TO THE BOARD OF NSRGA

CONGRATULATIONS! As of 9:05 yesterday the Board of Supervisors of
Poweshiek County signed the contract with Peterson Contractors and
NSRGA. As of next week and 30 days later, a bill will be due for
$45,000. The Board asked for the Right of Consent that I had drafted
and that they had approved with County Attorney approval last Monday,
and I told them that they would have to draft that doument to give
NSRGA the right to be on property. They will take that under
advisement and I will call the auditor today to see if we need an
appointment on Monday. Justin of PCI granted me the permission to be
on site, but that doesn't get the RV down there to provide the ongoing
site supervision that the Supervisors would like.

As of 10:30 am, PCI was moving dirt and very quickly had arrived at
the bridge. They were continuing to create a pad for one crane and the
causeway for the other crane, one of which is a 100,000 tons. They
plan to use one crane to walk the near end and one crane to swing the
far end of the bridge into place. It isn't terribly muddy, one doesn't
sink but it is slippery. I was able to get my work boots dirty on the
walk down the two lane dirt road. Justin believes that the actual
bridge lift will take place on Wednesday, but that is dependent on the
weather and how much rain comes in. Their bid did not include rock,
Lamoyne, maybe that is where Poweshiek County could come in and
actually rock the road for better access for us once the heavy
equipment has been moved out. PCI is great and very professional. I
had an email from Spicer's with a BIG High 5 from Vern and Mark that
we were actually able to secure the bridge for they had a plan to come
out and stabilize it before flooding, this step was the most important
part of anything that we are currently doing. It is pretty great to
see the work actually taking shape, but it is more wide open than we
have ever seen it. I have informed the local press of this schedule
and will try to get in contact with regional press outlets.

I have taken a ton of photographs, but there is no video camera
available for moving pictures. I plan to ask the college today if that
service might be available to an alumn to check out some equipment
from the AV lab. The outfit from Denver has declined our offer for a
documentary as they have started another project. Because of that I
have utilized my connections to find some Iowa filmmakers (they have
time now), and a Burlington company has responded. They, at my request
and expense of $200 per day, will come to Grinnell and the Bridge for
two days next week. I am borrowing money from my daughter to pay for
the actual filming, raw footage is all I have requested and am
anticipating a tax return to pay her back. They will film the bridge
lift and begin to gather some oral histories. I am hoping that friends
of mine "Thankful Dirt" and "Shame Train", an awesome duo from Des
Moines and rockband from IC, both with Berneman ties to Grinnell, will
come out and be filmed to start the musical side of the fundraising
efforts, first out at Milgrove then at Lonnskis to continue to spread
the word and to let the FRIENDS OF THE SKUNK RIVER BRIDGE participate
in the bridge's success. Just gathering content as we go along. The
South Skunk Blues Society has indicated a willingness to help their
river counterpart to the North with another larger event. I will start
to gather names of people that would like to be interviewed and
filmed with bridge stories now, starting with Dick, of course. Bill,
Rick, Pam? FRIENDS.

Last night, I was the featured guest (little did I know) in New Sharon
at the Historic Preservation Annual Meeting. It was a great experience
and they were an attentive audience. Larry and Stephanie were also
present and Steve Hardeman was responsible for us knowing about this
event. As Mahaska county has torn down a lot of bowstrings in the last
few years they have interest in this one. They were delighted to know
about the status of the bridge and had many ideas for fundraising
(canoe and kayak races!), interesting anecdotes about that area,
newspaper references from the 1800s and postcards of bowstrings that
Vern would definitely love. Chuck Quillen, Steve Hardeman's uncle,
mule and chuckwagon driver and old iron worker was very interested in
being down at the bridge for a lift, so I think maybe a bleacher idea
is not a bad one, keep people out of the way but able to be
comfortable and out of the mud. That is just some scaffolding and
2x10's, Bill???? It was interesting to see how a non-profit with
members works, with a 2 year cycle of changing board of directors, the
formal reading and approval of minutes and treasurer's report, I
learned a lot.

I was very disappointed that we did not receive the $5000 from the
college for start up expenses that would have allowed us to purchase a
new computer to run the AutoCad software I was donated, or a better
camera. They paid out 73,000 dollars and really like this one local to
Grinnell. We should know how Pow County Alliance in the next week.