Progress!
As most of you know, the Grinch Storm of Christmas 2022 caused a huge ash tree to come crashing down on the pedestrian bridge, crushing the railings and making a general mess of things at the fish ladder. Luckily, the pools suffered no damage. Needless to say, we were very grateful that we had not replaced the bridge prior to this year!
Despite the weather, summer 2023 brought the realization of four years worth of planning and fundraising. The old bridge, which had served us well for seventy years, has been replaced…and now, as you can see, the lower walkway looks pretty shabby in comparison. In addition to replacing the bridge, we were able to do some major masonry repairs on a portion of the pools. Constant thawing, freezing and pounding water takes its toll each year.
The original plan for our next project was to replace the lower walkway as early as next spring, but with more consideration we have realized it makes more sense to finish the lower ladder at the same time. This will involve adding another pool (we’d have 70 instead of 69), and repairing the rock work underneath the walkway and across the stream as well. (See picture) There is tentative discussion about repairing the cement work around the harvesting area at the same time since we will already have the machinery in there.
So…we need to keep going!
The new, revised plan is to shore up the walkway for now and add temporary railings before our visitors arrive in the spring. We will start planning and fundraising, but once again we need your help for this new, much larger project. With your help and by applying for grants (we received two this year) our fundraising efforts have worked. Making donations, buying T-shirts and hats, participating in our 5K and attending the concert at Lincoln Theater on Memorial Day weekend are all ways you can help us meet the goals to restore and maintain our stone fish ladder, which arguably, is the most beautiful fish ladder in the world. It is truly amazing what a community can do when we all work together to make things happen.
New Kiosk