Thursday, June 15, 2006

What Were They Thinking?

I don't know whose decision this was, but it's a doozy!


We have a 2 story brick Court House in Dodge, built in 1920 and declared an historical landmark in the 1990's. The Court House, and the entire block of park that it sits on, is a source of pride in the community as not too many towns of this size have such an attraction.

This beautiful building was inexplicably damaged by the very people employed to take care of it. The chimney at the back of the building was starting to show it's age, and was in bad need of repair. Instead of arranging for a bricklayer or ANYONE who knew what they were doing to assess the damage and fix it properly, the local yokel dope-smokin' oilfield maintenance crew was hired to come in and "take it down". And did they ever! From what I've been told, they attached a picker truck to the chimney and yanked. Resulting in this...

This happened over a month ago, and still it remains in this shoddy condition. Who made this decision? When is this going to be fixed? Who will fix it? Will it's historic condition be restored? All good questions for any concerned citizen of Dodge to pose to the current Town Administrator.

Anyone requiring contact numbers or email addresses, just let me know.

Another good question is ~ why hasn't anything about this appeared in the local rag? No photos, no write-up, no damage control interview with the mayor, no angry Letters to the Editor. Do people not care?

I'd write a letter, but I think I've reached my quota.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a crying shame, agree with you 110%.
Probably why the present administrator has quit and is moving!!
Glad I am not the administrator.
p.s. happy birthday

Wilma said...

OMG he Quit?!?!? How did I not know this?

Really must stop hermitting and get out into the world.

Anonymous said...

I am told by our friend that works for Dodge that it was unsafe and about to fall off. It would cost too much to repair/take down properly, so, voila. Not condoning, just saying. Pretty freakin' bizarre. Anyway, word is that they are going to repair the brick work and replace the top part of the chimney with a modern metal version. They damn well better not ugly up such a beautiful historic monument.

Fritzy is it?

Wilma said...

I've been told - and you can take this with as much authority as you like I won't be offended - that in order to retain your historic designation, you must keep the building as it was. That means, any repairs, etc must be of the same materials as the original.
This is the reason we have always been given when people inquire about the state of the front steps "Must keep it original". Also the reason why they get away with not having wheelchair access.

So how in the name of all things holy is a metal chimney "keeping things original"? I ask you, boys and girls, does this make sense?

Wilma said...

And yeah, it's Fritzy. Fritzy McGee.

Wilma said...

Okay, so I didn't quite read the whole comment completely and understand. A metal FLUE, not a whole metal CHIMNEY is what they are planning to do.

That makes sense, with new building codes, etc.

And I'm with you Fritzy, they hopefully won't "Ugly up" the building.