11/2/2008 8:33:00 PM Achievers:
Construction program at
Yavapai College earns more awards
Les Stukenberg/The Daily Courier
Tony Grahame, at right, instructs students to look for natural shape or distortion of a board before nailing it in place at a home that the Yavapai College Residential Building Technology Program is building in Chino Valley.
CHINO VALLEY - Six Yavapai College students pounded nails on the interior walls Thursday morning at a 1,200-square-foot home under construction on Purple Sage.
They started work on the home for the Prescott Area Habitat for Humanity - and future owner Ann Petersen - in September and plan to complete it next May, said Tony Grahame said, director of the Residential Building Technology Program at the Chino Valley campus of Yavapai College.
The first-year students are the latest crop of aspiring home builders who enrolled in a program that has garnered eight major awards since 2004, according to college officials.
So far this year, the program earned three awards:
• The Excellence in Green Building Curriculum Recognition Award from the U.S. Green Building Council in May.
• The 2008 Brian Mickelsen Housing Hero Award for Superior Sustainable Design from the Arizona Department of Housing in September.
• The 2009 Energy Value Housing Award from the National Association of Home Builders, also in September. The U.S. Department of Energy supports the award, which the college won under the category of affordable, moderate climate.
The college won both Mickelsen and Energy Value Housing awards for construction of a house on Fox Road in Chino Valley. College officials will receive the Energy Value Housing Award in January at the International Home Show in Las Vegas, Nev.
"It's a collaboration you can't do without students," Grahame said, referring to the awards.
The previous class of students built the 1,400-square-foot, four-bedroom, two-bath house on Fox Road, Grahame said. They built it in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity, like the home under construction on Purple Sage.
The Fox house contains solar-heated water and fresh-air ventilation, and is "super-insulated," Grahame said.
Grahame said entering the home for the Energy Value Housing Award required submitting 100 pages of evidence, including photos. E3 Energy of Flagstaff provided third-party certification.
The awards and reputation that the program have earned attracted new students, including Jesse Veverka and Valarie Isley.
Veverka, 25, said he moved from Plainfield, N.H., to attend the program. He is one of four students from out of state.
His classmate, Isley, 52, said she decided to pursue the program after retiring from the Prescott Parks and Recreation Department.
"I told the kids that work in this class this is my midlife crisis," she quipped.
To learn more about the program and the awards, log on to www.yc.edu/rbt.
Editor's note: If you have a suggestion of a local person to feature in Achievers, call 445-3333, ext. 2041, or send an e-mail to khedler@prescottaz.com
Reader Comments
Posted: Monday, November 03, 2008
Article comment by:
Taxation upon taxation
Existing JTED at work. This program has been around since the beginning of Yavapai Community College. There used to be dozens of vocational programs available at this college until the late 80's and 90's when all of a sudden the political regime in charge started reducing them and turning this college into a liberal arts school. So, why pay tax on a program called JTED when we have been paying this tax for 30 some odd years for this very thing? Check your property tax bills folks you will see that you pay a tax for the operation of Yavapai College.
