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HABITAT PREPARES FOR 9TH HOUSE IN PB

By Amy Widner/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Friday, November 6, 2009 2:20 AM CST

Three weeks behind schedule because of the rain, construction on the ninth Habitat for Humanity house will begin with a wall-raising ceremony 8 a.m. Saturday.

“I think the enthusiasm is going to be there, and we still expect to be finished by Christmas,” said Barbara Akins, Jefferson County Habitat for Humanity spokeswoman. “I’m just as pumped now as I would have been three weeks ago. This will be the fastest home we’ve ever done in our history.”

The building site is at 807 S. Holly St. The Kevin Johnson family, recipients of the house, will be presented to the public and the house’s full list of sponsors will be announced.

In addition to the 400 “sweat-equity” hours the family will put into the house, Akins said about 100 volunteers will be needed during the course of construction.

“It can be done with the help of those who care about those in need,” Akins said. “It can be done. Other Habitat projects have built houses in a day. We want to show that Pine Bluff cares enough to get this family in a house by Christmas.”

Akins said all the materials are ready for construction, including the walls built at Riverside Vocational Technical School at the Arkansas Department of Correction’s Varner Unit.

Breakfast and lunch will be provided at the wall-raising ceremony. Work will continue Saturday until 4 p.m. Food will also be provided on other work days.

Akins said about 30 families applied for the program, which is about the same number as last year. Akins said the selection committee looks at the family’s income as compared to the size of the family, their ability to pay the 20-year interest-free mortgage on the house and their willingness to follow through with the 400 sweat-equity hours. Families undergo an interview process, home visit, background check and credit check.

According to the Habitat for Humanity International Web site, www.habitat.org, there are more than 300,000 Habitat houses across the globe. Habitat is a nonprofit, Christian organization.

The local families who have received Habitat houses in the past will help build this house, as part of the program’s emphasis on giving back. Six of the eight completed Jefferson County Habitat houses have been built in the same neighborhood.

“Our goal and our dream is to create a Habitat village,” Akins said. “It’s an effort to revitalize this particular neighborhood.”

In another first for the Jefferson County Habitat program, the Johnson house will be built with an emphasis on green features. Recycled building materials will be used and the house will be fitted with environmentally friendly and energy efficient features.

“We have lots of firsts going on here,” Akins said. “We kind of tend to have lots of firsts going on, but this one is a real, real first. But we know the people of Pine Bluff will step up and help us do this.”

URS Corp. EG&G Division of the Washington Defense Group is this year’s biggest sponsor, a “diamond sponsor.”

The Jefferson County Habitat for Humanity program was established in 1990. For more information, call 536-3822.

All volunteers are asked to call and register if they plan to work so the office can get a head count for meals and equipment. Akins said volunteer response has been good so far, but they are especially in need of able-bodied volunteers who can do some of the heavy lifting and more difficult tasks.

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