The Winamac Park Board continues planning to prepare the Town Park’s “swinging bridge” for its centennial. A rededication ceremony and the installation of a decorative lighting feature have been proposed for 2023. But first, Park Board President Jon Chapman wants to address some of the items that came up in a recent bridge inspection.
“I do think that we need to heed the inspector’s advice about getting that riprap around both towers,” Chapman told the rest of the board last week. “I just would feel bad if we had a flood that took out some of the ground away from that that causes major problems because we didn’t listen.”
Meanwhile, board member and town manager Brad Zellers said he plans to look into the cost of required painting. “I’ll see if the town will be willing to assist paying for an engineer to put a scope of a project, what it’ll entail, how to sandblast, what type of finishes to put on, and then we can at least get a cost and know where we’re at because we’re guessing if we don’t,” Zellers said.
Board Member Chris Schramm said the next bridge centennial project committee meeting will be held this evening at 5:30 EST in the Winamac Municipal Utilities Complex. “There’s probably 10 to 15 people who show up every time,” he added. “You can be a county resident, just somebody that’s interested in the ‘swinging bridge.’ There’s been a lot of stuff discussed so far.”
The group has launched a website for the project at MemorialSwingingBridge.com.
