Estimated total cost of $70-100 billion to replace
ALBANY — As the condition of aging bridges, roadways, transportation resources, and grids across the U.S. has increasingly become the focus of discussion, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has issued Renovations Needs of the U.S. Fire Service, a new report on the fire service’s aging infrastructure.
Two key findings within the report show that more than 21,000 firehouses across the country are beyond 40 years of age with total replacement costs estimated to be in the $70-$100 billion range.
The report draws on data found in the Fourth Needs Assessment for the U.S. Fire Service, a survey that compares what fire departments actually have with what existing standards, government regulations, and other guidance documents state as being required in order to be safe and effective. Relevant case studies were also considered as part of the research project.
The objective was to determine just how old firehouses are today, and what it would cost to rebuild current, compliant structures that keep first responders safe from harm at their workplace. The report identifies the number of stations that are over 40-years old; are not equipped with exhaust emission control; are without backup power; do not have separate facilities for female firefighters; and need mold remediation.
Findings from the report include the following:
21, 230 of U.S. fire stations (43 percent) are more than 40 years old, representing an 11 percent increase in aging infrastructure over the past 15 years.
The estimated cost to replace these stations is estimated at between $70 and $100 billion; costs depend on space needs, location, site condition, and department preferences.
Sixty-one percent of fire stations that are more than 40 years old are serving communities with less than 9,999 people.
A shortage of funding, tighter budgets, and a lack of grants are likely reasons for the large number of older stations.
29,120 fire stations (59 percent) in the U.S. are not equipped with exhaust emission control systems, which are critical for mitigating firefighter exposure to diesel fumes. These fumes can increase the likelihood of cardiovascular disease, cardiopulmonary disease, respiratory disease, and lung cancer.
Assistance to Firefighter Grants have helped reduce the number of firehouses without exhaust emission control systems from 66 to 59 percent.
Approximately 17,030 fire stations (35 percent) do not have access to backup power, which is critical for business continuity during an emergency event. When the power is out, firehouses without generators may run into issues with phones ringing, computers running, trucks being fueled, and garage bay doors opening. The cost to install backup generators runs between $850 million and $1.7 billion.
When fire stations were built 40-plus years ago, departments were exclusively male. Today, the most recent Needs Assessment estimates that 10 percent of career firefighters are female. The number of males and females in a particular fire department typically varies based on whether the fire company is career, volunteer or combination, as well as the size of the community. Further research is needed today to determine the number of stations that do not provide separate facilities for female firefighters and the estimated cost to renovate these stations.
The number of firehouses affected by mold is unknown, despite common perceptions that stations are susceptible given water damage, prolonged humidity, or dampness.
All fire stations should allocate resources for mold prevention including dehumidifiers, proper ventilation, mold inhibitors, and mold-killing cleaning products to reduce the likelihood of seasonal allergy and pneumonia-like symptoms.
Founded in 1896, NFPA is a global, nonprofit organization devoted to eliminating death, injury, property and economic loss due to fire, electrical and related hazards. For more information visit http://www.nfpa.org.
NEW IBERIA — Two months after Hurricane Barry hit Louisiana, people are still in recovery mode. Some in New Iberia are remaining hopeful that they are next on the list for the American Red cross.
On Mixon Street, two homes remain covered in blue tarp that conceal the missing roofs.
«You could see the sky, straight up, you could see Jesus,» is how one woman described the hole in her roof.
Hurricane Barry brought down a tree, leaving the front room exposed. Ladone Harrison was home when it happened.
«But I didn’t know because we were in the dark, and we had no lights, so I didn’t know until the next morning that my roof caved in because of a big roof sitting on top of it,» Harrison said.
Harrison says she has no other option but continue living in her damaged home, and now she’s concerned about the mold.
«It’s a lot, it’s thick, it’s all over the walls, the floors are getting soft. So those will cave in…it’s just getting worse and worse.»
But that’s not the only thing causing her to worry. One Sunday she was getting ready when she noticed something unusual.
«I seen a head sticking out of the closet, I said ‘oh my God, what is that.’ And its head was white so instantly I knew that was a possum!» Harrison said.
The homeowner is currently on a waiting list for the American Red Cross, remaining hopeful her front room will get repaired.
«I mean really, honestly, I thought Barry was going to come through and not bother anyone, and it did, everyone is like well I had no damage, and, well it did a number on me,» Harrison said.
For more information on help from Barry, click here.
A few months ago, Kelley Williams-Bolar started getting phone calls in the middle of the night, telling her she was on the news again. People were tagging her on Facebook and mentioning her on Twitter. “Honestly, I didn’t put the two together! I didn’t think other people would put the two together!” she told me this week.
The “two together” are Williams-Bolar and Felicity Huffman. Both are committed mothers of daughters. Both are working women. Both have become national-media sensations. Both are accused of committing crimes to obtain a better education for their children.
But Williams-Bolar and Huffman are not so much analogues as funhouse-mirror versions of each other, their stories of justice and injustice similar and yet distorted and converse. Huffman, who starred on Desperate Housewives, has admitted to paying $15,000 for a proctor to correct her daughter’s standardized-test scores. She was swept up in the “Varsity Blues” investigation into corruption, bribery, and fraud in elite-college admissions, and today she received a two-week sentence. A decade ago, Williams-Bolar was a single, black mother living in public housing. In 2011, the state of Ohio convicted and imprisoned her for falsifying her address to get her kids into better public schools. At Huffman’s sentencing hearing, a federal prosecutor cited Williams-Bolar’s case, calling prison the “great leveler.”
One is a story of a family having everything and wanting more, exemplifying the opportunity-hoarding of America’s often-unaccountable 1 percenters. The other is a story of a family working with what they had, seeking opportunity amid the deep forces of segregation, wealth inequality, and public underinvestment.
Williams-Bolar did not mean to become a cause célèbre any more than Huffman; she did not even realize she was doing anything wrong at the time. Having divorced her abusive spouse, she was attending the University of Akron, working as a teacher’s aide, and raising her daughters, Kayla and Jada. She wanted to become a teacher, as well as a homeowner, she told me, and she wanted to raise her daughters in better circumstances than she grew up in.
That meant seeking better options than the low-performing Akron public schools her daughters were attending. At one of them, the “ceiling [was] falling in,” she said: extensive water damage, mold, old and outdated textbooks, overworked teachers, unruly classrooms. Her kids were struggling. “My girls were very mild—especially my youngest one; she was a tiny little thing,” she said. “When my girls started getting bullied, I said no.”
Williams-Bolar’s father, Edward Williams, who lived nearby, spent ample time taking care of the girls. Williams-Bolar split time between the two homes herself — especially after her house was burglarized. The family decided to enroll the girls in school using his address in the nearby Copley-Fairlawn school district, which met all of Ohio’s 26 educational standards, whereas the Akron schools met only four. “The bullying helped push me over the edge to say, Well, my dad can take care of them. He can see that they get off and on the bus safely. He can watch them while I’m in college,” Williams-Bolar told me.
She loved that in the suburbs the girls were going to classrooms with far more resources. “That school out in Copley—they had acres of land. They had greenhouses! They had an experience that inner-city kids would never understand, you see,” she told me. “It was so fabulous—science and everything else too. But the science was what took me overboard. I was like: Look at this! They’ve got a greenhouse and it’s beautiful!”
What the Williams-Bolar family engaged in is called “boundary hopping” or “district hopping”—or, when it gets caught in the legal system, “residency fraud” or “enrollment fraud.” There are no hard numbers on how common it is, but it is very, very common, educational experts believe, particularly where high-achieving and low-achieving school districts abut one another and where inequality is acute. One survey of public schools in Berkeley, California, for instance, suggested that 8 to 12 percent of enrolled students lived out-of-bounds.
What is uncommon is for parents to be charged with a felony for engaging in the practice, rather than having their children unenrolled or being fined or, perhaps most likely, the school district looking the other way. After her kids started in the Copley-Fairlawn schools, Williams-Bolar noticed someone following her and worried she was being stalked. She started carrying mace. That “stalker” was a private investigator hired by the school district to prove that Williams-Bolar’s girls were out-of-bounds.
Things spiraled from there: Williams-Bolar and her father were charged with felonies related to the falsification of records and theft of public education. They fought the charges, believing that they had done nothing wrong. The jury in Edward Williams’s trial failed to reach a verdict; Williams-Bolar was convicted of some charges and handed two concurrent five-year sentences, suspended down to 10 days. The judge presiding over her case argued that “others who think they might defraud the school system perhaps will think twice.”
If we have little hard data on boundary-hopping, we have even less on punishments for boundary-hopping. But some researchers argue that school districts have become more aggressive in identifying out-of-bounds students, purging them, and legally threatening their parents. And it looks like the students who get bounced are disproportionately low-income and nonwhite, as are the parents who end up enmeshed in the justice system.
Around the same time that Williams-Bolar went to trial, Tonya McDowell, a homeless single mother in Connecticut, was convicted on similar charges. She ended up in jail; the friend who let her use her address for enrollment purposes wound up homeless and briefly lost custody of her own children.
Williams-Bolar and McDowell made their choices in an educational system rife with inequalities, among them deeply unequal per-pupil financing and persistent school segregation. School districts have a way of turning a public good into a private good. Rich families enroll their kids in neighborhood schools, hoarding opportunity through boundary enforcement, zoning laws, real-estate prices, and redlining. The structure of education financing gives parents a sense of entitlement and ownership: They pay for schools with their mortgages and property taxes, and therefore the school is theirs. (Of course, the math is more complicated than that.) In-boundary parents are often the initiators of boundary-hopping investigations; they believe that out-of-boundary parents are stealing.
Boundary-hopping does stress school districts, crowding classrooms and frustrating administrators. It also diverts much-needed funding from lower-performing schools, in some cases. But a good public education is meant to belong to everyone. And as a single mother in school herself, Williams-Bolar could not have made rent, let alone purchased a home, in a tony suburban school district.
Rich families have the option of pulling their kids out of public schools and putting them in private or parochial ones, as well as the option of moving to a better district. Rich families have the option of coaching their kids through standardized tests, and helping ensure they get into gifted and talented programs and specialized schools. Rich families have the resources to investigate what different public schools offer, and to game lottery and ranked-choice enrollment systems. Later on in their kids’ lives, rich families have the ability to provide tax-deductible gifts to colleges to get mediocre students accepted. Rich families sometimes skirt the law, too — cheating on standardized tests, making up their kids’ athletic accomplishments, paying bribes.
Poor families have far fewer options—boundary-hopping, for many, is one of the few ways to get into a better school district. Moreover, given that low-income families often have unstable housing situations and use intergenerational child-care structures, what might seem like enrollment fraud to a school district might feel like nothing more than school choice to a parent. Signing her kids up for school with her dad just made sense, Williams-Bolar stressed.
For that decision, she ended up in jail, even though she had never been arrested, let alone convicted of a crime, she said. She sobbed for hours when she arrived in her holding cell. She lost 15 pounds, unable to bring herself to eat. “When I was walking into general population, I walked through the door and smelled a smell—not like a dead rat, or mold, or this or that,” she said. “No, it had its own distinctive smell. And it smelled like sin. I said that to the sheriff, and she told me: ‘You’re not the first person who has told me that.’”
She was never the same after that trauma, she told me. She spent years and years struggling with depression, shame, and regret. Her father ended up dying in prison on unrelated charges. Her girls ended up back in the struggling Akron schools. A few months after she was released, then-Governor John Kasich provided her with partial clemency, reducing her felonies to misdemeanors.
Never the same, she still pushes forward. Williams-Bolar has become an advocate for social justice, criminal-justice reform, and public education. She speaks at churches, colleges, and high schools. She lobbies for states to lower penalties for parents engaging in boundary-hopping. And she works in the Akron public schools as a teacher’s assistant, helping kids with behavioral challenges.
“These kids have gone through so much,” she told me. “They’ve been in foster care. They’ve been abused at home. They have a parent in prison. I can talk to them and I can tell them my background, and that resonates with some of these kids to the point where they will build a bond with me. You don’t understand what that does for me—to see that I can break through to a kid who’s reserved, and has all these issues going on.”
Both Felicity Huffman and Kelley Williams-Bolar, from their very different vantage points, tried to take advantage of a system they knew to be unfair. In both cases, the real scandal is what is legal, and the real victims the kids deprived of opportunity by dint of their family’s bank account and address.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.
Annie Lowrey is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where she covers economic policy.
After more than 7 inches of rain in the span of 48 hours, the question now looms: What’s next?
For sure, months of work and recovery in southeastern South Dakota are ahead, and local officials are seeking to prioritize the work necessary to assure dangerous situations are stabilized. In other cases, people are being moved to safety, and officials are figuring out just how bad some of the damage is.
In some cases, it’s a replay of the flooding and damage caused earlier this year when the winter storm “bomb cyclone” mixed heavy snow and rain with blizzard conditions to wash away roads and property.
“Much of the damage is in the same locations and in the same situations, it’s just intensified,” Davison County Chairwoman Brenda Bode said. “The ground is saturated and there was no opportunity for this moisture to be soaked up. It had to run off.”
In the southeast corner of the state, 26 state highways and roads were reported closed due to bridges being out or water over the roads. That didn’t include county or township roads, along with municipal streets in small towns. Three road closures were reported on State Highway 44 from Platte to Parkston alone.
Bode, who lives in the northwest part of Davison County, said roads around her are not passable. She said her message remains simple to those in rural areas.
“Just because it has stopped raining, it’s not safe to be driving in the country,” Bode said.
Some of those lessons were learned the hard way Thursday night and Friday morning. More people had to be rescued from a western Mitchell neighborhood because high waters moved in quickly after a retention pond overflowed.
In Hanson County, a man was seriously injured Friday morning in a crash near Spencer in which the front of the truck he was driving dove into a break in the pavement State Highway 38. That was the site of where a culvert had given away. Later in the day, in nearly the same location, the roadway near Spencer Quarries was completely flooded.
Overnight, three people were rescued in Hanson County 5 miles southeast of Mitchell after driving around a road closed sign and hitting a washed-out culvert.
Bode said she has been in frequent communication with Highway Superintendent Rusty Weinberg and Emergency Management Director Jeff Bathke, as often as updates every two hours. Those two county officials have been the point people for providing services to the public, and understanding the damage around the county with roads and infrastructure, which she said is only beginning.
“The short answer is that we’re not at that point yet where we can really make big, long-term plans,” she said. “We’re still trying to keep people out of the water, to be honest.”
Bode said the county’s leaders estimate there are six bridges in the county that have sustained significant damage, a figure they’re afraid could continue to climb in numbers.
Water rushes out of a culver underneath Highway 38 as a truck drives by on Friday morning in Hanson County as a result of the rains Wednesday and Thursday. (Matt Gade / Republic)
“To know how bad the damage is yet, we just don’t know,” Bode said. “We’ve barricaded primarily everything we can.”
She said she wants to be cautious about making any sorts of evaluations, mainly because she doesn’t want Davison County to sell itself short on any possible assistance. She said she expects the county will be in contact with FEMA and potentially get additional support.
“We want to get as much information as we can, and make a decision that is best for the county,” she said.
Outside of Mitchell, flooding only got worse in some areas. The Wolf Creek Colony in Hutchinson County sustained major flooding damage after a dike protecting colony buildings broke. The James River at Scotland broke its 35-year flood stage record on Friday, climbing to 21.61 feet, as of 3:30 p.m. Friday. The previous record was 20.5 feet, set on June 23, 1984. The river is expected to crest at 22 feet on Saturday and is expected to remain at major flood stage throughout next week.
The Firesteel Creek at Mount Vernon has already climbed past where it was in March at its peak, when it crested at 14.44 feet on March 22. On Thursday, it was observed at 15.17 feet, while major flood stage begins at 15 feet. The creek is expected to crest very early Saturday morning, before gradually working its way back down on Sunday.
On the James River at Mitchell, the river crested at 25.01 feet, staying just below the record of 25.3 feet. The river is expected to continue decreasing in stage over the weekend.
In Brandon, high waters swamped the community and left people with only Interstate 90 as the primary route to reach the community. Gov. Kristi Noem said Thursday she expects the state will make a request for a federal disaster declaration related to the flooding but a timeline for when that will happen remains unclear.
Mitchell Public Works Director Kyle Croce said the city has put much of its energy into making sure the community’s lift stations remain workable and the sanitary sewer system remains open, despite those systems being overrun by high amounts of waste water and storm water.
“We’re just trying to get that water moved away,” he said. “We want to make sure the sanitary sewer lines can accept what the system is putting in, and keep things adequately moving.”
Workers with Burlington Northern Santa Fe dump rock next to the tracks where rocks were washed away as a result of the water next to Dry Run Creek in Mitchell on Friday afternoon. (Matt Gade / Republic)
Croce estimated they’ve received about 30 calls regarding damaged properties with water in their basements or sewage backing up, and he anticipates that others haven’t come forward with damage reports to this point.
“This has been an unusual and extreme flood event,” he said. “We’re going to learn more about this and the damage as we go, and there’s going to be a lot to do, and there’s a number of residents that understand what we’re going through.”
Croce said it is hard to know exactly the relationship from the damage in this storm to what occurred in the spring but the already wet conditions likely didn’t help matters.
“We’ve had a lot of water in general because of the numerous storm events,” Croce said. “It’s been hard for that water table to drop, hard for that water to flow out. We’ve been saturated. We haven’t had that chance to dry out, so I think in that way, it is compounding.”
Croce also said monitoring will continue to occur at Dry Run Creek and at Firesteel Creek to keep residents aware of water conditions and to make sure they’re protected. He said he was appreciative of the efforts of Dakota Wesleyan University’s athletic teams and students, and other groups, that have helped with sandbags.
There’s also concern on tribal land about the response to flooding. Ellwsorth Chytka, who lives a mile from Lake Andes and is a member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe, said the namesake lake is normally about one-quarter mile from his house. On Friday, it was 10 feet away, with water already in his basement.
Like flooding in the spring, tribal housing and the powwow grounds near Lake Andes are flooded again. It has again affected access to the community of Lake Andes, again crossing the recently repaired U.S. Highway 18/281 which splits the town and the tribal housing.
“Something has to be done,” Chytka said. “If something doesn’t get done before winter, we’re going to have more of town under water. … It’s not just the road going through Lake Andes.”
The 71-year-old was frustrated about his tribe’s response to flooding this spring, saying the continual flooding shows the impacts of climate change. In August, Yankton Sioux officials pointed the finger at Noem, saying her response to the road flooding wasn’t adequate and that she didn’t do enough to help with housing needs in the face of flooding earlier this year.
Chytka said the problems in his community are indicative of larger issues.
“We’re going to have sickness and mold,” he said. “This water is contaminated. There is a problem and nobody is addressing the issue.”
“It’s getting to be one problem after another, and we’re not getting these items addressed. They sent a man and he walked on the roof. He said, ‘Your roof ain’t leaking,’ and he said he don’t know what’s going on and left,” said Watkins.
In a decision that could have sweeping consequences for private companies that manage military housing, a jury has awarded more than $2 million to a Marine Corps family who sued their privatized military housing landlords over mold and other maintenance problems in their Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego home.
The family of Staff Sgt. Matthew Charvat alleged that their Gateway Village military housing, managed by San Diego Family Housing and Lincoln Military Property Management, had extensive water damage and elevated moisture levels that caused microbes and mold to grow, making them sick.
According to the complaint, the home «lacked effective waterproofing and weather protection,» had deteriorating drywall, roof defects and rot, water damage and «visible microbial growth on the interior building components.»
As a result, Charvat, his wife and their two children suffered a range of illnesses while living in the house for roughly a year, such as respiratory symptoms, wheezing, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, fatigue, dizziness and flu-like symptoms, according to court documents.
«As a consequence of the conduct and omissions by [San Diego Family Housing and Lincoln Military Property Management] … the property made plaintiffs sick and has not been habitable or tenantable … and remains uninhabitable and untenantable,» the lawsuit charged.
The award is the largest to a military family related to military housing issues, which came to light last year in an extensive investigation by the Reuters news agency. In 2016, another Marine Corps family received $350,000 in a similar lawsuit involving mold in their Norfolk, Virginia, home, which was managed by Mid-Atlantic Military Family Communities, also a subsidiary of Lincoln Military Housing.
Lincoln Military Housing plans to fight the $2 million Charvat ruling and, in a statement to Military.com, called the ruling «unjust.» Officials said previous tenants of the house, at 2631 Tuscaloosa Street, Unit 2A6313, had not reported mold on the property and the Charvats «certified there was no mold when they moved in.»
«These residents also reported no mold for nine of the 11 months they lived in the home,» officials said. «When these residents did report a concern, LMH responded immediately and appropriately … including retaining a third-party mold expert, and nothing was found.»
LMH alleges that the Charvats vacated the property because they wanted to move into «the suburbs and a different school district.»
They never cited «mold or illness as a reason for moving until they hired a lawyer,» the statement charged.
In trial briefs, LMH maintained that the company responded to the Charvats’ requests for inspections, maintenance and remediation.
While some families have voiced concerns over the health and safety of military housing since a privatization initiative began in 1996, issues came to a head earlier this year. News reports revealed lead contamination, mold, dangerous wiring and pestilence in some privately managed homes, and widespread complaints that management companies were unresponsive and failed to meet contractual obligations to provide safe, maintained houses.
In a survey released earlier this year by the nonprofit Military Family Advisory Network, more than 16,000 military family members reported dirty and unsafe conditions at more than 160 military installations.
Following several hearings on Capitol Hill in February, Pentagon leaders launched a series of initiatives to address the housing problems, to include creating a tenant bill of rights to give service members and their families more negotiating power with their landlords, inspecting homes and suspending some programs that provided incentives fees to housing companies.
Legislation also has been introduced that would allow installation commanders to retain a service member’s basic allowance for housing payments to contractors until problems are resolved. Both the Senate and House versions of the National Defense Authorization Act contain a number of initiatives aimed at improving the health and safety of military housing. An agreement on the final version of the bill is expected this month.
In the wake of withering criticism about how they have maintained the military base housing they run, five companies have formed a new coalition to represent their interests. And some have ramped up how much they spend to lobby congress.
One of their first actions of this coalition, called the Military Housing Association, has been to meet with and send a letter to congressional staff members voicing objections to some of the proposals for military housing reform. That’s raised the concern of some advocates, who are already alarmed by the Trump administration’s objections to the changes.
The Trump administration “strongly objects” to significant changes outlined in the Senate bill, according to their Sept. 4 letter to the armed services committees. It specifically notes issues with altering the terms of existing legal agreements with the privatized companies.
Lawmakers heard testimony of military families earlier this year about mold, lead-based paint, water leakage and damage, vermin and host of other problems with their military housing; their frustration in getting their privatized housing company to fix them; and the lack of assistance from the military in getting their problems fixed. In a survey earlier this year conducted by the Military Family Advisory Network, more than half of the 14,558 privatized residents who responded reported having a negative experience with their housing.
The Military Housing Association, formed this year, includes the larger privatized housing companies — Balfour Beatty Communities, Corvias, Hunt Military Communities, Lendlease Communities and Lincoln Military Housing, according to a spokeswoman for the organization, who declined to be named. The companies contacted referred questions to S-3 Public Affairs, which is an arm of S-3 Group, also a lobbying firm.
The new association’s core goal “is to provide high quality housing, community amenities, and responsive property management to improve the quality of life of service members and their families who live in privatized military housing communities,” the spokeswoman said, in response to questions about the association’s purpose and focus, and actions taken.
As the problems with housing came to light, defense and service officials have been working with privatized housing companies to immediately address issues. The housing companies have taken a number of steps to improve services, including hiring more personnel, adding more subcontractors, finding more transparent and efficient ways to process work orders and listening directly to tenants’ concerns with town halls and informal forums, the spokeswoman stated.
Committee staff members contacted by Military Times declined to comment, citing the ongoing negotiations process as House and Senate lawmakers reconcile differences in their proposals.
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But Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who has been vocal about his concern regarding military families’ housing problems, said the bottom line is fixing the problem.
Kaine “appreciates feedback from anyone affected by the proposed changes,» said Sarah Peck, a Kaine spokeswoman. «However, his number one priority is ensuring military families no longer have to endure dangerous conditions in their own homes, and that’s what will determine which policies he supports.”
Some of the proposals would be “legally and practically impossible to implement,” stated the Trump administration’s letter, from the Office of Management and Budget. The proposals would also create unfunded requirements; and, to the extent that the measures could even be implemented, would be “overly prescriptive and burdensome,” officials stated.
“The provisions erroneously assume that privatized housing project entities operate as DoD contractors and that legislation can alter the terms and conditions of previously executed legal agreements.”
That statement from the administration is of particular concern, if in fact legislation wouldn’t be able to change legal agreements made with the housing companies, said Eryn Wagnon, director of government relations for the Military Officers Association of America. “As the [Army Inspector General] put it, these deal structures present unique challenges to the Army and all the services, and highly favor the companies.”
Wagnon also expressed concern that the administration’s position may make some lawmakers apprehensive about pushing key and important provisions, and that the housing companies’ positions on key parts of the bills might also present a barrier.
However, Wagnon said, “We’re pretty confident the armed services committees are taking into consideration what they heard from families through the hearings, and through statements for the record, and that they’re looking out for families’ best interests.”
The Military Housing Association supports a number of provisions in the bills, such as those requiring a tenant bill of rights, processes for dispute resolution, and for designation of chief of housing officers. But they cited objections to six provisions, including one that would allow the military services to renegotiate the privatized housing contracts at least every five years.
In a position letter to staff members of the House and Senate armed services committees, the Military Housing Association stated that if the agreements were structured as five-year deals rather than the current 50-year agreements, it could affect companies’ ability to do future renovations or build new homes, and could set a precedent that will make it difficult to get private-sector financing in the future.
The Military Housing Association cited objections to these proposals:
Allowing the tenant to request their basic allowance for housing to be withheld from the privatized housing landlord, and requiring the Defense Finance and Accounting Service to hold it in escrow until matters are resolved , if the landlord hasn’t met maintenance guidelines, or if the unit is deemed uninhabitable according to state and local law. “They could request to withhold their BAH at any time for any reason – and DFAS is required to grant their request,” the housing association stated, contending it could harm the financial viability of the project. They instead proposed a different “orderly and fair process» in which the company would withhold the BAH.
Requiring the landlord to pay all medical bills for a tenant of a housing unit, if service officials have determined that the company hasn’t maintained the minimum standards of habitability. If the companies have lifetime liability for medical bills, this could result in the housing project’s insolvency, the companies stated, adding that military families have the option of requesting mediation or arbitration as required by state law, and residents have the ability to take the case to court.
Requiring a 10-year maintenance history of the home to tenants. Instead, the housing companies propose the prospective tenant receive the results of the move-out inspections, using a proposed hazard assessment tool in the House proposals.
Requiring DoD to publish all the financial details of each contract in the Federal Register. The companies aren’t opposed to sharing important financial information with their DoD partners and with the congressional defense committees, they noted. They’re open to further disclosure and financial transparency — assuming such disclosures are reasonable and don’t jeopardize sensitive business information, they stated, noting their contract documents already require “significant disclosure” of financial information.
Diverting 3 percent of BAH to pay for DoD housing inspectors. “We are strongly opposed to using BAH as a funding mechanism for other DoD priorities. BAH is the revenue source that drives the [housing privatization] program,” the companies stated, and is not profit for the companies. Rather, it’s used for maintenance, debt payments and long term sustainment of the housing. The proposal would divert millions of dollars of BAH revenue, and DoD would be, in effect, asking service members to subsidize the DoD’s cost of doing business, the companies stated.
A search of the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics’ website OpenSecrets.org indicates that some of the five members of the Military Housing Association have apparently stepped up their lobbying spending this year. For example, Balfour Beatty Communities had increased spending on home builder lobbying from $20,000 in 2018, to spending $120,000 through July 24 of this year. But of note, Balfour Beatty Communities include more than military housing, such as other multifamily communities and student communities, so it’s unclear whether there were military-specific issues of interest. There were no lobbying expenses cited for 2017.
Lincoln Military Housing has already increased its spending on real estate lobbying by 57 percent in the first seven months of 2019, compared to all of 2018. They’ve spent $220,000 through July 24, compared to $140,000 in 2018. No lobbying expenses were listed for 2017.
Corvias Military Living is on track to spend about what they did in the last two years on “miscellaneous defense” lobbying. They’ve spent $60,000 as of July 24, compared to $120,000 in each of the last two years.
Lendlease Corporation is also on track with last year’s numbers, spending $120,000 in the first seven months of 2019 on general contractors lobbying, compared to $240,000 in all of 2018, and $160,000 in 2017. This company also has a broader portfolio than military housing.
Hunt Companies so far this year is spending less on real estate lobbying: $160,000 in the first seven months, compared to $575,000 in all of 2018. In 2017, the company spent $160,000. The company has been named in lawsuits filed by military families at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss. (Of note: Hunt Military Communities is part of the larger Hunt Companies.)
Used car shoppers should always be on the alert for water-damaged cars being offered for sale. Flood damage might not be as obvious as it could be in upholstery and carpeting. Flood water — corrosive and abrasive mixture of water and dirt — can work its way throughout a vehicle and can be especially damaging to electronics, lubricants, and mechanical systems. That could call for extensive disassembly for a thorough cleaning and reconditioning.
Some cars damaged by severe flooding can still run. However, this does not necessarily mean they are safe. Flood-damaged cars can be dangerous, from having ruined engines and electronics to airbags that don’t properly deploy.
Although such cars are most likely to turn up in states affected by coastal and river flooding, they can find their way to used car dealerships nationwide.
Here are some ways to avoid buying them:
Check the vehicle’s history report.
Check the title history of any pre-owned vehicle by running its vehicle identification number VIN (located on the driver’ side dashboard) through CarFax, Experian’s Auto Check, the National Insurance Crime Bureau’s VinCheck or the National Motor Vehicle Title Information Center to see if it’s been reported as having been flooded or salvaged, suggests Pam Hansen Alfred, a State Farm agent in Great Falls. Various sources report flood and damage information to such services, including insurance companies and state Departments of Motor Vehicles.
Never buy a used car with a lost or missing title.
Examine the vehicle.
Check the interior and engine compartment for evidence of water and grit. Recently shampooed or replaced carpeting or freshly cleaned upholstery might have been performed subsequent to flooding.
Pull up a corner of the carpeting to check for water residue or stain marks, signs of rust, and evidence of mold or a musty odor.
See if there’s water still hiding in the dashboard and interior storage cubbies. Check under the dashboard for brittle wiring and evidence of dried mud. Look for rust on screws in the center console or other areas that might have been submerged.
Open the hood and look for mud, water residue, or rust in crevices, behind wiring harnesses and around recesses in and around components. Look for water or signs of condensation in the headlamps and taillights, on the instrument panel gauges, and even within the overhead dome light. Check the wheel wells, and around the doors, hood and trunk panels for evidence of rust.
Get it inspected.
Have a qualified mechanic inspect the vehicle before buying to gauge its overall mechanical condition and to determine if it in fact has hidden water damage.
If there’s any suspicion the car might have flood damage, you might want to walk away from any deal.
Still, for some purposes, a storm-ravaged vehicle might be a good match for your needs, says Hansen Alfred.
“A vehicle that was totaled by hail for your kids to drive because you can pick it up for next to nothing and who cares if there are a few hail bumps in the car because by the time your young driver gets done driving that vehicle, there’s going to be more bumps than what it started with, she says “That might be the perfect vehicle to buy.”
Pam Hansen Alfred’s office at 2817 10th Avenue South in Great Falls provides auto, home, business, property, life and health insurance. The Great Falls native has been a State Farm agent since 1986, and has a team ready discuss your coverage needs at 406-453-6010 or 800-823-3620.
Before buying a vintage home near Lake Nokomis, California transplant Jen Schneider had as much experience with wet basements as lifelong Minnesotans have with earthquakes.
By 2017, she’d seen enough. Schneider hired SafeBasements of Minnesota, a Litchfield-based outfit that does basement waterproofing and water mitigation work throughout the Twin Cities Metro, to install drain tile and a sump pump in her circa-1905 home’s partially finished basement.
The SafeBasements crew cut a narrow sand-and-rock-lined trench along her foundation walls, tunneling under an interior staircase and mortar wall and then added a drain pipe and laid concrete over the cover. The apparatus “works like a rain gutter inside the house,” said Schneider — diverting foundation seepage toward a powerful pump that blasts water away from the foundation during heavy rains and melts.
Today, Schneider’s basement isn’t truly waterproof. Water still seeps down the walls at times. But SafeBasements’ solution virtually eliminated the water-related threats that many Southwest Minneapolis residents know all too well: mold, mildew, wet flooring, foundation damage.
Schneider was ahead of the curve. Earlier this year, below-grade water mitigation took on new urgency amid record late-winter snowfall followed by a rapid, early thaw and an unusually cold, wet spring. March brought serious drainage woes in normally dry neighborhoods, leading to widespread basement water intrusion and garage flooding.
Sam Rosch, co-owner of Ace Nicollet Hardware in Kingfield, said the year’s first half brought a crush of customers who’d never before dealt with water in the basement.
“This is a bad year for water intrusion,” he said.
As Minnesota’s climate warms and wettens, sodden springs could become the norm. That’s bad news not only for homeowners like Schneider, whose leaky basement is the price of admission to the vintage home club, but for owners of newer, ostensibly sound houses, too. And it portends busy seasons ahead for water mitigation outfits like SafeBasements of Minnesota.
A freshly dug trench awaits drain tile and a concrete cap. Submitted photo
Digging the trench
Schneider is happy with her basement’s water mitigation system, but things very easily could have gone differently. Of her four pre-project quotes, only SafeBasements’ omitted a costly, unnecessary new wall. One contractor went so far as to ask Schneider, patronizingly, “what color I wanted my new wall to be,” she recalled.
Prospective water mitigation customers can avoid succumbing to overselling by learning about the work ahead of time, said Schneider. Homeowners with a basic understanding of their options are better placed to politely say “no” to work they don’t need.
Drain tile customers should also think ahead to post-project cosmetics, said Schneider. Sump pumps generally sit in the concrete slab, with only a pole and some wiring visible above grade, so they’re easy to conceal. Because it’s usually a different color than the rest of the slab, the concrete trench covering is more of a challenge. In the unfinished portion of Schneider’s basement, hers is plain as day. Carpeting or water-resistant hard flooring does the job in finished areas; solid-color basement paint ties unfinished floors together.
Anatomy of a drain tile system
Drain tile isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to basement water intrusion. System configurations vary depending on the severity of the problem and basement function, among other variables. For instance, lower-profile wall edging is appropriate in finished areas, where minimizing the system’s visual impact is important. In unfinished, little-used basements, heavier-duty edging may be appropriate.
Still, high-volume installers have the process down to a science. The team begins by jackhammering out the trench and draining all adjacent block cores, said Randy Kragenbring, production manager for SafeBasements of Minnesota. Next, they install the edging, trench lining and drain tile. They then place the sump pump, usually in an unfinished area near a power source. Finally, they cover the trench with a smooth layer of concrete.
Most residential projects take a day or two. Schneider’s 2017 job took a day and a half, she said, with a 2019 follow-up taking less than a full day. Although cost per linear foot drops as the system grows, the all-in cost is still highly dependent on the length of tile needed, said Kragenbring.
Installing a sump pump without drain tile typically costs less than $2,000, according to HomeAdvisor, but a full-perimeter drain tile system like Schneider’s runs $10,000 or more. At approximately $6,000, Schneider’s was a relative bargain. Few homeowners’ insurance policies cover basement water intrusion; homeowners without flood insurance may need to pay out of pocket or tap their home equity to defray project costs.
Properly installed drain tile systems don’t just mitigate standing water. They also hinder another subterranean threat: radon, the bane of many a finished basement.
“Our product is radon-ready, if needed,” said Kragenbring. SafeBasements’ solution is semi-sealed, meaning it “allows water to pass through while keeping gases out of the home,” he said.
Drain tile isn’t an alternative to a professionally installed radon mitigation system, of course — it just doesn’t exacerbate any existing radon issues. Kragenbring advises homeowners who notice foundation cracks to check their basement radon levels, even if their neighbors have no known issues.
A worker drills small “weep holes” that funnel water from the foundation exterior into the drainage system. Submitted photos
Cleaning up the mess
What happens when water mitigation comes too late?
For serious water intrusion events during heavy rains and melts, Rosch said, homeowners should use a Quick Dam flood barrier, a relatively inexpensive sandbag-like product that sops up exterior water before it seeps into the foundation. Once the exterior is dry, apply outdoor caulking or polyurethane sealant to cracks between the foundation and concrete aprons or flush sidewalks — common features in many older Southwest Minneapolis homes.
Inside a finished space, time is of the essence, Rosch said. Use towels to soak up excess water on carpet or hardwood, and then thoroughly clean dried carpet with carpet cleaner. Mold spray shouldn’t be necessary after short soaks, Rosch said, but may be a good idea for homeowners who’ve returned home from vacation to still-soaked basement carpet. In either case, run a fan and dehumidifier through the space until everything is dry to the touch.
Drying an unfinished basement is easier. Squeegee excess water into an open floor drain, if one is available, said Rosch. If not, rent or buy a wet-dry vacuum to transfer water from the floor to your utility sink.
Attacking the root causes of wet basements
Of course, without professional mitigation, it’s only a matter of time before you’re back where you started. Even Kragenbring, who makes his living selling professional basement water mitigation solutions, stresses the importance of prevention.
“Exterior grading, insulation and cleaning gutters [are all] very important,” he said.
Homeowners should also patch cracked or crumbling foundation walls with wet-set mortar, Rosch said. Wet-set mortar is common, inexpensive and easy to use, typically drying in less than five minutes.
Just don’t expect that to permanently solve the problem, Rosch said.
“A lot of people thinking patching or applying DryLok [a waterproof paint] inside is all they need to do, but that’s really a temporary solution,” said Rosch. “It’s really important to take care of the problem on the outside.”
Often, that’s as simple as cleaning your gutters or extending their downspouts away from your foundation. SafeBasements’ Kragenbring recommends at least 6 feet of clearance.
Confident DIYers can mitigate minor grading issues on their own by adding soil around the foundation walls and leveling to a slight, uniform positive grade away from the structure. More serious grading issues generally require professional mitigation, which can be costly.
“We don’t see many homeowners trying to build their own exterior French drains,” said Rosch.
Carpet conceals a leaky corner in Jen Schneider’s basement.
When you need a pro
In Jen Schneider, Kragenbring and SafeBasements of Minnesota have at least one satisfied customer near Southwest Minneapolis. As snowy late winters and soggy springs become more common, they’ll no doubt add more.
With all the work they can handle, Kragenbring asks Southwest Minneapolis homeowners not to call SafeBasements until after they’ve attempted to treat the root cause of the intrusion.
“If, after you got the property professionally graded, you still get water in your basement, call a foundation professional to look it over,” he said.
Musty Madras” will be upon us in the coming months. During heavy rain and seasonal changes, some houses begin to emit a wet smell that can make the home environment oppressive. The primary difference between moldy and musty odours is in the intensity — musty odours are usually not as strong as moldy odours. Both suggest mold growth and it’s important to take action quickly when you notice an odour to prevent extensive damage to your home. Further, the lingering odour may penetrate non-moldy materials, thereby prolonging the unpleasant odour experience.
Mold poses a serious problem to good Indoor Air Quality, therefore it is imperative to get rid of it once detected. Some people are sensitive to molds and can suffer nasal stuffiness, throat irritation, coughing or wheezing, eye irritation, or in some cases, skin irritation.
The first step is identifying the source of the smell. Always start by checking for any water leak (try the plumbing, roof, walls, basement). Check air conditioning units or drain lines. Look for condensation, especially around windows or on exterior walls. Other overlooked spaces include those that have indoor plants, wastebaskets and trash cans (especially if not emptied frequently), empty beverage containers and glasses, food container recycling and materials that have been wet in the past (books, magazines, newspapers, carpet, or cardboard). Once identified and removed, it is a good idea to get a simple moisture absorbing block that will help keep the moisture levels in check.
Indoor Air Quality can be quite complicated — it has many aspects to it — ranging from levels of various toxins such VOC’s, carbon dioxide and other suspended particulate matter including bacteria and the common mold. It also deals with temperature and humidity control. While most architects and developers today understand ventilation, we need astronauts to teach us about oxygenation.
Oxygenation can simply be defined as the addition of oxygen to an entity — whether it is the human body, an astronauts’ suit or the space aboard a space craft. How is this relevant to us? Well, if we focused on adding oxygen to our indoor air, instead of constantly worrying about the flushing of carbon dioxide alone, the quality of our indoor air could be enhanced greatly.
A simple and elegant solution to add oxygen in our spaces is through the addition of plants that are featured in the NASA list. These are easily available in our country and grow very well indoors, with limited sun exposure. The top performer in this list is the variegated snake plant (commonly known as mother-in-law’s tongue), with others like bamboo palm, rubber plant and even aloe vera. With the ability to filter toxins from the air, the snake plant is also known for its high oxygen emitting capabilities — so you get cleansing and oxygenation by just adding some into your homes or offices. It is said that 6-8 waist-high plants can keep one person alive even if there was no air flow.
Think mold free and clean indoor air — it’s a few simple steps within reach — and is soothing, fresh and will keep your lungs happy.
Damage Mold 