Repairs coming soon to Oakland Mills

By MEGAN COOPER

Mt. Pleasant News

Oakland Mills will see much needed repairs coming soon.

During the Henry County Conservation meeting Monday night, the board awarded the bids to contractors who expressed interest in the various projects that needed to be completed.

John Pullis, executive director of Henry County Conservation, discussed with the board the different projects that will be completed.

?There are seven different categories of work that need completed,? said Pullis. ?The foot bridge pier repair is one, but when the ice went out it scoured into the center pier. I didn?t notice before, but the piers are basically a stone façade with a soft center. They filled them with whatever they could, rocks, gravel and sand to fill the void. The problem with that is when you lose one of the stones and expose the center, high-water will take the center out and it can implode or explode the pier.?

According to Pullis, Vector Construction of Cedar Rapids was awarded the contract for the bridge repair and will begin this fall.

?They (Vector) deal with bridge piers and they work a lot with train bridge piers. They were down here and they mortared the exposed soft center until this fall when they do all the work,? said Pullis. ?They will add the stone back into it and through FEMA they will clean up the piers, remove vegetation, grind and tuck point all the joints on the four piers and come back to the center and cut and replace missing stones and insert them back in.?

Pullis said that it was a pricey project, but was glad that FEMA was helping to complete the projects.

Tom Maddy of Maddy Tree Service in Mt. Pleasant agreed to help work on the pier this fall.

?Tom Maddy is willing to help us out and put his barge in the river which will help to move rock and other materials from the shore to the piers,? said Pullis. ?Also, Vector Construction will be suspended from the bridge to work instead of working off the water. We have an extra boat dock that we are going to put in so they can use that to be around the base of the pier as well. We still have a lot of bugs to work out before they mobilize this fall.?

John Ruby of Ruby Lawn Care in Mt. Pleasant, who was awarded the mowing contract for Oakland Mills, came last week to do dirt work and contour the South Shore campground, said Pullis.

?I asked him what the catch was and he explained that he was going to be mowing it,? said Pullis. ?So he brought out his equipment and smoothed it out and made it drain better. If it was green, it would look beautiful. The last rain we had there was only one puddle.?

The other contractors that were awarded bids were:

? Kinney and Sons of Mt. Pleasant ? low-bid for the road rock repairs. This will include materials, placing it and packing the new gravel. ?We learned over the years that if it?s packed and then we put our dust control on it, we don?t lose much when it floods,? explained Pullis. The bid was for $15 a ton. They were also low-bidder for the topsoil, which Oakland Mills needs 65 to 80 cubic yards of top soil. The bid was for $20 a cubic yard.

? Bill Young Construction of Mt. Pleasant ? awarded the bid for concrete repairs. ?We lost 28 feet of sidewalk and we also had a mangled fence with a huge cut in the bank. The sidewalk needed replaced and Young had to build a retaining wall to keep the bank in and from eroding in a future flood event,? said Pullis.

? Whaley Dust Control of Mt. Pleasant ? awarded the bid for dust control.

? Dan Meinen Construction of Mt. Pleasant ? awarded the bid for the entire fencing repair. ?We had 500 feet of chain link fence that needed replaced,? said Pullis.

? Signs and Designs of Mt. Pleasant ? awarded the bid for the campground rule signs.

? Vector Construction of Cedar Rapids ? awarded the bid for the bridge pier repairs. Itsbid was $145,360 for the project.

Cari Nicely?s naturalist report discussed the ACORN trip to the Putnam Museum last Thursday and the upcoming ACORN trip to the Villages of Van Buren County on May 21. She also saw about 1,242 people in the month of March.

?We lost our two Red Tail Hawks at the beginning of the month,? said Pullis. ?We had to do necropsies on them because the organization we get them from, Saving Our Avian Resources (SOAR), said they wanted to know why they died.?

Pullis explained that the birds were fed deer meat, and there was a fear that they could be dying from lead poisoning.

?We found that the male died from cancer and kidney issues and the female, who died four days later, died from a heart attack and had high cholesterol,? said Pullis. ?Red Tail Hawks mate for life and so it?s not surprising that she died shortly after. The high cholesterol surprised me but then they don?t exercise because they can?t fly.?

According to Pullis, Henry County residents Ralph and Helen See paid for the necropsies.

?They gave us a blank check and told us whatever the cost was it was covered,? said Pullis. ?They wanted to know what happened, too.?

The Henry County Conservation Board will meet again on Monday, May 12, at 6 p.m. in the board room in the office.