Easterday Construction lost another friend earlier this month. Hobart (Hobie) Martin passed away September 5th. You can read his (Impressive!) obituary here.
We met Hobie through is connection to the Veterans Memorial at Fletcher Cemetery. That connection was through his son, Architect Brent Martin, who we have worked with extensively on many projects. When I first met him, I said, “It’s nice to meet you Mr. Martin.”, to which he replied, “If we’re going to work together we should be friends. Call me Hobie!” I definitely enjoyed our time working together.
In 2014 we were contracted to move the existing memorial stone to a new location on a plaza created for it. The stone has the names of veterans carved into it and sadly was running out of space. You can find several posts about working on this project here.
Knowing this historic significance of the piece made the project a bit daunting. We ended up working with Tom Lenker to make this move as he was always one of the equipment operators I trusted most. (When someone would ask about him, I told them I would trust him to scratch an itch on my right shoulder blade with an excavator tooth without a second thought.)
While I didn’t see Hobie often after that project, I did keep track of him through Brent. He lived a long and good life and in the end, was able to pass in his home with his family there.
The project goal was to have the project complete by Memorial Day. Several of us from Easterday Construction attended the dedication service and the Memorial Day Service that year. I stopped to check on it when I went to Hobie’s visitation and the plaza is a great tribute to his community service.
A few years ago we posted pictures of this pool surround fence we saw in Wabash, IN. We liked it and decided to rework it as dumpster surrounds at Sand Hill Farm. Plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery, you know… We have used this for the dumpster surround for Sand Hill Farm Apartments and then again at The Paddocks.
The original stained cedar would have been a little bit of overkill and a little too much to maintain for dumpster surrounds, so we reworked the basic design to frame it with treated lumber. We maintained the galvanized corrugated metal panels for the main screen.
In the original, as a pool surround, more care was needed for details to assure no sharp edges were exposed to the bare skin you would find around a pool. Trash dumpsters are a little more forgiving and we were mostly interested in the exterior look. We also knew that maintenance would be an issue, so we looked at reducing areas to collect debris and ways of making it easier to clean, like providing space beneath the panels.
Depending on how the wood weathers, we may or may not go back and stain the treated lumber next year. For now, it is a clean look and creates a more pleasing screen than the chain link and vinyl ribbon you see so often. The green of the treated lumber actually goes with the greens used on the buildings and the overall farm theme.
For the last couple of years, I’ve been trying to get Culver to consider a Comprehensive Plan update. There are a few reasons for this:
Some things on my agenda?
I was pleased to hear that the Plan Commission is starting the discussion. A revised comp plan will lead to a zoning ordinance update, a new strategic plan and hopefully a new list of accomplishments for Culver to start working on. Jim Dicke once told me, “Towns are growing or dying. There is no way to remain the same.” Culver is on a growth trajectory. We need to keep that going!
At the award ceremony for Ginny earlier this month, I was reminded of Culver Academies‘ connection to the Boy Scouts of America. In 2010, we built a cabin to be used as a Boy Scouts Headquarters at the far east side of the Woodcraft Camp. The picture to the right is the cabin when it was completed. You can see some pictures of the cabin under construction here.
The cabin is a scaled down version of the Woodcraft Camp sleeping cabins, following the same basic design, but including a larger porch that doubles as a project work space and a stage for presentations. The ribbon cutting ceremony for the project was scheduled to coincide with the 100 years of scouting jamboree that was held in Washington, D.C. that year.
Over the years, Easterday Construction Co., Inc. has completed many projects at Culver Academies, from new construction to major remodels. As has been discussed here before, the origins of our company are tied to the work our founder, Russell L. Easterday, did for James I. Barnes Construction in the early 1920’s. This prompted the creation of Russell L. Easterday Construction and Supply Company as a subsidiary of Barnes Construction and the gentleman’s agreement that allowed Russell to make the subsidiary his own company.
Last Thursday evening Becky and I were pleased to be invited to attend the ceremonial dinner where Ginny Munroe was awarded the LaSalle Council of the Boy Scouts of America Soaring Eagle Award. This award is given to individuals who have been successful in their field of endeavor and have demonstrated integrity, a record of volunteer leadership, and service to youth and their community. Soaring Eagle Award honorees are people who have been unselfish in their service to others on an individual and community basis. They seek no return for their service, other than satisfaction of aiding their fellow citizens, their community and their nation. Ginny definitely deserves the recognition for what she’s done for Culver and recently extended to Marshall County.
Ginny and I didn’t really know each other before she joined the Culver Town Council, but since that time we have counseled each other and collaborated on things. We have a mutual respect that has only become more important to me as it has grown. I have continued to tell her that she is leaving a legacy in Culver for which she can be proud. And as is her way, she demures from that.
From her first term on the Town Council, Ginny was motivated to make things happen. She wanted to move the town forward; often fighting the opposition that wanted things to stay the same. I related to her more than once what Jim Dicke had told the Culver Chamber of Commerce years ago; to paraphrase, “Towns are either growing are dying. They cannot stay the same.” Ginny embodied that push for growth. She quickly formulated a plan that included early infrastructure improvements that prepared Culver for other moves forward. When I was pushing the Plan Commission to do a new Comprehensive Plan, she quickly grasped the value and made it the next priority. Then unlike most community leaders, she took that plan, held additional meetings and created a Strategic Action Plan to implement the things the Comp Plan recommended. Most communities let their Comp Plan sit on a shelf, unused and seldom referenced. Ginny has made Culver’s Comp Plan obsolete by completing a majority of the action items and making progress on many of the aspirational items as well.
One of her initiatives that I’m most familiar with was the formation of committee that came to be known as the Entry-Level Housing Committee. For decades, affordable housing has been a problem in Culver and it has only gotten worse. The Comp Plan noted this as a recognized need. Businesses can’t find help and full-time residents are being priced out of the market. I joined that committee as a contractor, with interests in construction, but due to Ginny’s energy and the lack of others stepping up, she motivated me to become a developer! As a step forward in this, MCEDC arranged for me to meet with Bill Konyha, then head of the Indiana Office of Community Development and Rural Affairs (OCRA). He suggested that Culver pursue the recently created small community competition for Stellar designation. When we brought this back to Ginny, she seized it as a great way to move Culver forward, not just in the initial goal of affordable housing, but for community wide improvements. I believe that Culver’s loss in their attempt to win Stellar in 2016 was as much due to politics as anything else, but despite some initial hesitancy, Ginny recommitted Culver to achieving Stellar Designation in 2017. And while working on resubmittals, she moved the Town forward on two of the 2016 projects, the Damore Amphitheatre and the Sand Hill Farm Apartments. I believe that demonstration of “working the plan” made a difference in Culver’s competitiveness and and success in achieving Stellar Designation in 2017.
Marshall County Stellar was a different challenge. OCRA asked Ginny to step up for this because of Culver’s success. She did this while in the middle of a half dozen Culver Stellar projects. Despite the advances made by County Development for the Future, there was still a competitiveness between the communities in Marshall County that didn’t always allow collaboration. Too often, individuals tried to take control or take credit or conversely work against others, rather than letting group collaboration work as it should. Ginny was able to see the problems that caused the first loss and massage the group into a successful second attempt. It was extremely disheartening at the Marshall County Stellarbration when Ginny’s contributions (as well as others) were misappropriated to undeserving individuals. Obviously Marshall County still has issues to overcome.
When Ginny was considering the move to Culver Town Manager, she asked for my thoughts. I was mixed on this. I was concerned that the Town Council would suffer without her leadership and I wasn’t sure that she would be as effective leading from behind. I was also concerned for Ginny, who I consider a natural leader, not being able to lead. So far, my concerns have been mostly unfounded and Ginny has continued to help move Culver forward. Again, she is adding to her Culver Legacy. The Soaring Eagle award is much deserved…
Kevin