Category: CNB BUSINESS NEWS

Making Birthday Celebrations Even Better

(NAPSI)—Birthdays: we all have them, and we all have a chance to make them memorable for the people we care about. From unique ideas for celebrating to top birthday gifts at any age, here are some ways to put the happy in these special occasions, turning every birthday into a “birthYAY!”

A World of Birthday Wishes

No matter how you express it, the love you feel when wishing someone a happy birthday is universal. So the next time a friend or family member’s big day comes around, surprise them by saying it in a different language. Strut your international style by reciting your best Bosnian, “Sretan ro?endan”, or Bulgarian, “Chestit Rozhden den.” Or show off those superior language skills in Swahili, “Siku ya kuzaliwa ya furaha,” or Swedish, “Grattis på födelsedagen.” Get the whole list online and get ready to send your best birthday wishes!

Making the Most of Milestones

We all know that one person who loves to stretch their day of celebrating into a whole week…or even a month! And while any age is worth recognizing, milestone birthdays are the perfect opportunity to get a little carried away. How about welcoming each new decade with a unique way to celebrate? Turning 30? Think of 30 fun things to do, however big or small. Feeling adventurous? Go skydiving, bungee jumping or rock climbing with a few of your closest friends. Like to keep it low key? A new hairstyle, massage or treating yourself to a gift of flowers or chocolates is a great way to go. Check out more awesome ideas and start planning.

Now Trending: Buzz-Worthy Birthday Surprises

Speaking of birthday gifts, nobody knows more about finding the right one than the team at 1-800-Flowers. Which gifts rise to the occasion? Truly original is the way to go, and their very own decorative birthday flower cakes take the cake. New to the collection is a vibrant floral cake creation, designed to brighten their celebration at any age.

Fall is a popular birthday season, the perfect time for sending their new Harvest Glow Bouquet, a farmhouse-style design full of rustic charm. And because you can never go wrong with a classic, their exclusive Magnificent Roses—in radiant red or passionate purple—leave a lasting impression.

Plants are having their moment, and 1-800-Flowers is now offering more green and blooming beauties than ever. Try a unique, new glass succulent terrarium, or their best-selling Happy Birthday Succulents by Lula’s Garden. And because birthdays were made for indulging, 1-800-Flowers is serving up some exclusive hand-dipped strawberries from the newest addition to their family of brands, Shari’s Berries.

So there you have it! The scoop on making birthdays special, straight from the experts. For more on sending smiles for birthdays, or any day, call 1-800-FLOWERS, visit

www.1800flowers.com

, or visit a retail store. To find one nearby, visit

florist.1800flowers.com

.

5 Resume Tips to Wow Recruiters in 2020

Gloucestercitynews.net (February 1, 2020)–Let’s say you found a job posting where you believe your skills will fit like a glove. You applied to it by sending a resume and not only did you not get the job, but you also didn’t even get called in for an interview.

What do you think might have gone wrong?

image unsplash.com

It is safe to assume at this point that the fault lies within your resume.

Without a perfect resume, a recruiter will never even know what they missed. Being the first point of contact, your resume needs to be flawless. It is through this piece of document that you are going to dazzle the recruiter and score a place in the shortlist.

These are the 5 resume tips that will wow any recruiter in 2020:

1.

Structure your resume in neat sections

Structuring your resume not only makes it look appealing, but it also breaks down the information in brief relevant sections. This helps the recruiter take in one piece of information at a time and thus makes it easy to read and comprehend.

The presentation of information on a resume is more important than the information itself. Wrongly presented, it will have no impact on the recruiter and thus has no relevance. So, be incredibly careful about what you put in your resume and how you display it.

The first thing you need to do is decide what sections will go on your resume.

Compose the following sections in the order given below to cover every information a recruiter needs to know about you:

Header

Personal Information

Profile Title

Summary

Key Skills

Professional Experience

Education

You can also add additional sections like ‘Certifications’ or ‘Additional information’ if you have data that can be filed under these. Add these sections only if they are relevant to the role you are applying for and you are positive that adding this information will favor your chances at a shortlist.

2. Make your resume easy to read

Most resumes that get tossed are due to their length or bulkiness.

These

statistics

by CareerBuilder show that 66% of employers said a resume should be one page long for new college graduates and 77% agreed that it should be at least two pages long for seasoned workers.

So, do yourself a favor and optimize the length of your resume. Discard all the fluff and only keep the essential information that a recruiter needs to know on your resume.

This eye-tracking

study

suggests that recruiters spend an average of 7 seconds on a single resume, that is not enough time for them to go through everything in detail. This means recruiters are only focusing on a few key points before making their decision about a candidate.

A cluttered resume might turn their interest off immediately as they won’t have any idea where to start looking for the required information.

To ensure that your resume gets read at least once, use one-liner bullet points instead of paragraphs to describe your past roles & responsibilities in the ‘Professional Experience’ section.

Further, categorize points under relevant subheadings and highlight the important information to draw the attention of recruiters towards it.

3.Write effective professional experience statements

However high your qualifications may be, they won’t score you a job if you haven’t presented them effectively on your resume.

Following are a few actions that you can take to make your resume more effective:

Bring the STAR method into action as it brings a cause-effect relationship in your statements. STAR stands for:

S stands for the ‘situation’ that demanded your contributions.

T stands for the ‘task’ you performed.

A stands for the ‘actions’ you took to perform the assigned task.

R stands for the ‘result’ in the form of an achievement figure.

An example of using this method can be seen in this one-liner point: “Delivered

10+ articles

weekly which increased the web site’s

traffic by 20%

”

Include as many achievement figures as you can while keeping them relevant: These numbers will help you back up your claims and make you look like a competent and useful asset. Performance figures prove that your contributions were helpful for the company.

For instance in the example, “Delivered

10+ articles

weekly which increased the web site’s

traffic by 20%

” the number of articles and the web site’s traffic is achievement figures.

Use

action verbs

to begin each one-liner point as it gives a tone of assertiveness to your resume. Words like ‘Managed’, ‘Spearheaded’ can give your resume a wow factor.

4.Keep your resume relevant to the job you are applying for

An irrelevant resume is not going to help you get any interviews. For instance, it makes no sense to mention your first job as a busboy or the many internships you did if you have been in the workforce for over 10 years.

Volunteering experience, internships, and similar information are required by inexperienced professionals or students, not someone who has already made their mark in the professional world.

These tips will help you keep your resume relevant:

If you have changed industries and your old job doesn’t fit anywhere near the new profile you are targeting, leave it off your resume.

People with more than 3 years of experience do not need to mention internships or volunteering experiences.

Use keywords as it helps you get past the Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Recruiters set the ATS to explicitly look for keywords in resumes before shortlisting them. You can find these keywords in the job description of your target job. Select the keywords that apply to you and customize your resume accordingly.4

Never forget to mention your contact details

4.Keep your resume relevant to the job you are applying for

Even if your resume got shortlisted, a recruiter will never be able to contact you to further your prospects if they do not have any means of contacting you.

So before you submit your resume, make sure that you have correctly input all the necessary contact details in your resume which include:

Contact Number

Email Address

Current Location

Conclusion

Looking back, these are the 5 resume tips to wow recruiters in 2020:

Structure your resume by filing information under relevant sections.

Enhance the readability of your resume by cutting out any clutter and highlighting important information.

Make your resume effective by using the STAR format, using action verbs, and including performance figures.

Increase the relevancy of your resume by only including relevant information and using keywords.

Provide the correct contact details to enable a prospective employer to easily touch base with you.

Author’s Bio:

Aditya Sharma

On a quest to help professionals across the world land their dream jobs, Aditya lives and breathes

Hiration where he’s a Co-Founder and the unofficial CPO (Chief Problem-solving Officer) of the AI-powered

online resume builder

and platform to help job-seekers find their way in the treacherous job market.

Quick and Easy Ways to Make Your Home More Eco-Friendly

Gloucestercitynews.net (January 31, 2020)–People are thinking a lot more about their carbon footprint these days, the idea of making your home eco-friendlier is not new, but it is becoming essential. From those who want to reduce their

image unsplash.com

environmental impact to those that are preparing their home to sell, being more environmentally conscious is more popular than ever. Make the right eco-friendly changes to your home, and you can even add value to your property, meaning that you can advance up the property ladder even faster. If you\’re looking for ways to make cost-effective changes to your carbon footprint, here are some of the greenest ways to make your home eco-friendlier.

Water Waste

As one of the more expensive utility bills, it always pays to be smarter about your water use. When it comes to being environmentally aware, most people look at electricity consumption, but your use of water is just as vital. Think about the many ways that you can save water, starting with making repairs on any leaking pipes or

a dripping faucet

. Consider installing a showerhead that comes with a low-flow option, and you can save thousands of liters of water every year.

Get Hot and Stay Cool

Temperature is where a lot of people fail when it comes to their carbon footprint. Relaxing at home if it’s too cold or too hot can be very frustrating, so it’s always tempting to play with the air-con or heating system to get the right temperature

to relax in. Check your air-conditioning system and your furnace, making sure to

make a note of your SEER and AFUE

. These two measurements will give you a much clearer idea of your energy efficiency and can have a large bearing on your utility bills.

Always Insulate

One of the most effective ways to use less energy is to need less. Insulated walls and attics prevent cooled or heated air from escaping outside, meaning that you aren’t going to be wasting your energy by constantly adjusting the temperature. You can even go beyond traditional materials by investing in more

eco-friendly materials for your insulation

. Sheep\’s wool and cotton are common options for greener insulation, but there are many materials to consider if you want to improve your insulation and remain environmentally conscious.

Eco-Aware Lighting

Most people have already looked at energy-efficient light bulbs, but if you haven’t researched them lately, then you might be amazed by the drop in prices. While the cost of energy-saving light bulbs used to be quite prohibitive, modern options are much more wallet-friendly. Remember, you don’t have to swap every lightbulb immediately. Buy one or two energy-efficient bulbs every payday and replace your older lightbulbs with the newer bulbs as needed. Take your time, and you’ll soon have all of the

environmentally friendly lighting

that you’ll need.

Turning your home int0 somewhere more eco-friendly doesn’t have to mean huge disruption or costs. Often, it is the small changes to your home that will have the most impact. Whether you\’re putting your property on the market or you want to reduce your carbon footprint, these quick and easy eco-friendly tips could save you a fortune and boost the asking price of your home.

CNB BUSINESS NES: 2019 marked a decade of growth for Center City Philadelphia’s hotels

PHILADELPHIA PA (Jan 28, 2020)–Today, the City of Philadelphia, in conjunction with VISIT PHILADELPHIA

®

, the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Greater Philadelphia Hotel Association, announced records, most notably, in average daily rate (up 5.8% year over year to $202.41) and revenue (up 4.3% year over year to $707 million). Occupancy remained solid at 76.3%, as did demand, with 3.49 million room nights consumed. All of these results came during a year when four new Philadelphia hotels opened, adding 491 rooms to the city’s supply.

“I’m proud that even with new properties entertain the Philadelphia market, our hotels continue to set records,” said City of Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney. “Our growing tourism and hospitality industry works collaboratively to ensure that people choose Philadelphia for meetings, business trips and vacations every season of the year. This constant stream of visitor activity generates tax dollars and supports family-sustaining jobs for our residents. That’s hugely beneficial to our city and region.”

Center City Hotel Highlights

:

Occupancy:

76.3%

Saturday night remained the busiest night of the week, with average occupancy at 88.1%.

Tuesday was the busiest weeknight, with 79.4% occupancy.

Record

Average Daily Rate (ADR):

$202.41

This 5.8% year-over-year increase (up from $191.40 in 2018) is attributable to several factors: a strong convention year, strengthened business demand, solid leisure demand, more high-end hotel room inventory and a slow and steady increase in ADR in recent years.

Record Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR): $154

Growing 1.2% year over year, RevPAR is up from $152 in 2018.

Supply & Demand:

58 million room nights in supply, 3.49 million room nights sold

2019 demand surpassed the overall five-year average by 4.5%, showing that the market is strong and thriving.

Record Room Revenue:

$707 million

Up 4.3% from $678 million in 2018, this revenue is the result of higher rates (ADR) throughout the year.

Market Mix: One-third for each segment

Of the 3.49 million rooms consumed, demand was split largely evenly among the three segments of travel: business (33%), group (32%) and leisure (31%). Contract business (primarily flight crews and long-term stays) accounted for 4% of the mix.

According to AIRDNA, in 2019, Center City Philadelphia saw a significant increase in demand for limited-lodging options such as Airbnb, with 343,700 room nights consumed by guests renting a private room or an entire home, up 38.9% year over year.

Note to Editors: At tonight’s 2020 Tourism & Hospitality Industry Outlook, industry leaders will celebrate the 2019 hotel performance detailed above and announce plans for the year and decade ahead.

Data Sources: STR, Tourism Economics and AIRDNA; all data points are based on the most current information available and may change slightly as new data becomes available.

About VISIT PHILADELPHIA:

VISIT PHILADELPHIA is our name and our mission. As the region’s official tourism marketing agency, we build Greater Philadelphia’s image, drive visitation and boost the economy.

On Greater Philadelphia’s official visitor website and blog,

visitphilly.com

and

uwishunu.com

, visitors can explore things to do, upcoming events, themed itineraries and hotel packages. Compelling photography and videos, interactive maps and detailed visitor information make the sites effective trip-planning tools. Along with Visit Philly social media channels, the online platforms communicate directly with consumers. Travelers can also call and stop into the Independence Visitor Center for additional information and tickets.

About the PHLCVB:

The Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau (PHLCVB) creates positive economic impact across the Philadelphia region, driving job growth, and promoting the health and vibrancy of our hospitality industry by marketing the destination and the Pennsylvania Convention Center globally. Our work engages our local community, as well as culturally and ethnically diverse regional, national and international convention and sporting event and tourism customers, as well as overseas leisure visitors.

About GPHA:

The Greater Philadelphia Hotel Association (GPHA) is a trade association representing more than 90 hotels throughout the Philadelphia 5-county area. In addition to our hotel members, we also have over 150 Allied Members, a diverse group of companies and related industry partners who do business with hotels. Our hotel members employ over 14,000 residents and have over 30,000 guestrooms.

PART OF

Fun Learning Activities for Kids You Can Do at Home

Gloucestercitynews.net (January 29, 2020)–Are you trying to give your kids a little advantage at school? Or are you just interested in finding fun ways you can bond at home and learn a little something along the way? Well, there are so many amazing activities you can do with your kids and teach them plenty of useful things while having

courtesy of unsplash.com

fun.

Doing experiments

Kids are fascinated by the world around them, so you can take easy advantage of that and turn their curiosity into a fun learning opportunity. There are easy experiments you can conduct at home to spark your kids’ interest in science. With only a few ingredients you can find in your pantry or grab at a store, you can create a volcano, make your own lava lamp, make slime or write invisible letters. Kids will learn a lot about material and ingredient properties and have fun in the meantime.

Playing with educational toys

Toys are always fun, but also a great educational material if you know where to look. You can easily fill your kids’ rooms with toys like Legos, building blocks and jigsaws which are great for motor skills and creativity; music instruments for artistic expression; connect four for logical thinking; and many more. These are all fun both for kids and parents and they are a great way to incorporate engineering, math, reading and measuring lessons.

Painting and drawing

Artistic expression is one of the rare fun and useful activities your kid can safely pursue at home. If you just provide them with plenty of (non-toxic) supplies like markers, water colors and different types of material, they will experiment for hours. And you can easily find the best crayons (and toys) at this site –

Home

and provide your kids with all the fun they need from an art supply. Try giving them drawing ideas and allow them to explore them and add their own details. In order to make the situation even more fun, play some music and try drawing what you feel.

Cooking

If you’re often short on time and have a busy schedule, you can use your time spent in the kitchen to encourage your kids to learn and acquire new skills. There’s nothing more fun for kids than handling dough, measuring ingredients and stirring bowls of pasta or cream. Older kids can even get their own knife (there are kid-friendly kinds) and help you chop veggies and fruit. All of these activities will incorporate math (measuring and counting ingredients), reading (recipe books), motor skill practice (stirring and chopping) and learning vocabulary.

Reading before bed

This classic activity is perfect for hard-working parents who come home from work exhausted. No matter how long your day was, you can always tuck your kids in, grab a book and have some quiet time reading and relaxing. Kids love stories, so you can’t really go wrong with any sort of fairytale, pop-up book or kids’ poetry. Make sure to show them pictures, discuss different scenarios and talk further about characters. This activity is great for developing reading and vocabulary skills as well as exercising creativity.

Talk about numbers

Kids are never too young to start learning about numbers. Numbers are present all around us and you don’t have to limit kids’ learning to math books. Calendars, remote controls, phones, registration plates all have numbers, so you can study them from your home. Come up with fun games like Find the Number and ask your kids to go around the house and search for certain numbers. It’s a great way to keep them busy and learning at the same time.

Who says kids can’t have fun and learn at the same time? And the best part, they can do all of that right at home where you can keep a watchful eye on them.

How To Make Your Business Look More Professional

Gloucestercitynews.net(January 28, 2020)–Running a business is not an easy task, and it is down to every business owner to make choices that are going to benefit the company in the long term. Some of these choices will be about how to make the business look more professional to the outside world – to customers, suppliers, and investors – in order to make more sales and increase profits.

It can be hard to determine just what is going to help do this, especially when you are working in the business and are close to what is happening. Ideally, you will want to take a step back and reassess what you are doing to ensure that your business is as professional as possible. Here are some ways to achieve this.

A Good Website

When a potential customer comes across a new company and thinks about buying from it, the first thing they are going to do is check its website.

It is expected that all businesses would have a website

(if there are no results when a name is searched, it will look highly suspicious), but that website also needs to look professional in order to win business.

image courtesy of unsplash.com

There are no excuses for a poor looking website; there are many web designers who will be able to help you decide what you are looking for and create something that works perfectly for your business. Even if you choose to do the job yourself, intuitive programs such as

WordPress

mean that you don’t have to understand coding to have a great looking and user-friendly website. This is essential if you want to look professional.

Your Premises

Some people choose to

work from home

, but others would prefer not to, or they don’t have a choice; if they own and operate a customer-facing business, then working from home is not going to work for them. If this is the case and you need premises to sell items from or to meet customers in, then you need to ensure it looks good and is well maintained. A shoddy-looking building is not going to inspire confidence in any potential customer, and an investor might not want to give you any money either if you can’t look after your office or warehouse space properly.

Installing a brand new building in place of an old one, such as

a steel building from Armstrong Steel

, will help you to look more professional. Everything will look clean and well maintained, and you will be able to specify exactly what you want, ensuring that your employees are comfortable too. This will give a great first impression to anyone who visits your business.

Have Business Cards

Ordering business cards

may seem like an unnecessary expense, especially when you are just starting out, but they can show your business in a much more professional light.

Networking

is an essential part of business, and if you don’t have business cards to hand out, what will you do when you are meeting new people who might be able to help you? You will either miss the opportunity or write your details on a scrap of paper – both ideas are unprofessional, and a business card would solve these problems.

What Microsoft 98-349 Exam Objectives Should You Master to Become a Certified Specialist? Practice Tests Know the Answer!

(Gloucestercitynews.net)(January 27, 2020)–Microsoft offers a wide range of certifications and exams for the IT professionals. By doing so, it contributes tremendously to the growth of the IT industry. Actually, Microsoft is a giant in it. This is evident from the fact that about 80 percent of computers all over the world are running on its operating system. That is why a specialist with the credential of this vendor will be in-demand in many organizations worldwide.

Microsoft 98-349, or Windows OS Fundamentals, is the recommended starting point in the IT-sphere. This article focuses on this exam and everything else that it entails, including its topics, recertification policy, prerequisites, preparation options, and so on. Let’s start with the basic information.

What is the Microsoft 98-349 exam?

The

Exam-labs.com

98-349 certification exam was published on April 13, 2011. All this time, this test has been very popular among employers and IT professionals, particularly those who manage application folders, files, and devices. Going by the look of things, this exam will continue to be a highly sought-after test for a long time. It is intended for home PC users, developers, academic information workers, and IT specialists. The 98-349 exam is also designed for those who are looking to be recognized as system analysts and system administrators. It is meant to certify one’s competency to understand, manage, and install the Windows operating system.

The Microsoft 98-349 certification exam consists of about 40-60 questions in total, and the time limit is 2 hours. The questions are of various types. Precisely, there are scenario-based and multiple-choice questions that are included in this test. The maximum score for this Windows OS

Fundamentals exam is 1000 points, and the passing score is 700

. The available languages: Russian, German, Spanish, Spanish (Latin America), English, French, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Korean, Japanese, and Chinese (Simplified/Traditional).

What are the prerequisites for Microsoft 98-349 exam?

There are no official prerequisites for Microsoft 98-349. Although this gives anyone the opportunity to take this exam, it would be almost impossible to do well and achieve even the passing score without having prior knowledge of Windows fundamentals. Microsoft has stated it very clear on its website that the individuals considering this certification test should know the concepts of Windows OS.

The candidates are also advised to use study materials that Microsoft offers on its webpage. The resources are as follows: training courses, practice tests, study guides, videos. Apart from these official prep tools, there are also other verified resources such as braindumps and video tutorials that can be found on exam-Labs. This platform is one of the best places that provide students with up-to-date study materials.

What topics do you need to cover in Microsoft 98-349 exam?

The exam is based on 6 main knowledge domains, and each of them will cover about 15-20% of the whole test. So, all the topics are usually given the same prominence in the exam. These objectives should always act as the general guidelines for the applicants about what content the examiners are most likely to include in Microsoft 98-349. Let’s take a quick look at each topic. You can check the whole list with the details by visiting the certification webpage.

Understanding the operating system configuration

This is the first topic that is included in the Microsoft 98-349 certification exam. The questions from this objective test the students’ knowledge of a number of concepts, but the main ones include the usage and configuration of Control Panel options, desktop settings, native tools and applications, mobility settings, and management tools. It also covers administrative tools, profiles and display settings, file explorer settings, start menu, taskbar, notifications, Microsoft Edge, Hyper-V, MSCONFIG, Windows PowerShell, Sync Center, and more.

Installing and upgrading client systems

This is the second topic from which the questions are taken in the certification exam. This objective measures one’s ability to identify editions of Windows OS, understand installation types, identify the appropriate upgrade paths, and understand OS architecture, and so on. You should know how to identify and understand hardware and compatibility requirements, apps compatibility, kernel mode, user mode, 32-bit vs. 64-bit architecture, perform a clean install and upgrade via Windows Update.

Managing applications

Various concepts are being tested on this objective. The questions evaluate the candidates’ knowledge of configuring and understanding applications, antivirus settings, UAC, services start-up types, service dependencies, and service accounts. You should also know a thing or two about local and network apps, desktop apps, Windows SmartScreen and Store apps, standard user and administrative ones, Malicious Software Removal Tool and Windows Defender.

Managing folders and files

The questions on this topic cover various concepts. They basically verify the ability of the test takers to understand file systems, print and file sharing, encrypting files systems and BitLocker, and libraries. To master the skills, you need to understand NTFS, FAT32, and ReFS, and can be able to configure share permissions, file system permissions, HomeGroup settings, effective permissions, and print drivers.

Managing devices

The questions on this objective are designed to measure the individuals\’ ability in connecting devices, understanding storage, printing devices, and system devices, such as device management, video, devices, infrared input devices, and audio devices. You should master your knowledge of plug-and-play and Bluetooth devices, printers, device drivers, third-party software, disk types, OneDrive, and Device Manager.

Understanding operating system maintenance

The last topic area majorly tests if the candidates understand backup and recovery methods, maintenance tools, and know-how to configure updates. You need to learn about recovery drive, recovery boot options, system restore, safe mode options, task scheduler, disk cleanup, disk defragmenter, system information, Windows update options, roll back updates, and more.

Conclusion

The Microsoft 98-349 certification exam is an important step for your career growth. With the relevant credential, which is earned after clearing this test, you will be a highly sought-after IT professional. Remember that Exam-Labs will always partner with you on your journey to achieving high results. You can always rely on its training materials to help you prepare for your exams in two ticks.

NEST Integrated Facilities Management Names Shannon Puckett Chief Operating Officer

GLOUCESTER CITY, NJ—January 27, 2020

—NEST, the leader in integrated facilities management and technology solutions serving enterprises in the United States and Canada, has announced the addition of Shannon Puckett to their executive suite as

Chief Operating Officer.

In her new role, Puckett will oversee NEST’s network of over 26,000 independent service providers (ISPs), ensure their compliance to local and national requirements and manage quality assurance, product sourcing and service execution.

“We’re thrilled to have a veteran leader like Shannon joining the NEST family,” said Rob Almond, CEO at NEST. “After a year of continued growth and expansion of our services, 2020 felt like the perfect time to grow our executive team.”

Puckett draws on over two decades’ experience in the facilities management space where her leadership fostered growth internally and externally by implementing innovative techniques to meet organizational goals and process improvements.

She previously served as SVP of Strategy at Amazon for C&W Services and Managing Director at CBRE. She has also held roles at The Home Depot and Toyota Motor Corporation.

“I’m excited to hit the ground running with the NEST team in 2020,” said Puckett. “It’s great to be joining a company that has seen so much growth over the last few years, even as the industry becomes more consolidated than ever. I’m looking forward to seeing us maintain that upward trend.”

###

About NEST Integrated Facilities Management

Since 1994, NEST has been transforming the way modern, multi-site businesses manage their facilities and construction programs by pairing financial acumen and business analytics with a strategic consultative approach.

Real-time data, reporting and analytics technology empower business leaders with the informed insights they need to make smarter decisions. And with access to an extensive network of vetted independent service providers (ISPs) across the country, multi-site organizations with a national footprint experience exceptional service, regardless of where they are located. With NEST, businesses are equipped to address the full range

of their facilities maintenance

and management needs.

Nominations Open for 2020 New Good Neighbor Awards

The New Jersey Business & Industry Association and

New Jersey Business

magazine are seeking nominations for the 60

th

Annual New Good Neighbor Awards that honor outstanding economic development projects in New Jersey.

\”New Good Neighbor Awards recognize the visionary architects, builders and financing professionals who turn exciting ideas into reality and make New Jersey a better place to live and do business,\” said NJBIA President & CEO Michele N. Siekerka, Esq. \”This competition showcases the best of the best who invest in communities, create jobs, and improve lives.\”

Projects can be nominated in any of these three categories: New Construction, Community Enhancement (parks/streetscapes), and Renovation/Expansion. Eligible projects must have been completed (construction or capital expenditures) within the past two years (Jan. 1, 2018 – Dec. 31, 2019) and can be nominated using the

online form

on NJBIA\’s website.

The deadline for submitting nominations is

Feb. 14

.

NJBIA will contact eligible nominees and ask them to provide details about their projects. Judging will be based on projects\’ economic benefits, job creation, architectural merit and community involvement. Winners will be profiled in

New Jersey Business

magazine\’s July issue, as well as on NJBIA\’s website.

The 2020 New Good Neighbor Awards will be presented on July 14.

Last year, New Good Neighbor Awards were given to

13 winning development projects

that collectively represented $488 million in capital investments and provided 5,124 construction and 2,900 permanent jobs. Press releases and short videos about the winners produced by NJBIA yielded reports from media outlets throughout the state.

For further information about the New Good Neighbor Awards program, contact

events@njbia.org

. Information about last year\’s winners can be found

here

and short NJBIA videos about their projects can be viewed

here

.

The Cleanup of Gloucester City\’s Superfund Sites Continues; $384 Million Spent So Far

William E. Cleary Sr. | CNBNews

GLOUCESTER CITY, NJ (January 26, 2020)–The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is continuing the cleanup of contaminants in Gloucester City that came from the defunct Welsbach Factory located at King and Essex Streets and the Delaware River. Presently the property is the home of the Gloucester Marine Terminal/Holt property.

The same area was also the home of Armstrong Cork for many years.

The EPA is preparing the plans to remove contaminants from the Gloucester Marine Terminal/Holt property at King And Essex Streets (gloucestercitynews.net photo)

The Welsbach factory manufactured gas mantles in Gloucester City from the 1890s to the 1940s. Using state-of-the-art technology at the time, the wicks for the gas lamps were dipped into radioactive thorium so they would “glow in the dark.”

The company, not knowing the thorium was radioactive, discarded the wicks throughout Gloucester City. A similar manufacturing company, General Gas Mantle, located in Camden City did the same with the waste coming from their plant.

Since 1999 the EPA has been removing the thorium at various sites such as the baseball and football fields on Johnson Blvd. The same cleanup process has been ongoing in Camden.

In 1980, the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) sponsored a flyover radiological survey in Gloucester City and Camden City. Based on the survey, the EPA investigated more than 1,000 properties surrounding the two former gas mantle facilities – Welsbach in Gloucester City and General Gas Mantle (GGM) in Camden City.

As for the upcoming work at the Gloucester Marine Terminal, a source told us that an above ground tank 42 feet in diameter and 16 foot tall was going to be erected at the site.

Elias Rodríguez,

Public Information Officer, Region 2, New York, was asked to explain the purpose of such a large structure.

A similar tank like this one will be erected on Gloucester Marine Terminal/Holt property (Gloucestercitynews.net files)

\”

You are likely referring to the tank for the groundwater treatment system. Groundwater treatment will be conducted using physical and chemical treatment processes. The final design of the groundwater treatment facility including the treatment equipment/tanks has not been completed. However, one of the tanks to be designed/constructed is expected to be an open tank and would be used as an emergency back-up storage tank. So, it would not regularly contain impacted groundwater.  In addition, the contaminants of concern are not ones where movement from the water to air is a concern,\” said Rodriquez.

\”

Construction of a groundwater treatment facility has been initiated and is part of existing work addressing excavation of radiologically contaminated soil at the port facility.  Water encountered during the soil excavations will require treatment/disposal and that necessitates the design/construction of the groundwater treatment facility,\” he said.

\”

The Holt Cargo/Gloucester Marine Terminal parking lot is the location of the groundwater treatment facility. The port is the location of the former Welsbach facility.  The former Welsbach facility operated from the turn of the century to roughly the 1940s and a waste by-product from their manufacture of gas lanterns contained low levels of radioactive material that was used as fill material in areas of Gloucester City and Camden City.  One of the remaining buildings on-site at the port facility is the Armstrong Building.\”

Rodriquez said

the Welsbach Company (Gloucester City) and GGM (Camden City) produced gas mantles from the late 1890s to 1941. The companies used radioactive elements in the production of the mantles to help them glow brighter when heated. In the early 1990s, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection found elevated levels of radiation at the site and in many residential areas. EPA added the site to the Superfund National Priorities List in June 1996.

Cleanup activities completed to date include:

¨ Excavation/disposal of contaminated soil and waste materials from numerous properties in Gloucester City and Camden;

¨ The demolition/off-site disposal of the former GGM building in Camden;

¨ Cleanup of radiologically contaminated building surfaces in the Armstrong Building, the last standing building associated with the former Welsbach Company at the port in Gloucester City;

¨ Cleanup/restoration of the William Flynn Veterans Complex, which included rebuilding three baseball fields, a football practice field, and a parking area; and

¨ Cleanup/restoration of the Nicholson Road Sports Complex, which included restoration of three softball fields, a Little League baseball field, bathroom facilities, and a concession stand. Current cleanup activities include:

¨ Excavation/disposal of radiologically contaminated soil at fifteen locations at the port facility; and

¨ Relocation of utilities (e.g. electrical, gas, telecommunication) within the port facility to facilitate subsequent large excavation of radiologically contaminated soil.

The prime contractor for the groundwater treatment facility is APTIM Corp.

APTIM specializes in engineering, program management, environmental services, disaster recovery, complex facility maintenance, and construction services. They have offices in Philadelphia and New York City and throughout the United States and Canada.

https://www.aptim.com

The value of the groundwater treatment facility project being built at the marine terminal is estimated to be $7 million Rodriquez said.

According to Rodriquez a

n estimated $384 million has been spent for investigations and clean-up and that includes work in Camden and Gloucester City.

When asked how much longer will it take to finish the projects in Camden and Gloucester Cities Rodriquez said, \”The current projection for the complete cleanup of these two communities is 10 years.\”

From the EPA\’s

WELSBACH & GENERAL GAS MANTLE Superfund website;

To address long-term site risks, EPA has investigated close to 950 properties in Camden and Gloucester City and has completed the cleanup on 163 of the nearly 175 properties identified as contaminated. To date, EPA has excavated and disposed of more than 350,000 tons of radiologically contaminated soils and waste materials. These cleanups included removing about 105,000 tons of contaminated soil from Gloucester City Swim Club and adjacent residential properties; about 23,000 tons from the site of a Gloucester City middle school; 35,000 tons from residential properties along Highland Avenue and Klemm Boulevard in Gloucester City; more than 55,000 tons from the General Gas Mantle area in Camden, more than 16,000 tons from residential properties and wetlands areas along Temple Avenue in Gloucester City, and about 130,000 tons from the recreational properties along Johnson Boulevard in Gloucester City.

(See More)

RELATED:

Video (s): $25 Million Spent on EPA Cleanup of Johnson Blvd. Sports Complex

www.gloucestercitynews.net › clearysnotebook › 2009/08 › epa-to-ho…

GLOUCESTER CITY: EPA to Hold Meeting On Welsbach …

Aug 18, 2009 –

Road

. To better understand how the community uses these ball

fields

, EPA … EPA plans to begin the

cleanup

at the

Gloucester City

Land Preserve by early fall 2009. … be working on, plug in

Johnson

Boulevard,

Gloucester City

, NJ 08030. … and Common Council of

Gloucester City

(

gloucestercitynews

.

net

) …

source of graphics EPA