Maine Downtown Conference

On Friday, June 5, Knickerbocker Group attended the Maine Downtown Conference in Rockland. It was organized by the Maine Development Foundation and provided a day full of information, ideas and networking.

The real message of the day was “THIS PLACE MATTERS” and for all of us to consider, more often than not, supporting local businesses. One group presenting information provided the following thoughts on why we should do this:

• Keep dollars in our community: For every $100 spent at a locally owned business, $45 stays in the local economy, creating jobs and expanding our tax base.
  
• Embrace what makes the Boothbay Region unique: Our one-of-a-kind shops, unique ‘neighborhoods,’ our maritime heritage and amazing artist community.
• Foster local job creation: WE provide better wages and benefits than national chains!
• Help the environment: Walkable neighborhood/business districts are a win-win. Leverage our ‘trails’ and think green.
• Nurture Community: Our businesses contribute nearly DOUBLE that of chains to charitable causes, as a percentage of our revenues, and our owners and employees are so accessible for advocating causes.
• Conserve our tax dollars: We require less public infrastructure-less sprawl requires less roadwork and police services.
• Benefit from Local Owner’s Expertise: There is a knowledge, passion and pride for the products made or sold by a local owner that is unmatched by employees and managers of national chains. We also like to GET TO KNOW our customers.
• Preserve entrepreneurship: Small businesses fuel the national economy and are a real-life inspiration to young people. Let’s show them they can and should STAY IN MAINE.
• Ensure the Boothbay Region stands out from the crowd: Let’s continue to place a high value on our individuality and distinctive character!

For more information about the programs and initiative of the Maine Development Foundation, please visit http://www.mdf.org/.

Expertise in Kitchen and Bath Design

We are pleased to announce that Elaine Murdoch of the Knickerbocker Group has earned certification as a Certified Master Kitchen and Bath Designer (CMKBD) from the National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA), the leading trade association for the kitchen and bath industry. This is the highest level of achievement offered by the NKBA, and less than 200 designers across the country have attained this distinction.

The CMKBD certification recognizes a professional’s extraordinary achievement as an exemplary designer and utmost dedication to the kitchen and bath industry. The premiere hallmark for kitchen and bath professionals, NKBA Certification is based on written examinations and extensive industry experience. The CMKBD must possess both their Certified Kitchen Designer (CKD) and Certified Bathroom Designer (CBD) certifications, as well as a minimum of 17 years of industry experience. Additionally, a CMKBD must successfully complete 100 NKBA Education hours and submit three examples of design excellence by third party endorsement.

This combination of experience and education ensures that Elaine is an authority on the design, planning and execution of residential kitchens and bathrooms, and possesses advanced knowledge of technical and personal communication skills required to succeed as a design specialist.

For more information, please contact Elaine Murdoch, CMKBD, at 207-633-3818.

About the National Kitchen & Bath Association

The National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA) is a non-profit trade association that has educated and led the kitchen and bath industry since 1963. With over 40,000 members and growing, the NKBA owns the Kitchen/Bath Industry Show & Conference (K/BIS). The mission of the NKBA is to enhance member success and excellence, promote professionalism and ethical business practices and provide leadership and direction for the kitchen and bath industry. www.nkba.org

Environmental Permitting News

Recent updates related to Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) permitting:

Vernal Pools

It's that time of year again! There is a short window each year for verifying whether or not a vernal pool is "significant". The significance is partly determined by an egg mass count.















DEP recently released the 2009 dates for vernal pool egg mass counts in the southern Maine region, which includes the Boothbay area:

April 10 to April 25 for woodfrogs
April 20 to May 10 for salamanders

If you own a property with isolated forested wetlands, and are considering a subdivision or development at any time within the next year, you may want to consider a vernal pool inspection this spring. A significant vernal pool is protected and requires protection not only of the pool itself but of a large portion of the surrounding critical habitat.

For more information about State-regulated vernal pools:

http://www.maine.gov/dep/blwq/docstand/nrpa/vernalpools/index.htm

GIS Mapping

The DEP is now offering selected data, geographically referenced, from a number of the department's databases to the public via Google Earth (you will need to have Google Earth installed to view this data).

http://www.maine.gov/dep/gis/datamaps/index.htm#PBR

The "Land & Water NRPA" links include mapped Significant Bird Habitats (including inland wading waterfowl, tidal wading waterfowl, shorebird feeding & roosting areas, and seabird nesting islands). There is also mapping for known Significant Vernal Pool locations.


After opening Google Earth, just type in your address and it will zoom in on your property, with significant bird habitats mapped in color bands along the shoreline and vernal pools noted by a green oval and ID number (note that vernal pools known to be not significant are also mapped, with a red oval).


If you have any environmental permitting questions, or need assistance in navigating through the maze of local, State or Federal environmental laws, please contact Danielle Betts, P.E. at the Knickerbocker Group for assistance: dbetts@knickerbockergroup.com or 207.633.6563.

Cutting Edge Technology

Over the recent months, we have had the opportunity to utilize several new resources for accomplishing various tasks on our jobsites. Some of our current projects have presented us with unique challenges, for which we have had to pursue unique solutions.

On one project in particular, some of our extensive stonework required greater accuracy than what would be accomplished with the usual measuring and cutting methods; enter Funcpro. Funcpro is a small company that specializes in precision 3-D scanning; their equipment and software allow them to completely scan all sides of an object with an accuracy of about 1/8^th of an inch for every 60’!

So we were faced with a somewhat complex pool shape, the photo below gives you an idea of what we had to work with:

The design calls for long pieces of stone along the top of the pool walls that follow the curves; so to measure those curves, the guys at Funcpro placed reflective dots along the sides and top of the walls:

then used a laser scanner to pick up each point along the wall.

Their computer software turns these points into a 3-D CAD line drawing of what was just scanned, and this data can then be used by CNC machines in millwork shops, metal shops, and, in this case, stoneyards. Because the slabs will be somewhat thin, the folks over at J.C. Stone in Jefferson will be able to cut the curves directly from the drawings using a water jet.

This is a close up of where the top of the pool's south entry area meets a taller sidewall.

This is the whole top step of the south entry area. All the holes and jagged edges were places lacking reflectors; if necessary, they would have been able to go back and fill them in.

A screen shot.

One other place on-site where we found this to be essential was in the templating for the edge stones in an octagon shaped room:

The uses for this technology are pretty diverse, and we hope to be able to continue using it in different ways on future projects.

For more information, feel free to contact us at 207-633-3818 or info@knickerbockergroup.com; Kevan Cole with Funcpro at 207-557-2056 or Kevan@funcpro.com; J.C. Stone at 207-549-4729. Pool layout design by Gates, Leighton & Associates, agalle@glala.com.