| Developer Says City Keeping Him From Renovating Crime-Ridden Area
ORLANDO, Fla. -- A developer says he has big plans to renovate several rundown apartment complexes in an Orlando neighborhood that has been riddled with crime. But he says the city is standing in the way. Developer Jimmy Yuken wants to renovate the Peppertree apartments on Mercy Drive, one by one. The problem is they all have code violations and the city says the most dangerous violations, including the unsafe stairs leading to the second floor units, have to be fixed in less than 60 days whether someone is living in the buildings or not. "We put in all the central air conditioning ducts," Yuken said during a walk-through of one of the units. Jimmy Yuken is in a hurry to gut the Peppertree apartment complex, but says he can't do it on the city's deadline.
Reborn Library Reconnects With City
If you think of the city as a human body, parts of the city can easily be seen as various organs or limbs. Atrain station is a metaphor for the feet, its roads and streets make up the circulatory system, parks are the lungs, an art museum might be the eyes, the ears are a concert hall. Hartford's higher functions — the brain and the life of the mind — are now housed in a beautiful new library on Main Street.
"New" library? Hasn't the city's library always been on Main Street, first housed in the Wadsworth Atheneum and, for the past 50 years, in its own building between Arch and Sheldon streets? I say "new" because the library's transformation over the past eight years has been so complete as to render it reborn, emerging from its cocoon of scaffolding a new building of light, views and civic welcome.
Hi-Point moving forward with new venture
A new heating, ventilation and air conditioning program set to begin Feb. 19 was highlighted at Wednesdays regular meeting of the Ohio Hi-Point Board of Education. The program is offered at the Urbana South Campus, located in the former armory located along U.S. Route 68, north of Urbana. Jon Whitsett, instructor, outlined the course curriculum, requirements and opportunities offered to adults. At least 20 adults have expressed interest, he said, and are applying for admission. New partnerships are being formed with local businesses which are helping in various ways, such as donating equipment and offering job opportunities after program completion. High School Director Nila Marquard briefed the board on the Hi-Point Hi-Tech program set from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, Feb.
Student's death at NYOS School investigated
For the first time, state agencies are speaking about the investigation into a little boy's fatal injury at school. Friends and family are preparing to lay 7-year-old Tevin Park-Flowers to rest, more than a week after a teacher found him suspended from a bathroom hook at NYOS Charter School.Police were first on scene when the teacher found Tevin in cardiac arrest, but the investigation extends beyond the Austin Police Department."Anytime there's a concern with a possibility of abuse or neglect at school... CPS conducts that investigation," said Chris Van Deusen, spokesperson for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, the parent agency of CPS.Like police, CPS is interviewing students, staff, and parents."We operate completely on the civil side of the law, and it's really about making sure children are safe," said Van Deusen.It will likely take more than two months for CPS to complete its report, which will be sent to NYOS and state education authorities, including the Texas Education Agency.
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