Skip to main content

News Briefs

Date Posted: March 2 2007

Benefit set for electrician's son
A dinner and silent auction to benefit Jacob Voisinet - the son of an IBEW Local 665 member - will be held Saturday, March 24 at St. Jude Catholic Church, 801 N. Bridge St. in DeWitt, north of Lansing.

Jacob, two and a half, is the son of Tim and Stacy Voisinet. In December 2005, Jacob became very ill and was diagnosed with HLH - Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis - a rare and life-threatening immune disorder. Jacob has undergone chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant last September in Cincinnati's Children's Hospital.

He remains in Cincinnati for outpatient treatment because of recurring viruses and a recent loss of engraftment. That means his old cells have taken over and the new donor cells are almost nonexistent. If Jacob loses all of his donor cells he will have to start the process over with a more intensive chemotherapy regimen, followed by a second bone marrow transplant.

The benefit dinner starts at 4 p.m. (BYOB), and a silent auction will take place from 6-9 p.m. Raffles and 50-50 drawings will also be held. Tickets are available at the door, $15 each or two for $25. For more information, contact Mindy Voisinet at (517) 669-8986. Donations can be made to the Jacob Voisinet Benefit Fund, Citizens Bank, 200 W. Higham St. St. Johns, MI 48879.

O'Reilly endorsed for Dearborn mayor
Excluding the residential sector, the U.S. construction industry got off to a roaring start in 2007. In dollar value, construction activity in January 2007 was 28.7 percent higher than in January 2006, according to Reed Construction Data. Compared to December 2006, construction activity in January rose 3.8 percent.

"Nonresidential construction employment growth has been sizzling," said Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America. "Over the past 12 months, nonresidential building contractors and nonresidential specialty trades have boosted employment by 160,000, or 5.0 percent. Heavy and civil engineering construction has added 25,000, or 2.5 percent. Those rates greatly outstrip the 1.6-percent growth rate for nonfarm payroll employment as a whole.

"A further favorable omen for nonresidential construction is that architectural and engineering employment rose more than five percent in the past year," Simonson said. "That should translate into additional construction work in the next several months. I expect several nonresidential categories to do especially well this year - particularly energy and power-related construction, hospitals, hotels and resorts."

In terms of total construction employment, there were 7,715,000 construction workers in the U.S. in January - 200,000 more than in December.

The AGC said residential building and specialty trades employment slipped again in January, bringing the year-over-year decline to 84,000 jobs, or 2.5 percent of the January 2006. Simonson said, "I expect home builders will continue to shrink for most of 2007, until they see a marked upturn in home sales."

"Construction wages rose 4.5 percent in the last 12 months, outpacing the 4.0 percent increase for all private industry production workers," Simonson stated. "Part of this reflects a changing mix of construction jobs, away from lower-skilled homebuilding and remodeling to skilled nonresidential crafts. But it may also indicate that contractors are ratcheting up pay to find the workers they need.

"BLS sharply increased its estimate of total construction employment as part of its normal annual revision process for all industries," Simonson concluded. "The January 2007 count of 7,715,000, seasonally adjusted, is more than 200,000 higher than appeared likely a month ago."