US Senator Kay Hagan Visits STARworks

North Carolina's own Kay Hagan took time this week to come to STARworks Center for Creative Enterprise. She spoke to the STARworks business owners and toured our facilities including the garden, bio diesel factory, hot shop, ceramics, Comfort South and Wet Dog Glass.

Here Eddie Bernard shows Senator Hagan the properties of molten glass in our Hot Shop.

Nancy explains the STARworks Garden while Dr. David Jones, Central Park NC Chairman, and Anne Pärtna, garden coordinator, look on.

Senator Hagan checks out one of the massive Sunflowers growing in our garden. The sunflowers were planted by Star Elementary first graders in the spring.

We are grateful that Senator Hagan could find time to visit STARworks and see the cool things going on here in the center of our state. If you would like to tour our facility, we offer tours on the first and third fridays of each month at 1pm. Tours are free of charge and last about an hour. Tours can be scheduled for groups at any time by calling our office at (910) 428-9001.

And the walls come tumbling down

With help from Frank Harmon Architects our demolition plans are coming along. Architect Will Lambeth(in white) and Tim Martin, a structural engineer joined me last week for a grand tour of our beloved building. Actually we probably shouldn't call it a tour, it was pretty much a full inspection with all ares that are affected by the demolition measured to the fraction of an inch. Will had a sweet Bosch laser tape measure, I was jealous. We spent time on the roof, in the basement and all points in between.By the end of the day Tim had a comprehensive sketch as seen below. The numbers were tiny but readable and he has been plugging them in the computer this week and the planning meeting is tomorrow in Raleigh. We will be discussing the design of the courtyard area that the demolition will create, and doors and windows to plug the openings also exposed by the demolition. Our hope is to bring some natural light into our currently unlit interiors. The demolition will create a 12,000 square foot courtyard out of what is currently a rapidly deteriorating center section of the building. In the 50's and 60's this area was the dye house of the mill. In 1976 a new dye house was built, and the area changed to house the boarding operation. Wet Dog Glass and the STARworks Glass Lab now occupy the new dye house area. Watch here for updates on the ongoing rebirth of the STARworks building!

Senior walkers take over the STARwalks trail!

Walk, dance, play, work in your yard…30 minutes a day can help you stay in shape and feeling good. Physical activity is essential for all of us. Children, adults and seniors can benefit from moderate activity every day. Take a walk with a friend on The STARwalks recycled walking trail. Recently area seniors were invited to STARworks to see and experience the new recycled rubber trail installed in front of the facility. The STARwalks Partnership consisting of people from Central Park NC, STARworks, the Troy Montgomery Senior Center, Montgomery County Health Department, Montgomery County Council on Aging and the NC Cooperative extension were awarded a grant from the Fit Community program to build the trail and launch a walking program to encourage seniors to engage in a healthy lifestyle. The trail is made from 100% recycled materials. Almost 1000 large rubber truck tires were recycled and didn’t end up in a landfill in the building of this 1/8-mile loop. The permeable surface allows water to pass through it, allows aeration of the soil underneath, and helps eliminate water runoff pollution from asphalt or concrete that can end up in nearby streams and rivers. The low-impact rubber surface is less tiring because it reduces stress on walker’s joints, particularly knees and feet. The walking program rewards senior participants with a pedometer after 10 hours of aerobic activity and a T-shirt after 20 hours. Come take a walk on The STARwalks trail! This project was made possible with a generous grant from the North Carolina Health and Wellness Trust Fund, USDA Rural Communities Development Initiative and Central Park NC.

Walkers try out the new walking trail at STARworks. The 1/8-mile track is constructed of recycled rubber.

Walkers and agency representatives came out for the opening of the STAR Walks walking trail in front of STARworks.

A Bayada nurse takes a walker’s blood pressure. Other gencies that assisted with the event included the Montgomery Council on Aging, Montgomery Health Department, Home Care of the Carolinas.

Ahhhh water, the petroleum of the next generation.

This article in the New York Times discusses the difference between the legality of drinking tap water and its safety. Its 6 pages long so be ready if you want to read the whole thing. There are contaminants in the LA water system that form carcinogens when they are hit with UV light. The solution? Cover the reservoir with black plastic balls. Black plastic balls. The photo of the covered reservoir is awesome and disturbing. Its a little too Matrix for me. Related stories on the page tell of brown tap water that people are afraid to drink. I cant say I blame them, we are not strangers to brown water here at STARworks. Our situation has been improved, and most of our brown was rust from our pipes. But imagine having to fix a water system for the city of LA. It makes my brain hurt.

I always tell the kids that our generation is worried about and trying to change our ways about Petroleum and fuel, their generation will deal with water. It doesn't seem to scare them yet, but it does me. I think water purification or desalinization are the challenges of the future.

Here is our water tower, it's kind of an icon in our town, as I guess most water towers are. I don't know how many pictures I've taken of it. Our current water problems are mostly how to keep precipitation out of the building, how much it will cost to get the water to new bathrooms in building 6 and keeping the sprinkler pipes from freezing. Its getting real cold at night and threatening snow for tomorrow. My relationship with water has changed dramatically in the past years. How's yours?