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Manufactured vs. modular
October is Manufactured Housing Month in Mississippi, according to a recent press release from the Manufactured Housing Association in Flowood. The release went on to say that one out of every three Mississippi housing starts in the first six months of the year was a manufactured home. With so many manufactured homes sold in the state, there is no doubt the industry fills a need. But the volume of manufactured homes sold may help explain why so many people confuse them with modular construction. Emily Austill said she got a permit and financing for her modular home in Perkinston. But after the home was delivered and while finishing work was taking place, a neighbor protested her right to have the home, believing it to be manufactured. Austill said work has stopped on the home until the misunderstanding can be rectified.
EDITORIAL: Tax relief for recovery
The Legislature should reach fast conclusions about a proposed sales tax break on modular homes, especially to help reconstruction in Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast counties.
Barbour has set a special session for noon Thursday, and he seeks a sales tax reduction on modular home materials from 7 percent to 3 percent.
The Coast needs up to 100,000 new residences to replace homes destroyed or irreparably damaged by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Modular homes are partially assembled off-site, shipped and assembled on residential property. They are widely viewed as at least a partial and faster remedy in the home replacement market.
An earlier special session adjourned without passing the modular home tax reduction, with House of Representatives leaders saying the needed more time to fully analyze the proposal and its budget impact.
What's On At Storage Expo
Below is a summary of what's happening at Storage Expo 2006 with highlights of keynote sessions and exhibitor product launches. Keynote Sessions include: 1. Storage Security is a key issue, get it wrong and you fail all compliance and could lose your reputation and your company. Speakers include Paul Simmonds, Global Information Security Director, ICI; Sean Martin, Head of Architecture, The British Library and Graeme Haekland, IT Manager, Renault Formula 1. 2. Case studies will be featured throughout the keynote programme including Honda Formula 1, Ordnance Survey, Britannia Building Society, and The Moving Picture Company. 3. The wave of compliance regulations are tackled by 2 keynotes: Jon Fell a top lawyer from Pinsent Masons who will examine, Does your Storage stand up to legal scrutiny? and Rob Harding, KPMG who will ask Who is to blame when it all goes horribly, horribly wrong?.
Cary Sewage Spill Blamed On Contractor
CARY, N.C. -- Improper excavation led to a ruptured pipe and a massive sewage spill in June, according to a report released Monday by Cary officials. A pipe at Cary's Swift Creek Regional Pump Station failed June 23, forcing the town to shut the station down and causing almost 8 million gallons of raw sewage to flow into Swift Creek and Lake Wheeler and Lake Benson downstream. The lakes were closed to the public for several days, but no fish kills were reported. Brown and Caldwell, an engineering consultant hired by Cary officials in August to review the spill and the town's response, found that excavation work done by a private contractor as part of the pump station's expansion was too close to the main pipe and didn't provide the necessary support for the pipe.
Contractor gets another good deal
It looks as though Derry, N.H., contractor John Burke is finally going to start to pay for his part in a scheme to defraud the federal government out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in home-repair contracts. But he's still getting a good deal. Burke, who first pleaded guilty to bribery charges in March 2005, has managed to delay his sentencing until the end of this month. Burke paid about $100,000 in bribes over five year to former Veterans Administration loan specialist Robert Mayer of Salem, N.H., in exchange for home-renovation contracts worth $3.1 million. Mayer, a former Salem Planning Board member, faked invoices to make it appear several contractors had been awarded the jobs repairing homes the VA was renovating or selling. In fact, those contracts went only to those who paid him bribes.
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