Coach company comes to rescue of Chipping Sodbury Tourist Information Centre

Chipping Sodbury Tourist Information Centre to open all year after Chauffeurhire agrees to pay heating bill

7:00am Friday 12th July 2013 in News By Alexandra Womack

CHIPPING Sodbury Tourist Information Centre (TIC) is to open all year round, the Gazette can reveal, after a generous offer from a company which relies on visitors.

The centre, based in the clock tower on High Street, has previously only opened between March and November because funding grants did not cover the cost of heating the building during the winter.

However, local coach company Chauffeurhire has now stepped in and offered to pay the centre?s winter heating bills so volunteers can remain on hand to offer information to visitors to the town all year long.

Tourist information centre manager Laura Lee Phillips said: ?The TIC is run by volunteers and receives grants from Sodbury Town Council, Dodington Parish Council and Yate Town Council. Although welcome the grants are not sufficient for the TIC to remain open over the winter.

?Due to numerous requests from locals and businesses, the Committee of the TIC voted to open all year round to satisfy demand. The extra cost of heating the TIC will be met by Chauffeurhire coaches who stepped in when they heard of the shortfall in funding.?

Gary Davies, who owns the travel firm on Hounds Road, said: ?I think this is what our town needs.

?The TIC has been so much busier this year and it would do our town good to stay open all year round.

?It will do us good as a company and I think if you ask other local traders they will say the same.?

Mr Davies said the extra heating bill, estimated at around ?110 a month during winter, should have been met by Sodbury Town Council but councillors voted against picking up the bill at its June 11 meeting.

Added Mr Davies: ?I think it is something the town council should be doing but we were happy to step in and help rather than see it not open all year.?

The TIC is now planning to launch a fundraising appeal to help improve facilities and the services it offers. Some donations from local companies have already been received and the centre is continuing to sell maps, books, pictures and tickets to local events in exchange for funds.

The TIC is open Monday to Saturday (10am?5pm). Call 01454 888686 or email chippingsodburytic@gmail.com if you would like the centre to sell tickets on your behalf or can offer sponsor of the service.

Source: http://www.gazetteseries.co.uk/news/10542118.Coach_company_comes_to_rescue_of_Chipping_Sodbury_Tourist_Information_Centre/?ref=rss

Huell Howser Justin Bieber Smoking Weed Katherine Webb Cut for Bieber AJ McCarron Johnny Manziel ups

NCAA president makes 1.7M

Enlarge photo

David J. Phillip/Associated Press file photo

According to his federal tax return, NCAA president Mark Emmert made $1.7 million in his first year on the job.

David J. Phillip/Associated Press file photo

According to his federal tax return, NCAA president Mark Emmert made $1.7 million in his first year on the job.

NCAA President Mark Emmert was credited with nearly $1.7 million in compensation during the 2011 calendar year, according to the association?s new federal tax return.

That calendar year was Emmert?s first in the position, where he succeeded the late Myles Brand.

Chief Operating Officer Jim Isch earned $977,531, according to the return. In the 2010 calendar year, Isch earned $760,480.

The return, which the NCAA provided Wednesday in response to a request from USA TODAY Sports, shows that Emmert received:

$1,201,159 in base compensation.

$234,300 in retirement and deferred compensation.

$214,947 in other reportable compensation.

$23,689 in nontaxable benefits.

Emmert?s total of $1,674,095 means he received 46 percent more in compensation than Brand did.

In Brand?s final full year as NCAA president he received $1,145,880, which included $770,739 in base pay and $201,264 in bonuses and incentives. Brand died Sept. 16, 2009.

The NCAA?s new tax return also provided an indication of the mounting legal pressure it has been facing.

The association reported nearly $9.5 million in legal expenses during a fiscal year that ended Aug. 31, 2012 ? more than what it reported for that spending category in its two previous fiscal years ? combined. (While compensation data in the federal tax returns of nonprofits are for a calendar year, the revenue and expense reporting covers the organization?s fiscal year.)

The NCAA reported nearly $4.1 million in legal expenses for 2010-11 and a little more than $4.1 million for 2009-10.

Its total for 2011-12 was its greatest since 2006-07, when it reported nearly $20.1 million in legal expenses.

As a private, nonprofit organization, the NCAA is not required to make public its employment contracts. The return showed showed two other executives with more than $500,000 in compensation in 2011 ? executive vice president Bernard Franklin and interim executive vice president Greg Shaheen, who received comparable amounts in 2010. Shaheen no longer works for the NCAA.

The new return showed that former executive vice president Tom Jernstedt received $456,430 in severance from the NCAA in 2011; he received $89,518 in such pay, plus regular compensation in 2010. Four other former NCAA executives each received more than $175,000 in severance in 2011.

?Overall NCAA salaries and compensation increased 3.4 percent, driven by pay raises in the 2-3 percent range and higher health insurance costs,? NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn said in a statement. ?After accounting for severance pay for five former employees and the first full year of President Emmert?s salary, executive salaries remained relatively stable from 2010 to 2011.?

Emmert, in his previous job as president of the University of Washington, was paid $870,000 a year, according to data compiled by The Chronicle of Higher Education. Under a contract signed in July 2009, Emmert?s compensation package included $620,000 in base salary; the rest was under a complex deferred compensation plan that had different amounts vesting based on years of service.

Emmert had free housing and a $12,000 annual car allowance from Washington, plus the opportunity for a six-month paid sabbatical after June 14, 2012. He also was a tenured professor in the university?s public-affairs school and its business school. He resigned those positions when he departed for the NCAA, university spokesman Norm Arkans said last July.

Because the NCAA is organized as a nonprofit, it must annually file a tax return that includes information about the pay of officers, directors and most highly compensated employees. Although the return covers a fiscal year that involves parts of two calendar years, the IRS requires that the compensation reporting cover the most recently completed calendar year.

In the NCAA?s case, the return it filed last week covers a tax year from Sept. 1, 2011, through Aug. 31, 2012, making 2011 the most recently completed calendar year.

Because of the complexity of its return, the NCAA ? like many colleges, universities and other large nonprofits ? routinely takes filing extensions that result in a significant time lag between the period covered by its most recent return and the date it files.

Rachel Axon contributed to this report. ? 2013 USA TODAY Sports. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20130711/SPORTS02/130719930&source=RSS

bowl games rose bowl auld lang syne dick clark Happy new year fiscal cliff Pitbull

Video: Time to Get Bullish?

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/cnbc/52455487/

wonderlic test texas tornado fantasy baseball jared sullinger jaleel white levi johnston 2013 srt viper

Vonage Co-founder And VoIP Pioneer Jeff Pulver's Next Call: Zula, A WhatsApp For Business

Today, whether it be via Skype or Gmail, making phone calls over the web has become part of our daily routine. While the name may not ring any bells for younger generations, Jeff Pulver is one of the pioneers of that very technology we take for granted. A co-founder of Vonage, one of the biggest and earliest VoIP companies around, Pulver is a self-described futurist, serial entrepreneur and long-time evangelist for VoIP technologies. But lately he's been largely absent from the space he helped create.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Fppnym0B9Oc/

first day of summer Abby Wambach Xcel Energy Super Moon 2013 miami heat Kim Kardashian Baby Lil Snupe

NRA-ILA | Court finds NYC pistol licensing application fees are legal

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
READ MORE

? 2013 National Rifle Association of America. Institute for Legislative Action. This may be reproduced. It may not be reproduced for commercial purposes.
11250 Waples Mill Rd. Fairfax, VA 22030? 1800-392-8683(VOTE)

Source: http://www.nraila.org/news-issues/in-the-news/2013/7/court-finds-nyc-pistol-licensing-application-fees-are-legal.aspx

Psy Cat Zingano DMX spartacus spartacus Jonathan Winters Justin Bieber Anne Frank

Russia's culture ministry fires Bolshoi chief

MOSCOW (AP) ? The Russian culture ministry on Tuesday fired the director general of the famed Bolshoi Theater that has been mired in scandal since an acid attack on its artistic director.

Anatoly Iksanov would be replaced by Vladimir Urin, head of another major ballet and opera troupe, the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theater, said the culture minister, Vladimir Medinsky.

He said that a "difficult situation at the theater" was the reason for the dismissal. Iksanov, however, was offered to work as Medinsky's adviser in the ministry.

The Bolshoi has been shrouded in scandal for years but a fierce conflict erupted in January when an assailant threw acid into the face of Sergei Filin, the artistic director of ballet.

In March, police arrested Bolshoi soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko over his involvement in the attack. Dmitrichenko admitted that he had agreed to an offer from an acquaintance to rough up Filin, but he insisted that the man had used acid on his own initiative. Despite Dmitrichenko's confession, many in the ballet company have stood by him, saying they do not believe him capable of staging such a crime. About 300 dancers and staff, led by principal dancer and Iksanov's key opponent Nikolai Tsiskaridze, signed an open letter claiming that Dmitrichenko had slandered himself under police pressure.

The Bolshoi reopened in 2011 after a $1 billion renovation. Despite the lavish sums, some of the work was of poor quality, with cracks appearing in the walls and gold leaf crumbling away.

Iksanov has been at loggerheads with many of the troupe's famous dancers, including Tsiskaridze who accused him of mismanaging the Bolshoi's reconstruction, ruining its repertoire and abusing dancers' rights. Iksanov and his backers have dismissed the criticism.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russias-culture-ministry-fires-bolshoi-chief-072722908.html

Newton virginia tech shooting China glock 121212 Concert Columbine shooting Ryan Lanza Facebook

Flying Is Still The Safest Way To Travel - Business Insider

Saturday's crash landing of Asiana Flight 214 was terrifying, disconcerting, and unfortunately fatal. But that doesn't mean you should change your travel plans.

Not only are airplanes continuously getting safer, they are also the least dangerous way to get to your destination. Everyday activities from walking to driving are still considerably more lethal.

Last year, an MIT statistics professor determined that the death risk for passengers of commercial airlines is one in 45 million flights. According to The New York Times, a traveler could fly every day for 123,000 years and still be safe.

Although travel fatality statistics are represented in a variety of formats, commercial airlines are the safest mode of transport any way you look at it.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/flying-is-still-the-safest-way-to-travel-2013-7

Sequester Miami Heat Harlem Shake Harlem Shake Miami Heat dr seuss History Channel The Bible alex smith alex smith