PageO Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, July 27, 2016 `lkpqor`qflk =======================================================================================================================================================================
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Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Trends
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‘Looking pretty good’ A
Contractors optimistic about future
rea contractors are dealing with a variety of challenges in their work these days but are staying opti-
mistic. Homebuilder Bill Thornburg, who has been in business for himself since 1983, said he has stayed “fairly busy” with renovations, remodels and additions, even though he’s not building as many homes as he did before the nation’s economic problems started in 2008. Thornburg “We used to build three or four houses a year, and it’s gotten slow, and we don’t build that many houses anymore,” he said. Greenwood lacks subdivisions or lots to build in, but when there was more industry, people often would come to town, buy an older existing house and have it redone to suit their needs. However, the population decline and industrial losses have affected the business, he said. Also, agriculture has an impact on housing, he said. “When the farmers have a good year, we have a good year,” he said — adding that even if contractors aren’t working directly for farmers, the farmers’ success trickles down to chemical companies and others dealing with them. The future depends on the public, but it helps for a contractor to be able to do a variety of things, said Thornburg, whose business also does foundation work, roofing, painting and other things for residential customers. “You couldn’t specialize in anything
here and stay busy. ... I could be busier if I wanted to travel. But I haven’t had to travel yet, so I’d just as soon stay around here,” he said. Thornburg said building techniques don’t change much, but he does keep up with trends in what finished products people want. For example, outdoor kitchens are particularly in demand now. The Internet also helps his ability to add special features to a home. “Years ago, we had three lumber yards here, and if you went in and they said you couldn’t get it, you just couldn’t get it,” he said. “Now, if it’s available, you can get it.” v v v
On the industrial side, Malouf Construction has seen an increasing amount of work available, said Andy Holliday, the company’s vice president. For three years or so, it was “dead, pretty much” in the area, but “we’ve seen a little bit of an incline in this area in the past few months,” he said. Much of Malouf’s work is elsewhere in Mississippi or out of the state, although it is constructing Rail Spike Park and was the low bidder on the Viking connector road and a taxiway widening project at Greenwood-Leflore Airport. Other areas of growth in the state have included bridge rehabilitation and projects related to the steel industry. Holliday said the biggest hurdle the company faces involves finding people with the necessary skills, especially in rural areas. “The people that have been with us a while, they travel with us from job to job,
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but you typically try to hire some when you get a new project in a new area, and it’s always a challenge,” he said. “We seem to do better training people and moving them up the ladder.” Overall, he said he is optimistic: “We’ve got a nice backlog of work and a lot of stuff to bid. It’s looking pretty good.” v v v
Brian Robinson, president of Clevelandbased Robinson Electric, said business there has been “very, very strong” even with the slow economy. Business increased last year and is expected to be even better this year, he said. The market has shifted from government work, such as schools and the Mississippi Department of Transportation, to the private sector, which now makes up about 90 percent of Robinson’s business. Robinson said LED lighting has done particularly well. Other popular business categories include convenience stores and agriculture-based businesses such as grain and fertilizer facilities. “We’re blessed to have a lot of work and a lot of people to do it,” he said. Robinson said it also helps that the cost of business is as low as it’s been in the last seven or eight years, aside from costs such as insurance increases related to regulation. “Commodities are down; copper’s down; everything we deal in is down; fuel costs are down,” he said. “And everything else is pretty much following that trend.” The biggest challenge is finding skilled
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people in the Delta who “actually want to work with their hands and get out and learn a trade and climb the ladder,” he said. In fact, the company has to go out of state to recruit skilled people to come to the area. “Everyone wants to start at the top, or they don’t want to start at all,” Robinson said. “Nobody wants to come in on the ground floor and work their way back up through. And we’re finding out with the millennials that everybody wants to sit and work behind a computer.” Work seems to be there, but “the challenge is getting it done with the right people,” he said. v v v
Mike Upchurch, vice president of Upchurch Plumbing, said the company has had a slow year — after having its best year ever in 2015 — but is looking forward to a busier 2017. Upchurch estimated that the company does 80 percent of its work outside the Delta, with a footprint from North Carolina to Texas. Recent Delta projects have included work at the vo-tech building at Mississippi Delta Community College in Moorhead, Baxter Healthcare in Cleveland and Yazoo City High School. Other Mississippi work locations have included Hattiesburg and the University of Mississippi. “Our concept is, we’re just going where the work is instead of waiting here and not getting any,” Upchurch said. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------pÉÉ OUTLOOKI=m~ÖÉ=S
PageQ Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, July 27, 2016 `lkpqor`qflk =======================================================================================================================================================================
Kenneth R. Thompson Jr. Builder Inc./KT Builder
3 generations on the job K
Family members, longtime employees firm’s foundation
enneth R. Thompson Jr. Builder Inc. is a family business. Currently three generations work at the construction company, which was established by Kenneth Thompson Jr. in 1982. “I don’t think you have many situations like ours,” said Jim McNeer, the operations manager, who is also married to Thompson’s daughter, Kim. “I don’t think you have many companies that work together like we do. ... It just works out really well. We all have a good working relationship, but it bleeds over because we all have a good family relationship. I think when you have that, it makes work a whole lot better.” The construction company — which is transitioning its name from Kenneth R. Thompson Jr. Builder Inc. to KT Builder — consists of 20 employees, including Thompson, some of his family and several longtime employees. Thompson has had a passion for the construction business for many years. “I just look forward to working every day when I get up,” he said. Thompson graduated from Greenwood High School and attended Mississippi State University, where he studied architecture. He had experience working in construction from part-time jobs while still in high school. When he came back to Greenwood, he got right back into the construction business. Thompson said he soon realized, “I’d rather build it than draw it.” He worked for other construction companies for a while and then set out on his own, starting with just a couple of employees. KT Builder originally began as a home building company. In less than a decade, however, it quickly expanded and got into commercial construction. KT Builder quickly found a specialty. “We do renovations and new construction on things like schools, churches, public facilities, strip malls, banks, and we do a lot of historical renovation. That’s been the specialty of this company for many years,” McNeer said. “There’s not a lot of people out there who do (historical renovations).” Thompson said that some of the first commercial jobs the company was involved with were historical renovations. “We just got into it and did some of them and liked it,” he said. McNeer said that KT Builder’s skilled
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craftsmen are what led to the company’s success with historical renovations. “When you realize you have a team that is good at building something, it’s kind of what you lean toward,” he said. “(Thompson) built a company with great craftsmen, who are very good at that kind of stuff. “A church building built in the early 1900s has got trim and things like that made by hand, and you’ve got to have craftsmen who will be able to replicate that kind of stuff.” McNeer said KT Builder has a longtime employee who is “one of the best carpenters you’ll ever see,” and now he is passing on the skill to his son, who also starting working for the construction company. “You have to have very specific training to be able to do that kind of stuff, and he is going to be a part of carrying on that tradition of being that craftsman,” he said. “So it kind of gives you
more of a true meaning of a family business.” Although some of the KT Builder employees are actual family members, McNeer added for the company as a whole, “We’re all family.” KT Builder has been involved with many construction projects in Greenwood, including the renovation at the Staplcotn headquarters; building Greenwood-Leflore Hospital’s Outpatient Rehabilitation & Wellness Center and the Elks Lodge on Sgt. John Pittman Drive; renovations at First Baptist Church, North Greenwood Baptist Church, First Presbyterian Church, Immaculate of Heart of Mary Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church of the Nativity and the Lighthouse at St. John’s United Methodist Church; adding on to Coleman Eye Center; renovations at Pillow Academy and at the Museum of the Mississippi Delta; and work with Emily Roush-Elliott and Richard Elliott
on the Baptist Town Katrina cottages. KT Builder also did the well-known construction work about 12 years ago in downtown Greenwood on Howard and Main streets, which included lighting and new sidewalks. The company has also worked on the construction of several Viking Range facilities, including the training center, which won a construction award in 2002. Current local projects include work at Golden Age Nursing Home and renovations at the Greenwood Police Department. KT Builder is also known for work throughout Mississippi and is licensed in five other states. The company has won numerous construction awards, including one for building 300 playgrounds at day care centers located along the Mississippi Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------pÉÉ THOMPSONI=m~ÖÉ=S
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Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, July 27, 2016
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PageS Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, July 27, 2016 `lkpqor`qflk =======================================================================================================================================================================
Kit Higginbotham Construction Co.
Custom jobs K
As he approaches 80, homebuilder plans to keep working
it Higginbotham enjoys making other people’s dreams come true when it comes to a home. “I do it like a custom house. Whatever they want, I’m going to give it to them,” said Higginbotham, 79, the owner of Higginbotham Construction Co. A native of Shuqualak, Higginbotham spent many of his younger years serving in the U.S. Army as an electronic technician. He spent much of his time in the service building Army communication centers. When he retired in 1977, he knew what he wanted to do next. His first wife, Frances, had a brother and sister living in Greenwood. So the couple rented a place on Strong Avenue and settled down. In 1973, Higginbotham bought his homestead on Airport Road. The existing home there was in bad condition, so he tore it down and built a new home. He started doing renovation jobs, and after getting a steady stream of work, he branched out into the lucrative home construction market. He works with the homeowner and the architects, such as his
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`çåíáåìÉÇ=Ñêçã=m~ÖÉ=Q -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Most recently, KT Builder was involved with the restoration of the Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner, which was the site of the trial and aquittal of Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam for the murder of Emmett Till in 1955. The historic preservation and new construction of the courthouse was headed by Eupora-based Belinda Stewart Architects and won numerous construction and architecture awards. “We have good working relationships,” said Kim McNeer, the company’s controller. She said KT Builder has even worked with many people, businesses and architects multiple times. “They appreciate the work that we do,” she said. The company boasts many recommendations, including Viking Range founder Fred Carl Jr., who said, “Kenny Thompson and his team are extremely quality conscious and are diligent with maintaining the project schedule. They are very professional, highly responsive and a pleasure to deal with.” Jim McNeer said the success of
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Higginbotham’s done several custom homes in Greenwood, Indianola and Greenville and is proud of the work put into each one. He is also currently working on a small kitchen-remodeling job in North Greenwood. That way, he can keep his crew of eight full-time employees busy throughout the year. His crews go wherever the work is. Higginbotham’s first wife, Frances, died, and he later married his second wife, Carolyn. He has one daughter, Robin Carlisle, who is a retired speech patholo-
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gist in Brandon, and a son, Rodney. Rodney works with his father and also works on his own. “Rodney is a kitchen man. He’s good at kitchens and baths,” Higginbotham said. Homeowners often are picky about cabinetry, he said. “Sometimes we buy the cabinets, and sometimes we build,” he said. “Often a client will say ‘So-and-so built my last cabinets, and I was satisfied with them. I’d like to have him build these, too,’” Higginbotham said.
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the company is due to not only the quality of work but also the quality of people who work there. “I think the people who handle our projects speak a lot about what we stand for,” he said. “We have a great group of superintendents. We have someone on each job to oversee
ing and plumbing prefab shop in 2012. With jobs being done in Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, and `çåíáåìÉÇ=Ñêçã=m~ÖÉ=P other places, “we think it’s ---------------------------------------------------------- an advantage to us to preOne trend that fab as much as we can in Upchurch has tried to cap- Greenwood and ship it to italize on is the move wherever we have to go,” toward prefabrication. Upchurch said. The company added a Another trend in the sheet metal shop and heating, ventilation and sheet metal prefabrication air conditioning field is the facility in 2009 and a pip- Variable Flow Refrigerant
that project every day and to deal with the owner one on one. That leads to great working relationships. You end up being friends with who you are working with, and they just want you back when you deliver a good project on time within budget with few problems.” n
system — individual units for rooms, which offer better comfort control and more economical operation. Upchurch has added such systems at MDCC and Yazoo County High. Mike Upchurch said other contractors who do commercial and industrial work have told him they also have had trouble finding either public or private business.
“Mississippi’s later coming out of the recession than the other states around us,” he said. “I thought they would have been out by now, but they haven’t.” Still, he said, the company is looking at a number of prospects for 2017 that look promising. “I think next year’s going to be a better year,” he said. n
He said most customers will choose custom-made cabinets over ready-made. One thing about opting for ready-made is that it speeds up the work. Although the housing market is showing some signs of coming back, there are things that have hindered that process. “Things cost more now. You’ve got to watch it closely,” he said. “Things cost more. Labor costs more.” Still, in the end, with regards to custom-built homes, “the customer wants what they want.” Higginbotham is particularly proud of his reputation as a quality contractor, which has been spread by word of mouth for almost 40 years. “If you satisfy people, they are going to get you,” he said. He also was presented the Mississippi Homebuilders Association’s Award for homes of 5,000 square feet and above for one on Robert E. Lee Drive. As he approaches his 80th birthday in December, he still loves his work and plans to keep going. “As long as I enjoy it and I am able to do it, I’m going to continue to do it,” he said. n
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Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, July 27, 2016
R.C. Construction
Soaring business R
Family company has grown since opening in 1986
.C. Construction has seen a lot of changes and growth since Greenwood’s John Powers came on board in 1991. The Greenwood office has gone from a three-person staff to 13, and the familyowned business currently employs 86 workers. “It’s very satisfying to see how things have grown in our business over the years,” said John Powers, president of R.C. Construction. “It’s a honor to carry on the family name in a business that is near and dear to our hearts.” Randy Scott, in his eighth year as civil projects manager, has seen marked growth in the company since he has been there. He says it’s a great place to work. “I’ve seen things grow from an employment standpoint and from the volume of work we do,” Scott said. “My favorite thing is the family atmosphere. There is an open-door policy there that promotes a perfect small-business feel.” The company has an equipment yard in North Carolina. R.C. Construction was founded in 1986 by his brother, Charles “Mo” Powers, who retired in 2008. John Powers, 65, began his career in construction in the family-owned contracting company, ACS Construction. He helped run that company for 20 years. His father, Harris Powers Sr. was from South Carolina who came to Greenwood area as a pilot in World War II. After the war he opened H.F. Powers Plumbing and Heating. H.F. Powers Plumbing and Heating became Air Conditioning Sales in the mid-1950s and subsequently ACS Construction Company. John’s son, Heston, 35, works alongside him and serves as vice president of R.C. Construction. The two maintain a very involved and “hands-on” approach to running the company. Both men are extremely involved in the general business administration and day-to-day field operations. Both admit it can challenging to work side by side so closely every day, but they say it has its rewards in the end. “It’s an enjoyable experience. I get to see my father’s perspective from 30 years ago. The roles are reversed, and I am on the other end of this business relationship now,” John Powers said. “I am learning a lot.” “I enjoy bridging the generation gap and accomplishing great things with great people,” Heston Powers said. “We have great people in the office and in the field.” The company got its start with the Department of Defense and later began doing work for the Federal Aviation Administration. R.C.’s specialty is in concrete airfield pavements. Now, it is branching into the private sector. One of the company’s biggest projects in the last few years was at Duke Field, Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. The project consisted of asphalt and concrete pavements, airfield lighting and an auxiliary airfield control tower. The simulated landing helicopter assault ship deck and two vertical landing pads were constructed with continuously reinforced high-temperature concrete pavement sections. The high temperature concrete was specially designed to resist extreme conditions generated by the Marine Corps new F35 Lightning Aircraft during vertical landings.
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That project coincided with another project at Eglin — the construction of airfield pavements, facilities and infrastructure for the joint strike fighter. The combined contract value of the two projects was $67 million. Airfield pavement work for the Department of Defense is a niche business; there aren’t a lot of companies in this country that do this type of work.
Scott said R.C. Construction runs “into the same 10 contractors each time” it bids on a job. R.C. is also involved in projects in the private sector, including two projects in Greenwood. The company built the new Cannon Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram dealership and is currently handling construction of a 14,000-square foot shop at Wade, Inc. and renovation of the
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existing shop and offices. Other areas of vertical construction for R.C. involves maintenance facilities, schools, waste treatment facilities and warehouses. Heston Powers hopes to see the business become even more involved in private construction and even move into international airport construction at some point. n
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Katrina Cottages
New homes, new homeowners I
Buildings part of effort to rehabilitate Baptist Town
n 2014-2015, Greenwood saw a boost in the availability of affordable housing for low-income people hoping to become homeowners. In just one year, of 25 Katrina cottages previously stored at the airport, 11 became Baptist Town homes through the work of the Greenwood-Leflore Fuller Center for Housing, architect Emily RoushElliott on behalf of the GreenwoodLeflore-Carroll Economic Development Foundation (GLCEDF), the City of RoushGreenwood and Elliott many other partners, including volunteers, laborers and neighbors. One cottage was placed on a College Street lot donated by the city. And just like that, 12 individuals or families who had previously been renters, spending disproportionate amounts of their income and gaining no equity, became homeowners. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but the pace of previous years was glacial by comparison. Rocky Powers, construction coordinator for the Fuller Center, estimates that in its first 28 years, the Greenwood affiliate previously known as Habitat for Humanity built one or two houses a year on average — 30 houses total since 1986. The convergence that occurred in Baptist Town is a one-time phenomenon, at least for now, Roush-Elliott said. For a number of reasons, the influx of new housing there is not likely to be replicated any time soon. Some of those reasons: n There is not an affordablehousing developer in Greenwood. n The cottages — the kind of small homes that were used to provide housing on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 — were donated, preassembled and given to the city by the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency after the hurricane. The few remaining cottages are one-bedroom models. n The modular housing industry hasn’t yet come up with a way to mass-produce affordable, modular single-family housing. “From a single-family, modular standpoint, it was a unique moment when we got the Katrina Cottages,” Roush-Elliott said. “It involved people knowing people and what to do with the leftovers, most not being used. “You really can’t find a Katrina cottage now if you want one. From that standpoint, it’s pretty unique.” The good news is that RoushElliott and the organizations she has partnered with — including Enterprise Community , Inc., the GLCEDF and the Fuller Center — know how to get the job done when the housing is made available.
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Baptist Town, one of Greenwood’s oldest AfricanAmerican neighborhoods with a rich history and a close-knit community, is known as a gathering place for legendary musicians in the mid-20th century. More recently, it also became known as a neighborhood that had fallen into deep disrepair with crumbling housing, nowhere for kids to play and a dilapidated infrastructure. Drive through Baptist Town today, a neighborhood already endowed with stately trees and a natural green perimeter, and you’ll see a basketball court and playground on a city park, two rows of pastel-colored, steelroofed houses on tidy lawns and a community center used for exercise and arts classes. “I think you can safely say that the project has had a positive impact on the residents of the cottages and the neighbors for sure,” Roush-Elliott said. “Improving those properties has enhanced the surrounding neighborhood. Nine of the 11 who bought those homes already had been renting in Baptist Town.” The Katrina cottages are sturdy and well-built, with 2-by-6’s and 2-by-10’s for wall and floor joists. Their exterior design mimics classic shotgun-style cottages, and so they fit in well in older neighborhoods. The interiors are designed more efficiently, and the houses are built with highquality materials, including a steel roof with a 50-year guarantee. Roush-Elliott said the community revitalization is ongoing and requires not just the efforts of well-meaning community organizations but buy-in from neighbors who live there. To that end, she and her husband, Richard Elliott, whose con-
struction company worked on the Baptist Town project, have continued to look for and identify both human and community needs. “We started looking at some of the housing in the area and asked what was needed in terms of weatherproofing,” RoushElliott said. “We found in many of them, older houses, that the air exchange was completely off the charts.” In other words, cool air couldn’t stay inside in the summer, and warm air couldn’t stay inside in the winter. Add to that an untrained work force and the need for workers to do simple weatherproofing on houses, and you’ve got a jobbuilding program built into a home repair initiative. Local construction companies have gotten on board with the program, and an open house held last week at the Baptist Town Community Center featured a number of newly trained workers ready to go out and get the job done. None of this could have happened without the shared purpose and partnership of the Fuller Center, Roush-Elliott said. The Fuller Center is headquartered in Americus, Georgia, and was founded by Millard Fuller, who was a co-founder of Habitat for Humanity but broke off in 2008. The faith-based philanthropic organization is 100 percent dedicated to providing houses and home ownership to people who can’t afford to do it through traditional routes. With 50 percent of the AfricanAmerican population of Greenwood living below federal poverty levels and a limited, aging low-income housing supply, this was a place where the center’s mission melded with the needs of the community.
Rocky Powers’ late wife, Elizabeth “Pann” Powers, was instrumental in starting the group here in 1986. When Rocky Powers, a commercial construction contractor, retired, he needled his wife about all the talking the group did. During that first year, he asked her why they didn’t just build a house. “If you think it’s so easy, why don’t you try doing it yourself?” she said — and he did. He found that some of the skills he’d cultivated as a contractor came in handy with an organization like Fuller Center, such as identifying what you need and asking for it. “My friend David Snell went to college with a friend whose family owns the biggest plumbing supply company in the U.S.,” Powers said. “I asked David, ‘You think he can help us?’ He did, and his friend said, ‘How about we give them to you?’ Toilets, sinks, pipes, fittings, he had eight of everything with Greenwood’s name on it. All we had to do was pick it up and store it.” Powers rattles off the number of times he has simply asked for something and been given it. Most recently, during work on a house in Itta Bena, the lot needed to be raised for drainage, requiring a lot of fill dirt. “One of our board members runs one of the big catfish plants,” Powers said. “I told him we needed to bring in some fill dirt and asked could we use his bulldozer. He lives out on a big farm and was planning to dig a new pond. He just dug it up and gave us all the dirt, truckloads of it. He said, ‘Sorry you can’t borrow the bulldozer because I’m using it to dig the pond, but I’ve got all kinds of farm equipment out there y’all can use if we’re not using it.’”
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Striking partnerships with local businesses and banks, along with its volunteers, has been the organization’s lifeblood. In Greenwood, Planters Bank partners with the Fuller Center to finance interest-free mortgages with monthly payments of around $150, depending on the size of the loan. Fuller Center’s board is all volunteer, including attorneys who provide legal expertise at no cost. Earnestine Epps heads the family selection committee, a key part of the process. “Anyone can apply,” Epps said. “We’ve got all kinds of homeowners: elderly, young, single, married with children, empty nesters.” Interested potential homeowners fill out applications, available at Planters Bank, and they are reviewed by Epps’ committee across several criteria. “We look at the applicant’s need for a home — the reason, some of the conditions of their current living environment,” she said. “We look at their Epps willingness to work with Fuller Center, to partner with us. We require them to do at least 500 volunteer hours, either working on the house or on some aspect of the homeowning process. If they can’t commit to do that, that’s one of the things we base our decision on. “Then we look at their ability to pay. We require a credit report so we can get a basic financial history of what they’ve been doing for a certain period to the present. Have they breached any leases before? Have they experienced foreclosure? They’ve got to show they’re able to keep up with the utility bills and other household needs. If we find that they are somebody who’s willing to work with us and meet all these conditions, we recommend to the board and the board makes a decision whether to accept or deny.” It’s a big commitment on the part of both the Fuller Center and the potential homeowner. The partnership continues, and the Center holds title to the house until it’s paid off. The first house paid off in Greenwood was in 2011, a 20-year loan. “We’re getting ready to put up a two-bedroom Katrina cottage, our last one, at the northwest corner of Washington and McLemore streets,” Roush said. “There are still nine one-bedroom Katrina cottages in storage that we’ll sell when we’ve recouped the money spent to develop the others. “There’s currently a backlog of applications, but we can always take more.” Powers said the organization’s biggest need is for volunteers. To find out more about volunteering, call 453-6057. n
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Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, July 27, 2016
US 82
Finally finished Those who travel highway happy with results
A
few months shy of a year after it started, the road work on U.S. 82 finally came to a close earlier this month. Workers and motorists seem to agree that the work has been a necessary evil. One Greenwood man who travels the highway every day, Bishop Roger Jenkins, said he sees the inconveniences as mild compared to all the benefits. “I’m proud of the work they’re doing,” Jenkins said. “I’m very patient with it because what they’re doing, they’re doing it for the best.” Rosemary Gatlin, a teacher at Leflore County Elementary School, said she drives the stretch of where the work zone was nearly every day. She said she was “extremely happy” about the work and thought it was “very necessary.” Gatlin said she previously felt as if she was seeing highways being renovated in every city
qÜáë=áë=~=ÇêçåÉÛëJÉóÉ=îáÉï=çÑ=íÜÉ=êÉëìêÑ~ÅáåÖ=çÑ=rKpK=UO=áå=dêÉÉåïççÇ=áå=lÅíçÄÉê=OMNRK=eÉêÉI=ÅêÉïë=ïçêâ çå=íÜÉ=ÜáÖÜï~ó=åÉ~ê=q~ää~Ü~íÅÜáÉ=píêÉÉíK except Greenwood: “I’m just happy they finally made it here.” Gatlin said she was patient with the work but looked forward to its end. The project was initiated by the Mississippi Department of
Transportation. Over the past eight or so months, MDOT contracted several different companies to complete the work. APAC Southeast, Inc. was the latest company to take it on. Warren Elmore, a worker with APAC who’s been in construction
for 12 years, said the company had been laying asphalt on U.S. 82 for about the last month of the project. “The hardest thing about this time of year is the heat,” he said. The men work every day unless there’s rain — and
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Elmore cited dehydration, heat stroke and fatigue as dangers of summer construction. Anorther ever-present threat is speeding vehicles. “I know they’re rushing late for work or when they get off, but tell them to slow down,” he said. “We want to go home just like they do.” Elmore said he had appreciated the community for being patient with the work and the amount of time it took. “It’s a very time-consuming job,” he said. “If you rush it, you’ll have to come back later and do reconstructive work.” Letting the workers take their time on the road assures that people will be able to ride on it for years to come, he said. Although MDOT, not the City of Greenwood, set the schedule for the work, city officials did hear complaints at first, Mayor Carolyn McAdams said. But as people began to see the results, the calls stopped, and the mayor estimated that the last three or four months of the period were complaint-free. “We’re just so excited about it,” she said. “The roads did need repaving.” n
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