| |
The world outside Placer County's most troubled homes promises to be a friendlier one for children soon to be housed at a new Emergency Children's Shelter in North Auburn.Construction on the 12,000-square-foot school and living quarters, plus a 3,600-square-foot administrative and medical area, officially started Monday with a groundbreaking by elected officials.The shelter, built on county-owned land and with a price tag of $11.5 million, will be ready for occupancy next fall. The building will replace quarters nearby that county CEO Tom Miller and others described as "20 years past its time."The shelter provides temporary housing for children who need to be away from home because of abuse, neglect or other potentially harmful situations. About 300 children are placed in the emergency shelter yearly, Department of Health and Human Services Director Richard Burton said.Among the speakers at the groundbreaking ceremony was 23-year-old Amber Lane, a past resident of the Placer County facility and a recent California State University, Chico graduate.
On a per capita basis, we use about 15,000 kilowatt hours a year, more than twice as much as California or New York and well ahead of any other state. We've been gorging on electricity since the 1960s, back when the state's per capita usage was about 4,000 kilowatt hours a year, but we haven't really noticed much until this summer. Power was pretty cheap and our bills were relatively low. Not anymore. For many of us, our electric bills this summer mirrored our mortgage payments. One aspect of this problem, energy efficiency, is becoming a hot topic after being relatively dormant in Texas for years. And the area's energy-efficiency program, run by TXU Electric Delivery, still has $4 million available to homeowners to use by year's end for upgrading insulation and other weatherization measures -- sometimes with built-in rebates or, for those with low income, at no cost.
The challenge that faces anyone who wants to display collections of little objects is that unless the pieces are artfully arranged, they can make a room feel cluttered.
Before you part with a prized collection because you think it doesn't work in your close quarters, consider these possibilities. Collections will allow you to keep your treasures on display while at the same time saving valuable storage space where you might have been tempted to stash them.
Put tiny items, such as matchbox covers, shells or coins of modest value, into jars and display them on narrow photo shelves of 3 to 4 inches in depth. .
|
|
