Belle Creek to Break Ground on Playground Wednesday!

Excavation on the Belle Creek playground will start this Wednesday.  The excavation of the site and installation of the playground is projected to take 2 weeks.  With that in mind, we are planning on doing a mulching day on August 7th starting at 8 a.m.  Please let me know if you will be able to help out.  With enough help, it should only take us a couple of hours to complete the project.  I also hope to have enough volunteers to plant two trees on that that day for shade behind the benches.  We will need wheelbarrows, rakes and shovels.  It would also be good for workers to wear gloves.  

Improve Your Home's Indoor Air Quality

An EPA study shows that close to dozen common air pollutants are 2 to 5 times more concentrated indoors versus outdoors, regardless of whether the home is is located in Rural America, or in an industrial zone.

The cause is volatile organic compounds, more commonly known as VOCs.

VOCs are gases emitted from certain liquids and solids including paints, cleaning supplies, pesticides, air fresheners and permanent markers, among others. In the short-term, can cause respiratory irritation. In the long-term, VOCs can lead to "Sick Building Syndrome", cancer and other illnesses.

There are a number of ways to keep VOC levels in your Belle Creek home to minimum and the EPA published some tips to help with home health safety. The advice includes:

1. Meet or exceed all product label precautions
2. When buying paints and chemicals, don't buy bulk. Buy only what you need. Dispose of the rest.
3. If a product label says "use in well-ventilated area", move to the outdoors or use a fan

VOC levels can remain elevated for long periods of time even after the VOC-generating activity is completed.  Therefore, take care to protect your home and your health.

Read the EPA's complete guide to volatile organic compounds on its website.