Edgebrook, an upscale suburb of Chicago, was the ninth most searched area of 2014 on realtor.com. The area, which includes the 60646 ZIP code, is a 30 minute commute from downtown. Edgebrook’s median household income is $73,445 and the median home price is $398,000.
“Good Morning America” ushered in the new year with a Jan. 1 segment touting Asheville as the No. 1 destination in the country to visit in 2015.
“It’s an amazing place. It’s really coming into its own. It’s a glorious natural setting,” said Pauline Frommer, editorial director of the popular Frommer travel guide. She went on to promote the area’s thriving craft beer scene to the national audience.
However, Frommer jumped the gun when discussing New Belgium Brewing’s major new development in the River Arts District, which isn’t scheduled to open until the end of 2015. Local artists who have long worked in the area might also take issue with her use of the word “sketchy” to describe the area before New Belgium’s construction.
“We’re picking [Asheville] this year because the sketchy riverside area has been totally redone thanks to the New Belgium Brewery, which has poured millions of dollars into this area, making new parks, artists collectives, farmers markets, bike paths,” says Frommer. “It’s just a great place to go. It has the most breweries per capita, so always a party.”
At the same time, Frommers published a story calling Asheville the “Austin of the East – accessible, youth-friendly, affordable, and the place to go for a sweet lifestyle.”
Tourism in Asheville is already booming. In October, hotel occupancy shattered previous records and several new hotels plan to open downtown in the coming year.
Watch the GMA segment here:
North Carolina will offer up to $10 million a year until 2020 to encourage video production companies to film in the state, as part of the new incentives package going into effect today. The state’s new grant program will donate preference to filmmakers who use “economically distressed” locations or show attractions that could promote tourism to the state, according to guidelines drafted by the N.C. Film Office. Film industry promoters asked state lawmakers this year to extend the state’s 25 percent credit for production companies, an incentive that gave out $61.2 million in credits in 2013, now say interest in filming in the state has dropped as a result of the new plan, the Raleigh News Observer reported. Production companies said incentives encouraged them to film movies such as the Hunger Games Ironman 3, TV shows such as Homeland Eastbound Down in the state. Under the new program under guidelines drafted by the state film office, productions determined “obscene” or “harmful to minors” will be ineligible for grants, grant applications must show how many cast crew members are permanent North Carolina residents, applications will be judged by whether they leave permanent infrastructure improvements. The film office is taking feedback on the preliminary guidelines until Jan. 23. The program will start Jan. 26. …
Read the rest…North Carolina Cuts Film Incentives To $10M Per Year | WUNC
ASHEVILLE, N.C. Asheville tourism officials say business was booming this year, and developers are continuing to add hotel rooms.
The Citizen-Times in Asheville (http://avlne.ws/13B6FpK ) reports that for the year, hotel-occupancy rates through November stood at 69 percent, several percentage points higher than the previous year.
Marla Tambellini, deputy director for the Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau tells the newspaper that 2014 is on track to be a record year.
The boost is at least partly due to $4 million the bureau has spent on advertising this year.
And developers are banking on the continued growth of tourism. Several projects currently under way will add hundreds of hotel rooms to the city.
Leaders of the town and county governments in Wilkes, Wilkes Regional Medical Center and the Wilkes Economic Development Corp. shared some of their plans and goals for 2015.
Wilkes County
Eddie Settle, elected chairman of the Wilkes County commissioners by fellow commissioners on Dec. 1, said economic development and the public schools are among his top areas of interest.
Settle also cited keeping county government financially sound. “We are responsible to about 70,000 people (residents of Wilkes) and those 70,000 want to make sure we are fiscally responsible.”
He said he believes the economy is starting to pick up in Wilkes.
“The Career and College Promise (CCP) between the schools and Wilkes Community College will give us a more educated workforce. That (an educated workforce) is our key to getting ahead,” said Settle.
CCP is a partnership between public schools and community colleges through which high school juniors and seniors take college courses and simultaneously earn college credits toward a certificate, diploma or associate (two-year) degree and high school elective credit. Students in CCP can choose a transfer pathways toward earning a four-year degree or a technical job skills pathway.
“I think the Wilkes EDC (Economic Development Corp.) is doing a much better jobs. There are some small things in the works,” he added, referring to efforts to assist companies that would result in additional jobs.
“There is a manufacturing company that would like to come but it needs (an existing building with) about 250,000 square feet of floor space,” said Settle, who represents the county commissioners on the EDC board.
He said he understood one local building that would be large enough is about to be sold to another company.
Settle said the EDC is engaged in identifying land available for economic development on U.S. 421, but finding suitable and available buildings remains a challenge. “U.S. 421 is our key.”
Settle said the widening of N.C. 268 East to four lanes from North Wilkesboro to the Airport Road intersection should help with economic development and that he would like to see it widened to four lanes all the way to Elkin.
He said he is optimistic about the possibility of Boone-based Samaritan’s Purse expanding in Wilkes County. A spokesman for the Christian disaster relief ministry said more details on its plans in Wilkes would be shared in the first quarter of 2015.
“We’ve got a lot of pluses here that a lot of counties would love to have,” said Settle.
Citing construction of a new raw water intake on W. Kerr Scott Reservoir in 2015, he said these include availability of good water supplies. Construction is expected to start in the first half of 2015 and take 18 months to complete.
County government is advertising for bids to a raw water intake with a pump station on the reservoir, electrical building and waterline to N.C. 268 West, estimated to cost $7 million to $8 million. North Wilkesboro is advertising for bids for installing waterlines costing about $10 million that will take untreated water from the reservoir to the Wilkesboro and North Wilkesboro water treatment plants.
Under an agreement between governments of the county, Wilkesboro and North Wilkesboro, the towns will reimburse the county as the county pays off an interest free loan of up to $8.3 million from a state revolving loan fund for the raw water intake and water line to N.C. 268 West and electrical building. The two towns will pay back a loan of up to $12 million made to North Wilkesboro from the revolving loan fund for installing the waterlines.
Other capital projects in 2015, already funded by county government, include a short extension of Courthouse Drive in Wilkesboro and renovation of a former Northwestern Bank building to make it the Wilkes County Ag Center.
Settle is a voting board member of the N.C. Association of County Commissioners and said the association’s state legislative priorities include making sure the state doesn’t again make county governments partly responsible for Medicaid expenses and also make sure the state doesn’t pass on secondary road maintenance costs to the counties.
EDC plans
Dan Little, president of the Wilkes Economic Development Corp., said Wilkes EDC goals in 2015 include addressing needs of existing businesses to help them retain and add jobs and expand to increase the county’s tax base.
Little said the “virtual office” concept for mobile entrepreneurs and availability of revolving loans, funded by Wilkes EDC and with a North Wilkesboro Small Town Economic Prosperity (STEP) grant, will be promoted.
The Wilkes EDC set aside $50,000 and another $10,000 came through the STEP grant for a revolving loan pool for small businesses as a “loan of last resort to aid in job creation.”
Through coordination with the Small Business Center at WCC the virtual office program can offer entrepreneurs temporary office space within the Wilkes County Library and offices of the Wilkes Chamber of Commerce and EDC.
Little said a major emphasis for the EDC will be to continue efforts to get Wilkes County certified as WorkReady.
A county is designated “work ready” if it meets certain standards of educational and workforce quality on a certification index through this effort, which involves the governor’s office, N.C. Chamber of Commerce, N.C. Department of Public Instruction, N.C. Community College System Office and N.C. Department of Commerce.
The initiative is designed to increase community engagement in workforce improvement issues and provide a comprehensive tool to evaluate a community’s needs.
With a grant from the Small Business Entrepreneurial Assistance Program, said Little, the EDC will initiate a program aimed at helping small businesses develop websites to market their products.
He said planning for a business plan competition in Wilkes County will be completed and it will be held in 2015.
Little said efforts will continue to secure private financial support of the EDC’s Local Expansion and Attraction Program (LEAP) initiative, which he said allows the EDC to move quickly with financial support when needed to help create economic activity that benefits the community.
He said the EDC will continue its emphasis on agribusiness, including the Wilkes Cattle Quality Improvement Program, which makes artificial insemination available to help cattlemen improve the genetics of their beef cattle herds in Wilkes. This initiative was funded by the Golden LEAF Foundation.
Wilkesboro
Wilkesboro Town Manager Ken Noland said the town’s biggest challenge in 2015 will be managing additional needs in the face of restricted revenue.
Noland said several large projects are in the forecast and certain funding sources have been lost.
Last year, the N.C. General Assembly eliminated cities’ authority to levy privilege license taxes on businesses beginning July 2015. The town collects about $120,000 with this tax.
The town will begin implementing a Historic Downtown Master Plan in 2015. The plan was adopted by the council in 2011.
“It’s going to be a huge project over the long term,” Noland said.
He said the multi-year project could involve design elements such as vehicular traffic flow, gateway improvements, wayfinding signage, public space improvements and landscaping work. Noland estimates the work will be ongoing for 15-20 years and will be a multi-million dollar project.
“We will develop a financial plan that will encompass borrowing, as well as setting aside money each year,” he said.
Noland said that the council’s budgeting for the project in 2015 will be the most important step.
“If they can find a way to budget this first year, the rest will fall into place, and it will get easier as you go,” he said.
The budget will also have to fund specific expenses with the fire department because certain federal grants will end in 2015 or soon after. They include a grant that funded fulltime firefighters and a second grant designed to help retain and promote volunteer firefighters.
“We have to figure out how to fund the fire department and maintain the service the public expects,” Noland said.
“It’s up to us as to what level to maintain,” Finance Director Bob Urness said. “What’s going to be a difficult move for us, is that as we roll out of privilege license taxes, we’re rolling into paying in full for our fire department expenses. It’s not all going to hit this year, but we’re going to have to keep it in mind for this budget.”
Two water projects are also in the works for 2015.
The town plans to upgrade its sludge handling system at the water treatment plant to handle the silt and sludge removed from the raw water during the treatment process.
Also, the town plans to replace an aboveground water tank on N.C. 268 West and place waterlines along Brown’s Ford Road to connect with the existing water lines on U.S. 421 West. The lines would complete a “loop” to improve service and pressure to the commercial area along U.S. 421.
Noland said the additional waterlines will provide a second route of water, in case a line goes down. He said the second tank will provide the town with more water capacity.
Noland said the project will likely receive bids in the spring, and construction on the project could last into 2016. He estimated the project could cost the town $5 to $6 million.
Also in 2015, construction will begin on the new concession/restroom facility at Cub Creek Park. Using the same plans that were used by the county for the concession/restroom facility at Rivers Edge Park in 2006, the new facility will cost about $70,000.
Wilkesboro Mayor Mike Inscore and councilmen Mike Testerman and Jimmy Hayes are up for re-election in November.
North Wilkesboro
Many of North Wilkesboro’s plans for the year ahead involve downtown development. Town Manager Larry South said the staff is continuing a focus on promoting and marketing the downtown through projects, concert series and other events.
South said work on the Yadkin Valley Marketplace, which will be a farmer’s market and performance area on the downtown parking deck, is planned to be one of the town’s biggest projects in 2015. News of two grant funding sources (one from the N.C. Department of Commerce, the other from Lowe’s Hometown Grants program) should come by the end of January.
Downtown event series like Window World Concerts on the Deck and Third Saturday will be held once again his summer.
Appalachian State University collegiate cycling races will return to downtown North Wilkesboro in April, and the there are plans to again host the Hare Scramble cross-country motorcycle races at North Wilkesboro’s Industrial Park on River Road.
South said there also may be new development in the town’s Industrial Park in 2015, since a few companies have expressed interest in combining operations or moving to the park. He said the completion of the northern access road to the Industrial Park will encourage new business.
“With both access roads complete, opportunities for development at the Industrial Park will improve,” South said.
Main Street will also be a focus point of town efforts in 2015.
South said efforts on Main Street will include beautification and streetscape improvements. A new information kiosk, similar to one on Main Street in Wilkesboro, will be constructed outside of North Wilkesboro’s town hall.
Tourism Director Crystal Keener said she is communicating with Wilkes Art Gallery Director Cindy Pardue about commissioning a mural for the Yadkin Valley Marketplace site.
South said the town will also focus on addressing dilapidated properties within town limits.
North Wilkesboro commissioners Joe Johnston, Bert Hall and Dr. Leo Baugham are up for re-election in November.
In Ronda
The new year could bring new leadership in Ronda, with five out of six commissioner seats and the mayor’s seat becoming available in the November election.
Commissioner Rheajan Benge is the only board member not facing re-election in 2015.
Commissioners Helen Porter and Manuel Wood were named to their positions in October to replace Kevin Reece and Deborah Goldman who resigned in July. Their four-year term were less than half over, so the two seats will be open in the November election.
Commissioners Sam Foster and Rex Ashley will also be facing re-election.
Mayor Victor Varela will be completing his second term as mayor this year. He has not decided if he will run for re-election.
Varela is optimistic about the New Year and said the board is working together. He said town officials learned in the past year they needed to improve regulations and procedures within the town and have made progress to accomplish that.
“The new year will be a time of renewal and reorganization. “We are working hard with Ron Niland, a consultant hired by the town in April, to get our operations streamlined,” said Varela.
He said the town officials are looking forward to waterline being installed along N.C. 268 East beginning in 2015, which will add about 100 water customers to the town. Work can begin once the Wilkes County commissioners approve a construction bid.
The new customers will include 21 households near wells contaminated by old underground gas tanks that leaked. The tanks have been removed.
Earlier this year Wilkes County commissioners agreed to apply for grants and serve as a “passthrough’ for Ronda, meaning the money goes through county government to Ronda.
Officials have said Ronda wasn’t eligible to apply for the funds because it already received grants from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) and N.C. Rural Center.
Town officials are also working to market the town in new ways by building a website.
The town will continue to apply for grants from the state to improve the town’s park on the Yadkin River. The hope, said Varela, is to get bathrooms into the park and begin looking at placing sidewalks along town streets from Ronda-Clingman Road to N. C. 268 onto the town hall.
Town officials also hope to apply and receive a USDA grant to renovate town hall.
WRMC
Beginning in January, Wilkes Regional Medical Center’s OB-GYN clinic will include telemedicine, which will allow patients remote access to a geneticist from Charlotte’s Carolina Medical Center.
Gene Faile, Wilkes Regional’s president and chief executive officer, said the new advancement will allow patients to seek specialized care without traveling to Charlotte.
Construction on WRMC’s Rock Creek Family Medicine and Urgent Care should be complete early this year. The new facility in eastern Wilkes County is expected to open in February and will serve patients seven days a week.
Faile said Wilkes Regional also looks forward to bringing in new physicians throughout the year.
SPENCER, N.C. — More visitors are saying all aboard in 2015. Nearly 90,000 people are expected to visit the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer by the end of 2015. It’s a move that workers said has pumped more than $1 million into the local economy.
As more people visit the museum, workers say it could help fill some empty storefronts in downtown Spencer.
From Polar Express to the International Streamliner event, which organizers say added $1.8 million to the economy, people are showing up to watch history in action.
“Important to engage youngsters in some of our history, kids today are very engrossed in handheld electronics,” said Cheri George with the Fire Up 611! Committee through the Virginia Museum of Transportation.
Visitation is up 15 percent and downtown could see changes.
“Bringing that money into the local economy is a good boost for the government infrastructure, for them to set up these areas for businesses to come in,” said Mark Brown, with marketing at the Transportation Museum.
A restoration project on a 611 and coal car, or tender, ultimately headed back to Virginia, is also attracting more visitors.
Volunteers from Virginia are working on the project.
“Making some modifications to the stoker itself. There’s an augur, a screw that feeds the coal through a tube and underneath the apron of the locomotive into the firebox,” said George.
New donations being restored are another draw.
“[We have] a 1966 firetruck that’s gonna be great because that’s going to be part of our teaching collection so we can drive that around the property,” said Brown.
Work restoring buildings isn’t finished. A powerhouse on the property will be transformed into a meeting hall.
“The bottom line is, that if there are people, there will be businesses to support those people. And that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to bring as many people here to the Transportation Museum as we possibly can,” said Brown.
It is all changes that impact the local economy and keep some of the magic alive.
“A chance to learn more about our history, where we came from and how we got here,” said George.
The first phase of construction on the powerhouse will be completed in summer of 2015.
If you heard that loud sighing sound coming from New York state earlier this month, that was probably a sigh of relief as Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo finally agreed to a statewide ban on fracking. The ban followed the release of the state’s Department of Health study, which basically concluded that the known unknowns of this unconventional method of drilling for natural gas amounted to a significant potential for adverse public health impacts that could not be ignored.
We’re also guessing that business considerations came into play. In the past, fracking was generally confined to thinly populated areas of the western U.S. Now that it has become more common in the more heavily developed Northeast, fracking has been bumping up against pushback from stakeholders in established, local businesses. News of the fracking ban was probably most welcome by New York’s thriving upstate tourism and agriculture sectors, both of which come together in the growing popularity of winery tours.
However, the cheering had barely died down before news items from communities in New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Ohio reminded us that the fracking operation itself is only one part of the complex natural gas lifecycle. New York’s wineries are not out of the woods yet. When you consider the transportation and storage issues involved in getting natural gas out of the ground and into market, additional risks for local businesses emerge. The fracking ban does not address those risks.
One thing to keep in mind is that along with the fracking boom has come an increase in growth all along the transportation stage, which includes a growth in natural gas storage facilities.
Last year we took note of one such storage project: the proposed expansion of a natural gas storage facility using salt caverns in the heart of New York’s Finger Lakes wine country.
That project is under the auspices of Missouri-based Inergy LP. While Inergy claims that the caverns are sound, local organizations have called attention to problems with the structural integrity of the formations.
Local activists have also mobilized against the Crestwood salt cavern storage facility for natural gas just north of Watkins Glen. Citing concern over potential methane leaks, a group affiliated with We Are Seneca Lake blockaded the facility last week, capping a two-month civil disobedience campaign that has already racked up 170 arrests.
Fracking ban or not, natural gas from other states will continue to make its way into New York, so expect more attention to focus on those storage facilities.
Another form of pressure that upstate New York residents and businesses could face is the construction of additional natural gas pipelines.
The natural gas pipeline issue came to the fore last week, when our friends over at FuelFix.com reported that landowners are resisting the efforts of Dominion Resources to build the new Atlantic Coast natural gas pipeline. The route goes through West Virginia and North Carolina as well as Virginia, affecting 3,331 properties.
According to FuelFix, so far the company has filed suit against 47 landowners in Virginia who have failed to grant Dominion access to survey the pipeline route through their property. Another 50 or so lawsuits are anticipated in the near future.
While relatively rare in comparison to the many thousands of miles of pipe webbing the U.S., natural gas pipeline disasters do happen, and the risk potential clearly undermines the efforts of local economies to build a bucolic, healthful brand.
Pennsylvania illustrates another risk feature in the natural gas lifecycle, which is how to account for the many millions of gallons of wastewater generated by fracking operations.
Frequently, fracking wastewater is shipped offsite in tanker trucks and transported across state lines for disposal.
That disposal could include use of spent fracking brine as a road de-icer, so even if New York state bans fracking it could still serve as a disposal resource for fracking wastewater.
That opens up two cans of worms. In addition to the impact of spreading wastewater on open roads, the Pennsylvania situation draws attention to the emergency response hazards posed by an increase in tanker truck traffic.
On Dec. 26, the Star-Beacon, an Ohio newspaper, zeroed in on the fracking wastewater transportation issues that have beset Pennsylvania. Here are two key snippets:
“Often truck cargo isn’t labeled. Much of the byproduct from drillers’ fracking process — including the briny, chemically laced water — is classified as ‘residual waste.’ Drilling waste has been exempt from federal hazardous waste rules since the 1980s, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. So there are rarely placards on the trucks.”
“The passage of those trucks is often fraught. Many drivers hail from Texas or Oklahoma – places without the snow-slicked mountains typical of Northern Tier winters … And accidents are more and more common.”
The Star-Beacon’s interest in Pennsylvania fracking is tied to the concerns of its readership in Ashtabula County. Known for its vinyards and covered bridges, this Ohio county shares similarities with upstate New York communities that have developed an economic foundation that is incompatible, to say the least, with fracking.
Nevertheless, fracking could come to Ashtabula County. Back on Nov. 9, the Star-Beacon reported on some of the economic benefits that could come along with it, such as the sale of drilling rights and an increase in hotel bookings.
We’re guessing that the Dec. 26 article will raise plenty of red flags among Ashtabula stakeholders in the winery and tourism sectors.
However, as with the situation in upstate New York, a local or even a statewide ban on fracking doesn’t necessarily insulate a community from impacts related to transportation, storage and disposal operations.
Image (cropped): By Stephen Depolo via flickr.com, creative commons license.
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3 Comments ▼▼▼AUGUSTA — If there’s a chance to network, Nancy Marshall seizes it. And if there’s a challenge, she’s up for it.
For instance, to win a contract working with Northern Outdoors, she told company officials that if they hired her firm, she would become a Maine Guide, and she did.
More recently, Marshall, 54, has been doing work with BikeMaine and has committed to participating in next year’s weeklong ride, a longer ride than the Trek Across Maine, which she did for several years.
“I do these things because I feel to do PR it’s really important to immerse yourself,” Marshall said in a recent interview in her office on Western Avenue in Augusta.
For her continuing success in growing Nancy Marshall Communications from its inception in 1991 to today, she will receive the President’s Award from the Kennebec Valley Chamber of Commerce at the banquet Jan. 23 at the Augusta Civic Center.
Marshall employs a dozen people and provides marketing and communications services in the areas of tourism, education and health care. Currently CEO of her firm, she specializes in personal branding strategies. “I help people uncover what their personal brand is and help design a way to promote it on social media,” she said.
She offers strategic marketing plans under the trademark of “The Marshall Plans,” laying out a road map for the next one to three years for a firm and providing ways to measure success.
“One of the keys to success is simple perseverance and tenacity,” she said.
Marshall has witnessed big changes in the public relations field. Formerly most information about businesses and organizations came through the media, but now those same businesses and organizations can reach targeted audiences directly through the Internet and social media.
“I think social media was invented for me,” she said. “It’s social and I am social.”
Marshall said she’s found great opportunities through social media but says she also wants that face-to-face connection.
Marshall is a graduate of Colby College and of Thomas College. She began her communications career at WCBB-TV, Channel 10, in 1983, moved on to Sugarloaf in 1984 and then started her own public relations firm in 1991.
Her firm held the marketing contract for 20 years with the Maine Office of Tourism and has contracts with a number of clients, including the Maine Beer Wine Distributors Association, Maine Children’s Home for Little Wanderers, MaineGeneral and numerous others.
She’s a familiar figure to members of the Kennebec Valley Chamber as well.
Chamber member Delta Ambulance contracted with Nancy Marshall Communications and learned how to promote its accomplishments to the public.
“Working with her has been interesting,” said Bill McKenna, Delta’s director of community relations. “Tim Beals and I have been with Delta for 30 years, and they’re finding things that we should be telling people. It’s a different viewpoint..”
The firm redesigned Delta Ambulance’s website for mobile devices, worked on its Facebook presence, updated literature and provided customer service training for the crews.
“It’s great to have somebody to bounce something off of,” McKenna said.
Nancy Marshall works outside Maine as well. She has written a book, “PR Works,” which comes out in January and will be sold through Amazon.com.
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This Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014, photo, provided by the The Las Vegas Ski Snowboard Resort, shows a fresh snow fall at the resort near Las Vegas. The National Weather Service reported snow showers and flurries Wednesday morning in parts of the Las Vegas valley, but virtually none of it stuck. (AP Photo/The Las Vegas Ski Snowboard Resort, Jim Seely)
Posted: Wednesday, December 31, 2014 2:14 pm
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Updated: 11:16 am, Thu Jan 1, 2015.
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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Las Vegas visitors hoping for a winter wonderland on New Year’s Eve can bet on plenty of cold but not much of the white stuff.
The National Weather Service reported snow showers and flurries Wednesday morning in parts of the Las Vegas valley, but virtually none of it was sticking. Forecasters predicted a 20 percent chance of snow in the evening.
Snow did build up on the city’s outskirts, including at the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard about an hour’s drive from downtown, where two inches were reported on Wednesday.
About 340,000 people are expected to visit Las Vegas for an extravagant New Year’s Eve fireworks show and party that closes down traffic on the Strip. They’re advised to bundle up — overnight temperatures are expected to dip as low as 23 degrees, and meteorologists have issued a hard-freeze watch for the valley through Friday morning.
The chill is part of a cold front stretching over much of the western U.S.
In Las Vegas, better known for its blistering summer heat, tourists on the Strip took the cold snap in stride.
Jared Corriveau, 24, of Ohio, wore a T-shirt on Tuesday as he walked with his family outside. Others wore coats and shoved their hands deep into their pockets, including Marcio Berri, 26, of Brazil.
“Who would expect snowing in Vegas?” Berri said.
He said he’d likely buy some new scarves and gloves before New Year’s Eve night, when he still planned to stand outside on the Strip with the masses.
“We’re gonna be in the street. It doesn’t matter how cold it is,” Berri said.
© 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Rose Parade gets off to unusually chilly start
Rose Parade gets off to unusually chilly start
Rose Parade gets off to unusually chilly start
Rose Parade gets off to unusually chilly start
Rose Parade gets off to unusually chilly start
Storm brings snow, cold to West for New Year’s
Storm brings snow, cold to West for New Year’s
Storm brings snow, cold to West for New Year’s
Storm brings snow, cold to West for New Year’s
Storm brings snow, cold to West for New Year’s
Posted in
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on
Wednesday, December 31, 2014 2:14 pm.
Updated: 11:16 am.
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CHARLOTTE, N.C., Dec. 31, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — FairPoint Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: FRP), a leading communications provider, today announced that it had received the official ruling of Region 1 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rejecting entirely charges by the Communications Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and declaring the parties had in fact reached a good faith impasse and FairPoint lawfully implemented its final proposals.
“We appreciate the fair and objective review of the facts that resulted in a favorable ruling at the Regional level,” said Paul Sunu, Chief Executive Officer of FairPoint. “As described in the NLRB ruling, FairPoint engaged in lawful bargaining designed to achieve our stated goals of cost savings and operational flexibility. The ruling today is gratifying and confirms our position and honest belief that we have bargained in good faith. As the unions appeal to the General Counsel of the NLRB, my expectation is that our case will continue to receive the fair and objective treatment that it did at the Regional level.”
“The unions have made allegations of bad faith bargaining their primary public rallying cry since before their decision to strike,” Sunu continued. “In this ruling the NLRB has declared there is no merit to these claims. The ruling establishes that the unions’ allegations were just propaganda. The unions have campaigned with the media, elected officials, the communities of the region and their membership seeking to blame FairPoint for the ongoing labor dispute. The time for all this spinning is over as the truth is now known. It is high time that the unions address the real issues that should have been addressed well before any strike.”
From FairPoint’s perspective, the ruling also gives the negotiations an opportunity to reset. FairPoint’s proposals are lawfully in place, but the company remains willing to listen to reasonable union proposals that both ensure FairPoint’s ability to compete and are acceptable to the unions.
“In the meantime, our top priority remains providing great service to northern New England,” said Sunu. “We appreciate our customers’ patience and regret the disruptions and delays the unions’ choices have caused, but our contingency efforts get stronger by the day. We are developing more permanent solutions and have increased our recruitment and training efforts to attract additional qualified technicians and service providers to handle the work and help consistently deliver the level of service our customers expect.”
About FairPoint Communications, Inc.
FairPoint Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: FRP) provides advanced data, voice and video technologies to single and multi-site businesses, public and private institutions, consumers, wireless companies and wholesale re-sellers in 17 states. Leveraging an owned, fiber-core Ethernet network – including more than 16,000 route miles of fiber in northern New England – FairPoint has the network coverage, scalable bandwidth and transport capacity to support enhanced applications, including the next generation of mobile and cloud-based communications, such as small cell wireless backhaul technology, voice over IP, data center colocation services, managed services and disaster recovery. For more information, visit www.FairPoint.com.
SOURCE FairPoint Communications, Inc.
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