State. SEC teams also lost nonconference games to teams with triple-digit RPI rankings: Lehigh, UCF and Oakland. Then theres Missouri. The Tigers own the leagues worst nonconference losses, three to teams with RPI rankings of 184 or worse: Lipscomb, Eastern Illinois and North Carolina Central.

It still bothers me that I dont think our league gets the respect that it deserves, Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said earlier this month. We talk about it at our coaches meetings: We need people talking up our league. When I was in the Big 12 (at Texas) we needed announcers talking up our league.

At the beginning of the year, he added, everyone kept asking, Are we a year or two away? We were close a year ago. Coming down the stretch with two or three weeks (left) there were seven teams mentioned for the tournament. Because the league was good enough to beat up on each other and the perception was the league wasnt good enough it seemed to hurt the league.

Barnes, whose Volunteers (14-12, 6-7) host Missouri (7-18, 2-11) at noon Saturday, is one of four second-year coaches around the league whos delivered progress. With one more win, the Vols will match their total from last year. Tennessee is among the first four bubble teams just outside the bracket in ESPNs latest projections. Florida (21-5) and Mississippi State (14-11) have matched their win totals from last season under second-year coaches Mike White and Ben Howland, respectively. Alabama (15-10) has five SEC road wins under second-year coach Avery Johnson and needs three wins overall to match last years total.

With more SEC teams making splashy hires Barnes and Howland arrived as established power conference head coaches last year other schools that enter the coaching market figure to feel pressure to follow suit. Missouri and Louisiana State could be making changes this offseason. Mizzous Kim Anderson is just 8-41 against SEC foes in three seasons, while Johnny Jones has LSU (9-16, 1-12) at the bottom of the league standings a year after failing to capitalize on the addition of Ben Simmons, the No. 1 pick in last summers NBA draft.

Whatever happens next at both schools, the SEC will be watching closely from its home offices in Birmingham, Ala.

Our coaching hires are critically important, Sankey said. In one way stability and continuity is of great value, but the reality is coaches change. You look at Bruce Pearl, whos building a program at Auburn. Rick Barnes is in his second year at Tennessee. Ben Howland, Mike White, Bryce Drew (at Vanderbilt) and Avery Johnson as being the most recent and have all shown progress. Theres a building effort.

MISSOURI at TENNESSEE

When Noon

Where Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville, Tenn.

Series Missouri leads 6-5; last meeting: Feb. 13, 2016, MU 75, Tennessee 64

TV, radio SEC Network, KTRS (550 AM)

Records: Missouri is 7-18, 2-11 SEC; Tennessee is 14-12, 7-5

About the Tigers Mizzou takes its 32-game road losing streak to Knoxville, where its 2-3 all-time and 0-2 since joining the SEC. The Tigers are coming off Wednesdays 57-54 home loss to Alabama, which snapped a two-game winning streak at Mizzou Arena. Junior forward Jordan Barnett had scored 23 points in consecutive games before scoring just five against Alabama while missing 10 of 12 shots. Barnes played one season at Texas (2014-15) under current Tennessee coach Rick Barnes. For the first time in SEC play sophomore guard Terrence Phillips finished with just one assist in Wednesdays game. He scored six points and turned the ball over three times. Sophomore forward Kevin Puryear is shooting a team-best 43.5 percent from 3-point range in SEC games, which would rank No. 3 in the league if qualified for the rankings with more attempts.

About the Volunteers Against one of the nations toughest schedules, Tennessee is one win away form last years total and last month logged impressive wins against Kentucky and Kansas State. The Vols have since lost three of four, including Tuesdays 25-point loss at Kentucky. Senior guard Robert Hubbs III leads the Vols with 14 points per game. Freshman forward Grant Williams adds 12.3 points per game and a team-best 5.4 rebounds. UT ranks No. 296 in Division I in average height and starts only one player taller than 6-5. Barnes is 11-8 all-time against Missouri: 1-0 at Clemson, 10-7 at Texas and 0-1 at Tennessee.

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SEC basketball shows progress but has room for growth - STLtoday.com

Lake County election officials likely will learn Monday if their efforts so far to find a bipartisan resolution to consolidating the county's small precincts will be enough to stop a push by the Indiana Legislature to force their hand.

The House Elections and Apportionments Committee is expected Monday to review efforts made by local election officials to reach an agreement on how to consolidate small precincts and stop the progress of a bill aimed at forcing Lake County to consolidate precincts with under 600 active voters.

Elections Board Director Michelle Fajman said the small precinct committee created by the Board of Elections met Wednesday and made some progress but that did not include consensus on the number at which precincts should be consolidated.

"We agreed anything over 1,200 should be split. We all agreed to move the date to Feb. 15 to determine active voters. We did not come down to a conclusion on the lower end number," Fajman said. "We made some progress."

Dan Dernulc, chair of the Lake County Republican Party, said he received a report from the Republican committee members and acknowledge a compromise had been reached regarding the 1,200-voter threshold to split precincts and the date of Feb. 15 for use to pull the active voter count.

He said he is uncertain the two sides can reach an agreement on the number at which precincts should be consolidated. Dernulc said he thinks the best offers have been presented and there is still no consensus.

"I think there is still a big gap. I don't know if we will ever come to some type of resolution," Dernulc said.

A report of what has so far been accomplished was sent to the Elections and Apportionments Committee for consideration Feb. 13. A second similar piece of legislation entered in the Senate also has been introduced and is set for committee hearings soon.

The Lake County small precinct committee is scheduled to meet Tuesday prior to the regularly scheduled 10 a.m. board meeting. Fajman said what steps the committee next takes will depend on what action the Elections and Apportionments Committee takes.

Carrie Napoleon is a freelancer for the Post-Tribune

The rest is here:

Committee updates Legislature on precinct consolidation progress - Chicago Tribune

It may not come as a total surprise: with the upcoming VIV Asia show in Bangkok, Thailand, the first edition of Pig Progress has a strong Asian flavour. Worth taking a look!

So what is new at this edition of VIV Asia? That question is key in the article previewing the largest international show in agribusiness for South East Asia, on page 10. Pig Progress editor Vincent ter Beek looks ahead to Thailand, a country that is still in mourning over the loss of its King Bhumibol.

Nevertheless, Thailand is doing well with regard to agriculture. As Dr John Strak explains, Thailand can be called a tiger cub economy, and the country is looking to make that big leap forward in case a zone free of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) can be created. Read all about it on page 12.

The interview by Pig Progress staff with Jumrat Parnpiansil, owner of a Thai livestock equipment company, almost reads like a feel-good story. He visited VIV Asia by accident years ago, and has grown out to become a regular at many international agriculture exhibitions. The interview can be found at pages 14 and further.

Jumrat Parnpiansil at his company's doser, at display at EuroTier 2016. Photo: Vincent ter Beek

More on Asia as from page 20, as Pig Progress editorial staff were allowed to take a look at one of the key centres of development for the large agribusiness Da Bei Nong, Chinese for Great Agriculture of the North.

Recently the business decided to venture into pig production (target: 100 million finishers by 2025) and we visited one of the first outcomes of this ambitious project.

Video created by: Rose Burgin

Antibiotics also take an important place in this edition. European researchers took a closer look at antibiotics usage in 4 European countries (Sweden, Belgium, Germany and France).

Comparing is only possible when measuring usage is going exactly similar, they thought and that process was used by this team. Many small steps for this team, but a giant step for a more prudent use of antibiotics. Read more on page 6.

This pig - not part of the study- receives antibiotics through an injection. Photo: Hans Prinsen

A very detailed and technical contribution this month comes from authors Wang Wei and Joris Michiels from the University of Ghent, Belgium. They explain in detail the reason why a good gut permeability is at the basis of good gut health and eventually good pig health. Read more at page 24.

For piglets, the gut can be under stress as a result of weaning and E.Coli infections. Photo: Ronald Hissink

Several yeast derivatives can enhance each other that in short has been one of the results of ongoing research at Lallemand Animal Nutrition. The company for a while has been searching for purpose-made products for the livestock industry, rather than using yeast derivatives that were originally by-products.

Outcomes are discussed by Bruno Bertaud and David Saornil, on page 26.

The phenomenon of damaged chromosomes receives ample attention in another informative article by breeding and genetics author Benny van Haandel. He dives into the topic, explaining why damaged chromosomes can sometimes have an effect on genetic programmes and reproductive outcomes. More on this on page 30.

structure of DNA with damaged chromosomes. Photo: Oleksandr Marynchenko / Dreamstime.com

What do colostrum and Trump have in common? They are both topic of a column in this issue of Pig Progress. Bimonthly columnist Dr Monique Pairis-Garcia of The Ohio State University wonders what may the new US president Donald Trump bring for animal welfare? Read her answer on page 34.

Regular columnist John Gadd has a few more words to say on colostrum and launches the A to Z on colostrum on page 8.

To read all the articles in this issue, go to the magazine overview page and sign up with your current website login.

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Latest edition of Pig Progress goes to Asia - Pig Progress (registration) (blog)

Durham, N.C. As work continues on the East End Connector in Durham, a project decades in the making that will ultimately link Interstates 40 and 85, some in areas around the construction are worried it will make traffic worse.

When the connector opens to traffic in the summer of 2019, it will tie the Durham Freeway to I-85 with big, freeway-style interchanges. It's designed to get traffic off secondary roads.

North Carolina Department of Transportation spokesman Steve Abbott says a mild winter is helping crews make progress.

"It's a very big deal for Durham because, once it is finished, that's going to get a direct connection to basically the East Coast," Abbott said.

"A lot of the work right now is bridge work. This project is going to involve construction of about 16 bridges. We're even building a detour bridge for a railroad."

Engineers say that, once it happens, it should help relieve congestion on local roads.

Cheyne Burwell says he's worried that might not be the case.

"People coming in from Granville County, from Wake Forest, are going to continue to use these secondary roads that are not built for this bandwidth of traffic," he said.

"Sherron Road is really difficult. There are times I can barely get out of my home to get to work, and there have been days where I've had to turn around and just work from home."

Burwell says he's hopeful that the DOT will expand other roads on his side of town.

DOT officials said they believe the East End Connector will go a long way to solving many of the area's traffic troubles.

As work continues over the spring and summer, crews will keep travel lanes open in the evening when the Durham Bulls play home games.

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Mild winter helping crews make significant progress on East End Connector - WRAL.com