Ferne Moschella, the President and CEO of Warm Hearth Village, near Blacksburg, Virginia, is a leader who can focus on the big picture while giving careful attention to all the details that make the wooded community a delightful place to live. In 1974, Dutch immigrants Wybe and Marietje Kroontje founded the nonprofit retirement village to serve seniors from all walks of life, as a way of repaying their adopted country. First came independent townhomes, then HUD-subsidized apartments, an assisted living facility, a long-term nursing care center, and then single-family homes for active seniors - all part of Dr. Kroontje’s 100-year plan. Today, Warm Hearth Village serves more than 550 residents. Now, Warm Hearth is starting on another essential piece of Dr. Kroontje’s vision: the Village Center. Featuring a pool, fitness center, marketing and development offices, welcome center, and community gathering spaces, the 15,700-sq.ft. center will be available to all Warm Hearth residents, Moschella says. “The Village Center will include a stage with appropriate lighting and sound systems for theatrical productions. We hope it can be a venue for local theatre and for traveling productions,” she said. “Dr. Kroontje envisioned the Village Center serving the wider community as well as the residents of Warm Hearth Village. We look forward to inviting community members of all ages onto our campus, to participate in all Warm Hearth has to offer.” Moschella noted that while residents eagerly await the center, one thing makes many apprehensive – cutting down trees. “That draws more concerns than anything else,” she said. “So we involved residents in the planning process, along with the architects and engineers.” (A&A is providing site and landscape design.) The site is designed to spare as many healthy trees as possible. Older trees near the end of their life cycle have been harvested to use as beams in the timber frame and steel structure. Even the logging is a sustainable practice. Residents have enjoyed watching two teams of Belgian draft horses drag the timbers from the forest. The Village Center will include a salt water pool, to avoid the use of noxious chemicals, and will harness solar energy for part of its heat. A geothermal system will also heat the building. Rainwater will be captured and diverted for irrigation and use in toilets. “Every effort has been made to design this building with minimal disruption of the natural landscape, and utilizing sustainable building practices,” Moschella said. Employed by Warm Hearth for the past 11 years, and President/CEO for the past 5, Moschella holds a BS and MBA from Cornell University and lives in Christiansburg with her husband, son, and daughter. &

Warm Hearth CEO Ferne Moschella: Seeing The Trees & The Forest

&AMPERSANDAnderson & Associates, Inc.

by Su Clauson-Wicker

(2) Greensboro Aquatic Center Makes a Big Splash (3) Project Zoranger and A&AProject Engineer: Dan Phipps

(4) We’re Working For / Congrats

Focused On Clients...

January/February 2011, Volume 24, Issue I

Features this month

Go big or go home might be a good motto for the citizens of Greensboro, NC as they prepare to make quite a splash with their construction of the Greensboro Aquatic Center. Anticipated to open this summer, the state-of-the art facility will host an array of competitive water sports featuring swimming and diving, water polo, synchronized swimming, as well as other aquatic interests. The groundbreaking ceremony for the Center was held on May 5, 2010. The event had quite a turnout, bringing out over 200 swimming aficionados. Anderson and Associates, Inc. provided construction staking shortly thereafter. In 1993 A&A also performed the layout for a large expansion of the original coliseum to its present day size. The opportunity to return and contribute once again to this monumental project was a thrill for the A&A team. Survey Project Manager for the Greensboro, NC regional office, Michael Davis says, “The layout was challenging due to the confined project space, the need to meet NCAA and FINA standards, and the complex column work that supports

the open layout of the Center. But we love a good challenge and are proud of our work on this project; it’s really starting to shape up as a premier facility.” This 78,323 square foot structure will be located on the campus of the Greensboro Coliseum Complex, which in itself, is a colossal facility that provides a multitude of activities and entertainment, as well as boasting the largest single-seat arena in the nation. The Greensboro Aquatic Center will become a valued addition to this already thriving destination, and offers a staggering 2,500 seating capacity, as well as three bodies of water: a competition pool, warm-up pool, and a diving well. While some visitors may be serious aquatic athletes, others are more interested in the recreational

activities; which means the pools are likely to see an occasional belly flop. The center will be home to many high school and university events in addition to swimming classes, therapeutic rehabilitation sessions, and many more programs designed to serve the local citizens. In fact, in anticipation of the facility’s popularity and demand, the Greensboro Aquatic Center is expected to be open 15 hours a day. For the locals this facility can’t come to completion quickly enough. The serious aquatic enthusiasts and the young water fans alike can’t wait to dip their toes in and jump head-over-heels into some good old fashioned wet fun. &

by Rachel Shumate

2Anderson & Associates, Inc.

www.andassoc.com

Focused On Service...

Greensboro Aquatic Center Makes a Big Splash

In 2009, Dan Phipps was teaching a survey class as a grad student at Virginia Tech. He graduated with his Masters of Science in Civil Engineering in May, and later that summer, volunteered to travel to Haiti to survey land for the construction of an orphanage in the rural community of Zoranger. That trip would change his life. Dan describes Zoranger as a farming community not even qualifying as a village, since it has no center; a place where the people live in thatch structures if they’re lucky. As an American, Dan grew up as most of us here do, taking our amenities for granted, and still finding aspects of our lives to complain about. In Zoranger, he was struck by the happiness of the people and their selfless generosity, despite their impoverished living conditions. The citizens were so grateful for the work that Dan and his colleagues were performing, they would share meals, often cooking more than they could truly spare in order to show their thanks. Dan and his group noticed children carrying water back to Zoranger. They were surprised to learn that the community’s nearest water source was a low-flowing stream located several miles away, and they soon discovered that the stream was highly contaminated by both chemical runoff and animal feces. Armed with the conviction that all folks deserve clean drinking water, the group decided then and there that they would build a well and storage cistern, centrally located to eliminate the toilsome task of transporting water from the stream. Dan and his friends formed Project Zoranger, a non-profit organization dedicated to building a well for the citizens of Zoranger. This project is a long-range goal that began in 2009, but is still ongoing today. A local well driller provided a cost estimate of $15,000 for the completion of a well, pump, and cistern. Project Zoranger has already raised over $9,000 through a combination of grass roots and formal fundraising methods. Dan Phipps joined Anderson & Associates in September of 2009, following his trip to Haiti and co-founding Project Zoranger. He is a Project Engineer for A&A’s Blacksburg, Virginia office, specializing in site development and stormwater drainage. Originally from Herndon, VA, Dan located to Blacksburg to attend VT, where he met his fiancée, Allison Jarnagin his freshman year. Jarnigan now works as a graphic designer for the Virginia Tech Athletics Communications department, and is also the lead web developer and graphic designer for Project Zoranger. The couple plans to marry in June.

Dan enjoys the people at Anderson & Associates, and appreciates that A&A affords him the opportunity to learn new things. For instance, he’s currently working on a rail project in Pulaski County, VA, a type of project he has never worked on before. In his spare time Dan enjoys snowboarding and playing his guitar, preferring classic rock songs from bands like Led Zeppelin. And of course, he spends much of his time focusing on Project Zoranger, a project that he feels is more about awareness than raising money. Dan believes that it’s important for people to be conscious of various ways of life, and as a civil engineer, he feels it’s his responsibility to help make other people’s living conditions better. To learn more about Project Zorander, or to make a donation, please visit www.projectzoranger.org or email Dan Phipps at phipps@andassoc.com.&

3Anderson & Associates, Inc.

www.andassoc.com

Focused On Employees...

by Keli Ratcliffe Project Zoranger and A&A Project Engineer: Dan Phipps

4

Prsrt StdU.S. Postage

PAIDPermit No. 78

ROANOKE, VA

Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, Permission to copy any article if source is cited.Ampersand is published bimonthly to inform clients, employees, and friends of events and issues which affect the company.

Contact Managing Editor Keli Ratcliffe, 800.763.5596, editor@andassoc.com

Save a tree! To receive this newsletter online please send a note to the editor at editor@andassoc.com

Anderson & Associates, Inc.

Professional Design Services

www.andassoc.com100 Ardmore StreetBlacksburg, VA 24060

We’re Working For

A&A OfficesBlacksburg, VirginiaKen Anderson, PE, LS(800) 763-5596anderson@andassoc.com

Beckley, West VirginiaLance Morgan, PE(304) 461-0020morgan@andassoc.com

Greensboro, North CarolinaWarren Simmons, PE, LS(800) 438-0394simmons@andassoc.com

Middletown, VirginiaJosh Turner, PE(540) 869-2501turnerj@andassoc.com

“When you are through changing, you are through.”

-Bruce Barton

Focused on Service, Focused on You

Anderson & Associates, Inc.

Augusta County Service Authority, VA - Providing general engineering consultant services under a term contract extension for a period of one year.

Montgomery County, VA - Providing professional engineering and related services on an as-needed basis under a term contract for County, School Board, and PSA projects.

Town of Dumfries, VA - Providing design services for Main Street intersection and signaling improvements.

Franklin County, VA - Providing professional engineering services under a term contract. Work may include site development, utility, road, water and sewer, and other planning.City of Lynchburg, VA - Providing engineering and design services for the replacement of an existing waterline under the Lynchburg Expressway. These services will improve the hydraulic performance of the system.

Town of Wytheville, VA - Providing a feasibility study for improvements to East Main Street (US 11) in the Town.Town of Pleasant Garden, NC - Providing site design and surveying services for the driveways and approximately 200 space parking area for the Pleasant Garden Athletic Fields.

Congrats!Congratulations to Corey Carter, LSIT on recently passing his LSIT exam....and to Justin Summers, EIT on his marriage to Linda Crandall.

We’re Working ForTown of Summerfield, NC - Providing services as Town Engineer for watershed plan review and inspection services for water quality devices for the Town under a term contract. The contract will also include possible special projects, such as trails and sewer improvements.

City of Galax, VA - Providing professional design services on an as-needed basis under a term contract. Upcoming work includes design of the Fries Road waterline replacement and the Spivey reservoir abandonment.