Raining Today

And the river will rise, and continue to rise. But, I found where it wants to channelize. I've never really hiked on that side of the bridge before and low and behold...

The Narrow Window of Opportunity

Passed us by. Wow, I tried so hard to bring everything together in a timely fashion. I don't think that people realized how critical it was to have all of our pieces of paper signed off on before the window open and closed.

As it is, we got to the bridge, but we can't go forward with the lift because the river rose with snow melt and now rain.

Adds to the drama I guess, but when I was out there yesterday it seemed to me that the bridge was leaning more and more. I will go back today just to see if I can make it down there.

Have a film crew coming in to do oral histories of the area, tape some live music that can be interwoven with this grassroots efforts.

More will be revealed.

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.

MidFebruary

Passed two more holidays on the road, then starting the long drive east early next week. Have PCI talking with the National Guard, am polishing the Wall Alumni Service Award Application, it really does take a village to get rid of the typos and the grammatical corrections. Also, the understanding. These folks don't really know about the project but they want to read it. There questions allow me to fix the draft as well.

THANKS to everybody that helped with this grantwriting process. I am truly grateful.

The Norcross Wildlife Fund will be next. And the auction.

So far I've been asking everyone I see for a donation. The list is getting very fun - 4 leather wallets and tool sets - the Winslows
5 days in Sea Ranch California - tour the vineyards on either side for a week off
1 North Rose Botanicals organic body nurturing products
3 Cindy Bowers Fulton painted panels
1 Melissa Rossi Cuisiniere - food basket - gathered from Bay Area ethnic groceries stores

Moving Forward

It is not so easy to work on the road as I thought. The first four weeks were easy in Colorado, and now I've settled into California to get some real work done.

Have a contac with the Iowa National Guard and details are moving forward whether they can lift us or not. This would be the biggest lift of 120', the last was 100' for a bowstring so we have to strip off some extra weight for sure.

Budgets today, filling in the blanks as more info comes in. The Wall Award finish and polish is in the works, with all of the edits that I have to make.

and lunch at Bottega, Michael Chiarello's place in Yountville, one of my favorite chefs. Now if I could work there next year, that would be awesome. The car is in the shop after hitting a boulder so that will be great to have the groaning stop.

Super Monday

Back on track today, got knocked around a little last week, but I've settled back into the task at hand, which is getting all of the pieces together so that we can move forward.

Back to the Wall Award and getting that application prepared to be sent in next week.

Rabbit, Rabbit

I spent the weekend traveling through New Mexico, south and west into Arizona. I've stopped to make sure that all of the grants that we can get in today, get in today.

We are so new, it truly is amazing that anything happens. Magically, it seems, things come around. I spoke with the Iowa National Guard last week about lifting our bridge with a helicoptor, and they will get back to me soon. It would be a training exercise for them, and, as such, would not be a budget breaker. Yippee. Moving forward.

Vern called yesterday. The end of June is a great time for he and his wife to come to Iowa and perform a 3-day hands on seminar at the bridge for working with all of the iron. His syllabus looks tough, but there is no test at the end. We'll give you a blue book for notes. Vern's seminar is the grant that is going in today. Should be good.

I am still looking for a venue for the Auction/Gala. The Community Center doesn't allow alcohol or food, so that wouldn't be fun. Any ideas out there? Fair Grounds. In the meantime I continue to look for items for auction. Maybe we go online for that matter, open it up to our friends in other places. Just asked my Cousin Cindy for the first donation.