Valley News from West Lebanon, New Hampshire • 7

WQrldNation Page' A7 Valley News Sunday July 18 2004 Sees Construction Costs Climb Masked Palestinian militants of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade demonstrate against the new appointmenti in the Palestinian security aparatus made yesterday Dresden Project Continued from Page Al Marlene McGonigle the director The price increases in construction were largely unforeseen and unforeseeable In December the Engineering News-Record a construction industry publication forecast that inflation levels for 2004 would remain unchanged from 2003 at a rate of 33 per- cent" i 7 But from December to April the cost of reinforcing bar rods for reinforcing concrete increased by nearly 68 percent and the cost of steel beams rose 52 percent according to MEPS International Ltd a leading steel marltet consulting company From April 2003 to April 2004 the price of rein- forcing bar increased 103 percent 1 Those increases landed on top of Increases in lumber costs last yean A sheet of plywood that had sold for $17 early last year had dou-( bled in price by the end of 2003 and today costs $29 said Bob Jackman manager of La Valley Building Supply in West Lebanon Engineering News-Record called the overall spike in the cost of building materials the largest since the 1970s had construction cast challenges on the order of 10 on the engineering building' Said Reed Beigwall director of facilities planning saw that increase in prices pretty much acrossihe Dartmouth which is in the middle of a major expansion is also casting a wary eye on the construction market Beigwall said What Beigwall said hewantsto see is five or six sub- contractors bidding for each element of a con- struction project For Some parts of the engi- neering building there were only one or two bidders these guys havea big stack of bid items on their desks right Beigwall said In addition to the engineering building Kerileny Hall and the Haldeman Academic Centers two joined buildings go out to bid in the next month and new residence halls planned for the comer of Maynard and College streets would go to bid later this year pending approval by the Hanover Planning Board he said Dartmouth has several other projects on the drawing board including a new dining hall another residence hall and a life sciences research building Bergwall declined to release die estimated cost of the engineering building still negotiating withbidders) and a lot in he said Prices are in flux because suppliers able to guarantee materials costs for more Chaos in Gaza Continued from Page A1 'v that Lsraej had no viable negotiating partner andmust move forward with Prime Minister 1 Ariel plan to unilaterally withdraw the army and settlers from Gaza next year The chaotic events also were likely to encourage opponents of plan who claim Israel cannot leave a security vacuum in Gaza and must stay Although failing to agree on the prime min- future Arafat and Qureia met earlier yesterday and approved a series of steps to bring more than a dozen disparate security services under a more unified command They consolidated the services into three branches but all will remain under Arafat's control The specifics of the restructuring were -not announced A reorganization of the splintered and often feuding security agencies was a primary demand oft he United States as part of itsmori- bund peace plan known as the Militant organizations expressed disap- pointment The Al Aqsa Brigades said the changes would fail to stem corruption that riddles the security forces and threatened to take the law into its own hands The political crisis was precipitated by the kidnapping of two top security officials and four French charity workeis in the Gaza Strip by militant organizations on Friday All were released unharmed after a few hours but the abductions reflected the anger on the streets at the perceived ineffectiveness of the Palestinian Authority While the United States and Israel have tried to sideline Arafat whom they see as the er of Mideast peace efforts Qureia's govern- ment has been paralyzed without Arafat's sup than a few days or weeks rather than quarterly as is often the norm Walsh said been a new experience on hesaid Eckman'S other projects are also running into cost problems he added churcli in Alton NH a YMCA in Lawrence Mass a new Town Hall in Londonderry NH and two schools in Derry' NH similar Wblsli said The Clark County School District headquartered in Las Vegas is in the middle of a 10-year plan to build 100 new schools and perform $850 million in renovations Bids that came in last week for four new1 elementary schools were significantly over budget said Ruby Alston the 280000-ftudent director of facilities and bond fund management With a budget of $16 million for each of the schools the low bids ranged from $177 million to $194 million she said Those increases are in line with experience think attributable to the although two of the schools have site problems that further inflated the cost she said'' i now we still have a balance in pur contingency but it reduced by $9 million very Alston said Projects that went to bid early iri the year in January or early February escaped some of the inflationary pressure That early in the year contractors are trying to line up their first projects said Phil Waier principal engineer at Meant a construction co6t publication based in Kingston Mass want them when they're he said Going to bid in January this year offered the added benefit of missing some of the price increases An $18 million Expansion and renovation of Champlain Valley Union High School in Hinesburg Vt went out to bid before the worst of the' price increases said Bob Mason chief operating officer for district a large extent we were ahead of Mason said Although the district experienced some price increases for steel and concrete Mason said he provide precise figures savings in other areas kept the project within its budget 1 Most construction experts have attributed the higher steel prices to huge demand for steel in China where a massive building boom is under way But the United States is in the middle of its own construction boom fueled by low interest rates Beigwall said Dresden officials cited the low interest rates area where something like that can Interest extends to VPR listeners in New Hampshire Dank Tfcare and Katharine Reichert have been monitoring test broadcasts on the new 881 frequency to assure themselves that reception will be clear and crisp at their Grantham home Teare a retired research engineer said he is about the new station and also $akl it will help focus an local culture and performances can here lots of music on VPR (now) but we are really looking forward to bring able to dial into classical music other times when you he said Although public radio stations around the country often offer some classical music programming many of them have been cutting back New Hampshire Public Radio for example has been a news-talk format for several years New VPR Station to Offer Classical Continued from Page Al y'-' as a reason vrikeis should support the school project The cost crunch has put a premium on planning While both the Dresden and CVU projects won voter approval in May 2003 Dresden's project went to bid a month or more after 17181 much time often leads to higher expenses Waier said Once an estimate is in hand a construction project go beyond another six before it goes to he mid But Dresden had planned to go to bid in March Brush said That was the timeline all along he added just wasn't a good Officials who put significant contingency funds into their project budgets are using those funds up while others including the 'new Dresden middle schoolare finding that their budgets include enough contingency money A construction estimate based on prelimi- nary design development drawings as the Dresden was should include a con- tingency of 15 percent of the estimated con- struction cost Waier said Once bids come in a 5 percent contingency is standard he added But pressure to keep the project budget as low as possible left a contingency of only 35 percent of the $30 million construction cost for the new middle school and renovated and expanded high school' contingency was attacked during the building committee stages" Brash Iri preparing the proposal for a May 2003 bond vote the Dresden Building Committee pushed hard to reduce the bond amount the time there was major concern that the pro- posal Brush said Voters in Hanover and Norwich approved the $384 million school construction plan by a ratio of more than 3-1 were seeking to get our bond number to what would be reasonable to something that would be said Linda Gray a member of the Dresden School Board A 35 percent contingency is low by industry standards Waier said would recommend that the owner have another 5 percent in the bank for change after accepting bids for a project he said Without that much contingency available Dresden officials are considering making cuts to the high school construction project or ask- mg Hanover and Norwich residents for more money to complete die project as it was fust approved The Dresden School Board meets "on July 27 Music 247 And Media Life magazine reported in 2002 that only 34 commercial radio stations across the country still offered classical music Asked why classical music retained such a strong following locally Tare said poor television reception or lack of interest in the medium might also be a factor thing might be we have TV and I think terribly unusual in this Teare said fake their entertainment feed from television so quite likely to get it from classical A fund-raising drive for WNCH coordK nated in part by VPR board member and Norwich resident Jim Ashley has raised about $300000 to support the new station Vogelzang said it is hard to quantify the listener interest but will be a strong consistent listener base hope several thousand people tune in at Vogelzang raid will grow as the service What we do instead is simply complain bitterly at every turn about how terrible the ser- vice is at American retailers which has made complaining Gallagher points out only partly in jest part of the fun of shopping today- What is perhaps most important about the top 10 list though is what krays about where going It might not raem so at fust blush but the list does show that creativity in marketing and merchandisfog and store formats canpay off Ibn years ago Target (Na 4) was but a division of the department-store-driven company Dayton Hudson and now it is one of the most influential design retailers exposing millions of consumers to high-quality interesting unique merchandise even if is relatively cheap Costco loo was not on the list in the mid-1990s but has moved up to fifth place laigely because of its terrific merchandising which keeps shoppers excited and eager to spend And the drugstore chain Walgreens (No 9) is among the best in the industry with constant reinvention of its merchandise to appeal to changing tastes and a willingness to try new store formats -Even Sears the nostalgia entry on the list in sixth place has been bold in trying new things such as buying catalog retailer Land's End and aggressively marketing to ethnic consumers And one could argue has moved into doing what No2 retailor Home does bnly befog more creative about So maybe what looks on fust impression like a rather borfog 1st of the biggest retailers contains a bk of excitement after all If 'only we could just put some life back in foe grocery Homeland Security Spending port for its decisions Qureia also known as Abu Ala 'was appointed in September 2003 when the fust primeminister of the Palestinian government Mahmoud Abbas quit after just four months The two men were among the main negotiators of the 1993 Oslo peace agreement with Israel that created the Palestinian Authority Qureia's resignation was the third in two days among well-known figures in the Palestinian hierarchy The head of the Palestinian Intelligence Service Maj Gen Amin al Hindi and the head of Preventive Security in the Gaza Strip Rashid Abu Shhak-also quit Friday Their resignations also were not imme-diately accepted by Arafat In addition to structural changes in the security forces Arafat issued a presidential decree replacing his national security chief and his-national police chief- Arafat appointed his cousin Mousa Arafat as chief of public security replacing Abdel Razzak Al-Majaideh who was given the title of security adviser Mousa Arafat was among the earliest mem-i beis of the Fatah movement that launched the Palestinian national struggle in 1965 The Palestinian leader also appointed Saeb al-Ajez as the new police chief for the West Bank and Gaza He replaced Ghazi Jabali one of the security officials who was kidnapped on Friday Jabali has been widely accused of corruption Hundreds of protesters many of them armed marched to the Palestinian Legislative: Council building in Gaza City waving banners and chanting slogans decrying tlx new appointments' fy battle is between big cities that are tra- dkional targets of terrorism like New York and LA and rural areas that want their fair share ofhomeland security money but are not necessarily facing as great a threat" he said provides a ton of money for states' who might not know what to do with Lawmakers are tinkering with the formula that determines how much money each state receives but a sensitive issue Some lawmakers believe states with high-profile targets 1 should get more money while others argue that terrorists could strike anywhere even in the most rural communities really goes to the core of what these guys fight about: getting their fair share of the pie back to their home Kady raid want to make $ure that their home dis-- trict whether ground zero in Manhattan or Dublin Ohio gets its fair share of homeland security money No one wants to be unprepared for the next terrorist Most departments in the Concord area used their homeland security money for two things: addkional radio equipment and protective gear for their officers Concord the state capital has used grants for training to deal with bio- hazards terrorist attacks and pros causalities The focus on homeland security makes harder for departments especially those in small towns to get federal money for nonso-curity purposes But the list of items the federal government has approved for homeland security expenditures is expansive so sometimes small town departments find them-' selves pushing the boundaries of 'security" Hillsboro Mice Chief Bob Stafford says his town got about $23000 in homeland security money last year While half went to digital radios for the polfoe and fire departments the fire department will spend the rest probably on an information management System for computers Stafford says these are allowed by law: a ton of criteria you have K) follow you just go out and buy whatever you want" Deerfog Mice Chief James Pushee says he has to spaiid the grant oa digital radios because the regional dispatch is switching to digital soon His original plan though was splk the money wife the fire department He wasn't sure what he would have done with his half but he heard the firefighters were eyeing a set of ice rescue suits on die list of authorized he said- "-O- Concord MaNmm itrff writer Daniel Barrick contributed to this report Putting Squeeze on Supermarkets sees opportunities for several collaborative efforts' such as delayed broadcasts of local performances Lawrence also noted that the Hopkins ter provides educational programming for more than 19000 people in the area excluding ticket-buyers evidence of a strong inter-est in the arts retiree community is also part of the picture In general the retirees have lived all over the world They are very sophisticated and they are avid aits she said of the reasons they move here is because the Hop js here" Norwich resident Kathy Hoyt a longtime aide to former Vermont Gov Howard Dean said many Upper Valley residents are interested in more classical programming people just want a lot of expanded programming in-classical said Hoyt whore husband Norris served on the VPR bored in the put think this is clearly an Big-Box Retailers Continued from Page Al overlooked fundamentally believe that Wal-Mart has made a middle-class lifestyle possible for at least one if not two generations of Americans who unlike their parents are having to spend huge sums of money on medical insurance and the cost of said Paco Underhill president of retail consulting firm Envirosell and the author of several books on why and where people shop money has had to come out of something and Wkl-Mart has helped American families not be downwardly But if shoppers have succeeded in shaping the retail landscape according to their increasingly liiiuted budgets been far less successful in creating the supermarkets of their dreams Though the grocery industry historically has been a niche business operating regionally catering to local tastes and interests it is becoming much more national in focus why Kroger (No 3) Safeway (No 7) and Albertsons (No 8) are among the biggest retailers But while a big discounter can offer better prices the larger it gets marry supermarkets suffer from size Ttyfog to fight Wd-Mart and its growing food business supermarket chains -have been expanding across die country by acquiring other small operators while also catering more to Wall Street The result is enormous grocery retailers that are focused like never before on cutting costs (thrt is service) standardizing their merctaandix (reducing varietyjand centralizing operations(reduo-inglocal control) It's OK if you're selling diapers and batteries but a big boring supermarket leaves the typical customer cold Continued from Page Al 7 year to get the first wave of grants to the states but New Hampshire sketched out plans to spend the money in the weeks after the terrorist attacks A committee appointed by then-Gov Jeanne Shaheen recommended that police and fire departments switch to univer- sal modern radio systems so they could conn munjeate in the event of a disaster The committee akn recommended disaster training for hospitals" dinks and other health care' providers Just as Benson took office New Hampshire got just over $20 million from the federal government Most of went to new radios and dispatch systems the rest was doled out to communities based on population Mice and fire chiefs used their portion to buy state- approved items Their ojxions included chemical-resistant tape thermal foraging cameras X-ray machines sonar vacuum cleaners for decontamination bar code scanners to inventory equipment handheld computers bull horns and all-terrain vehicles Last week Benson cited ATVs as an example of unwise spending He saw one in a parade and prompted him to reconsider Nriy homeland security spending habits The four-wheelers are included on the state-approved list for person-nelequipment tofrom the Hot Benson wouldn't share other perceived spending abuses seen but he provided a broad outline saying like to see training more working together as a region duplicate equipment and He also said he wants money to be more meaning areas with higher risk of ter- rorist attack such as greater Concord during NASCAR week would get a higher proportion of federal money sleep or rest until we do right" Benson said Thursday John Lynch a Democrats candidate for governor called decision In a written statement Lynch said New Hampshire already has a system for distributing the grants bf careful planning and a rigorous grant review process by federal state and local fust responders and health experts went into determining how New federal homeland security dollars should be used" he raid must ask tough questions to make sure we are using our homeland security dollars as effectively as passible: But Craig unilateral decision to stop implementation of those homeland security improvements makes no Washington lawmakers are also debating howtobest pass out homeland security grants according to Martin Kady II who covers homeland sedtity for Qmesaonal Quarter- Wall Street and Wal-Mart got the supermarkets in a sandwich on all kinds of a very glamorous industry right now "raid Jeff Mrtzger publisher of Food Worid an industry trade publication gradually befog lost in the grocery store industry is die kind of cultlike enthuse asm that shoppers once had for their own regional drains dotted across the country There are still old-style favorites in the form of private companies such as Wegmans in upstate New York and Publix in Florida But the character and excitement once offered by local chains have in many cases been replaced by a far less inspired corporate mentality after bring purchased by enormous corporate parents makes it harder to be Uebmann said More broadly if the lop 10 list is a window into what really buying ly interesting stuff There are no fashion com1 panies on the Hsl No deparonent stores No specialty stores laigely things we need: lettuce sfounpoo hails paper towels arthritis mivtiwnt car hatteriff seems like we might just be a more practical hunch than we like to said Rick Gallagher publisher of Stores magazine which is put out by the National Retail Feder-atioo That picture te raid is at odds with the of shopping every for which America has a reputation -And something rise that defies conventional wisdom everything tfafo we might say about how much we value customer service look at this Gallagher said push conies to shove people are going to choose low prices over 1 I.