Essex County Archives - Page 8 of 11 - Keeseville's Historic Bridges

Cooler Heads Will Prevail!

By matt | April 8, 2021 | Comments 0 Comment

APR 8, 2021 —

Cooler Heads will prevail! Today town board members from both sides of the river, both tow supervisors, Both County Highway Heads and others involved in saving our bridges talked to Art Suckewer of Wrought Iron Bridge Works. Art is the CEO of a company that manufactures advanced jet engine parts and is an expert in historical bridge restorations. Art spoke for an hour and twenty minutes not trying to “sell” his business but spoke as an enthusiast on how we can save the bridges at a lower cost, and that OUR bridges especially deserve to be saved. He also encouraged us to “think outside the box to get this done”.

The great thing that came from this meeting is now our town boards are all informed on what is possible and that our bridges can and deserve to be saved. The highway department Heads of both counties then had a chance to voice some of their concerns about logistics and NYS requirements. To some members of the town board this was very unexpected and possibly came off the wrong way. Art felt they highway heads were very responsive, listened well and open to creative solutions. Art explained that if we want our bridges restored we have to think creatively and proposed solutions to everything the Highway department heads of both counties had to say.

Immediately after the meeting I went to both town offices to reassure everyone that this pushback from the highway dept heads was expected. From my prospective, there is a lot of bad blood from years of trying to get this resolved. Cooler Heads will prevail! We need to stay focused, and keep working hard. The Highways department heads did explain their support and understanding of why they should be restored, but there are logistics they need to deal with on every level. They were just doing their jobs as the head of their department and we thank them for their time. The Highway department heads do not have a vote for themselves but will listen to whatever the County Supervisors or Legislature will tell them to do.

I sent updated emails to all town board members and a few county representatives that we are now more motivated than ever to find creative solutions towards fixing our bridges. We are gearing up for a massive push at both the Essex County Board of Supervisors and the Clinton County Legislature. These are the groups that will actually vote on supporting our bridges. We are working this week to put a plan together on what needs to happen with the “Upper Bridge” so that we can look for creative funding solutions.

I’m encouraging all town board members to forget about the past, keep focused, stay calm, collected and be respectful as we will be doing the same. But, at the same time we are persistent, determined…and quite possibly stubborn at times, and we aren’t going to give up. We aren’t going to take no for an answer. Our bridges are one of a kind, and we need Essex County and Clinton County to get on board to save history, right a wrong from ten years ago, and make history by saving our bridges for the next generation. This can be done and we need Everyone to be focused on this. More information on how YOU can help will be coming later this week. Thank you to everyone involved today for your time and efforts. If anything I realized just how much our town board members care about our bridges. Frustration can be a good thing if turned in the right direction. This is what we need to do. The frustration comes from our town board REALLY caring about these bridges. If you see them, thank them for their hard work on trying to save them.

Lots of Progress happening! Stay Tuned…

By matt | March 31, 2021 | Comments 0 Comment

MAR 31, 2021 —

It’s going to be a fast moving couple of weeks in the “Save Keeseville’s Historic Bridges” Campaign.

Our Signatures are up to 2,074! Thank you all for the support!

Connections are being made, and we are making some serious progress. Our Town of Ausable and Town of Chesterfield officials are working hard! Thank you!

Thanks to Assemblyman D. Billy Jones
for giving us some information tonight to look into! Much appreciated!

Thank You to Assemblyman Matt Simpson
for writing a letter of support for saving our Bridges! We will hopefully be taking a walk to see the bridges soon!

Thank You to Senator Dan Stec for reassuring us of his support!

Clinton County Legislature officials were sent an update of our progress this evening and we once again asked for their support! I have been informed tonight that Clinton County Officials have been actively researching potential funding sources for our bridges. It’s a very small step forward in the overall process, but a big step in the grand scheme of things. Nothing guaranteed, but keep your fingers crossed! Thank you to all involved who have been making this progress.

Soon we will be meeting with an Engineer who owns a Historical Bridge Restoration company. We would like him to talk to all county officials, DPW, Highway department, etc to get any questions answered that they may have. According to this Engineer these bridges can be restored to a ‘like new’ condition.

We have some serious momentum happening, but a lot of things can still go wrong. This is what I wrote on our Facebook page some time ago, and I think it still rings true:

“To repair our historic bridges, we need massive community support, local town leadership support, and leadership from Clinton and Essex Counties to communicate effectively and work to find a way to “Make” this happen. Save Keeseville’s Historic Bridges!”

Thank you for all of your support!

March 2021 Update

By matt | March 14, 2021 | Comments 0 Comment

MAR 14, 2021 —

Update for March 2021:

Last Fall we met with Loreman’s to discuss making yard signs to put around town to save our bridges. We are working to get this done for Mid to late April.

In November, we ran a PBS special that had thousands more views on social media than any other story. It had 7,000 views in 24 hours. (Other stories had about 120 views at the time).

In January at the first Essex County Supervisor’s meeting the bridges of Keeseville were brought up as something to be on the agenda for the year. We were asked to put things on hold until the covid numbers came down. Now that the numbers are settling, we are slowly ramping up our efforts again. I’ve been in constant contact with AARCH, our town supervisors and local Clinton County Representative any time Federal Infrastructure money was talked about.

Recently with the stimulus package, $10 Billion of infrastructure money was passed to go to the states. Each county would get some funding. Our town supervisors have supported this from day one, and this year we hope to make progress and get our bridges on the agenda to be restored.

There is now grant money available, but we need the county grant writing teams to research which grants we are eligible for. There is federal infrastructure money available, but we need county support to get that funding for our bridges. Our petition number is up to 1737 signatures (and I have not been advertising it). The counties can also spend their own money to do this, or use DOT funding however it is a long process.

The petition link is pinned on our Save Keeseville’s Historic Bridges Facebook page. Also coming in the next month or so, we will begin our letting writing campaign. We had originallu scheduled this for January, but we were asked to move it to April.

I’ve also been talking with a company that CAN and IS willing to restore both of our closed bridges, improve their weight restrictions and bring them back to “like new” condition. All in all we have made tons of progress this winter.

A few notes to remember:

1) Our historic bridges are each one of a kind, and the Upper Bridge is the last one of it’s kind in the world. The Chasm bridge is a very rare design and was experimental during it’s time. The location of our bridges are also very special to our community.

2) We can not accept donations until the Counties give their full support.

3) Due to NYS regulations we can not turn our walking bridges into pedestrian bridges without a full restoration for vehicle traffic. This is because of liability concerns of heavy pedestrian traffic being heavier than a car.

4) Our bridges can’t become “flowered memorial bridges” with flowers being used for decorations. These bridges are wrought iron and the sun plays a big role in keeping the bridges dry and well maintained. If the sun is blocked a lot of damage will occur and eventually cause failure.

5) Our swing bridge was last inspected in by the state 2014. A college group came in 2018 and gave their opinions that work needs to be done within 5-10 years or that bridge would too close down. This includes very minor repairs and painting. The swing bridge has had “yellow flags” for years and they haven’t been addressed. Soon enough a red flag will come and it will be closed.

6) Bridge restoration companies have told me that yes the bridges need repairs, but nothing out of the ordinary needs to be done. Just metal work and foundation work. Even though the Chasm bridge looks to be in terrible shape, it too can be restored to like new condition.

7) Many historical bridges are being lost because engineers don’t have the skills for hot iron riveting. (A long forgotten type of engineering) However, there are companies available that do these types of work in the US.

8 ) We need support from our county officials. We need to stay positive. We need to stay focused. We can come together as a community and make this happen!

9) Reminder, Please do not go on the bridges! They haven’t been inspected in over ten years. There could be unknown issues and they are closed for a reason. Let’s get them fixed!