Easterday Construction enjoyed a long friendship with our client Richard Ford. We completed many interesting projects for him such as the Dr. James Ford Historic Home. We also completed most of the renovation work at his properties in Wabash and Culver. Richard’s passing was a great loss for us and the communities that he called home.
At the time of his death we were working with Richard on expansion plans for the Charley Creek Inn, in Wabash. We’re pleased to have been engaged to continue Richard’s legacy work with the next generation of the Ford family. We are working hard to honor our relationship with Richard and demonstrate why he trusted us.
We are working on the preliminary design phase of the inn expansion now. This has involved the evaluation of the existing Livery Building to the south and the planning of the building to replace it. The new structure will be smaller. The two main focuses will be an expansion of the existing inn kitchen and a new outdoor courtyard space for events.
We’ll share more on this as it moves forward, but the rendering to the right, created by SRKM Architects shows what we hope to achieve for a new streetscape.
Easterday Construction Co., Inc. was a sponsor for Friday night’s Culver Boys & Girls Club event. Becky and I attended and, as usual, had a good time.
It is impressive to see the amount of effort put into decorations and other accoutrements for the event. I know from personal observation how much time and effort board member Carol Zeglis puts into the event and I’m sure she is not the only one.
I borrowed the picture and logo above from the Culver Triathlon website. The organizers came before the Town Council to request help with closing the streets for an hour during the biking portion of the event on August 8th. According to their presentation, this is the second fastest growing triathlon in the nation and they are expecting more that 500 participants this year. I don’t know, but I would say a conservative estimate would be that each participant equates to two spectators. That would be doubling the population of Culver that day.
And here’s the rant…
I received a copy of the Marshall County Visitors Guide in the Culver Citizen last week. Then I received a copy in the Pilot News. Really!?! Yes, this is a rant…
Lets start with a little history… Easterday Construction Co., Inc. has been a member of the Culver Chamber of Commerce since well before I came to join the company. I served on the board for several years, during which time we were asked to budget for a page in the Marshall County Visitors Guide. I had the distinction of being the sole no vote on that item every year. I saw no value in it for the majority of our membership. The cost of this ad at more than 25% of the annual Chamber budget seemed ill-advised considering some of the other programs that we were successfully pursuing. Needless to say I was overruled. The arguments for supporting the guide were mainly two: 1) Culver was prominently displayed in the guide and 2) It was designed to reach an audience outside Marshall County to attract tourism. My rebuttals were that Culver was prominently displayed anyway since our town is the primary tourist destination for the County and that with the advent of the Internet, how often was a paper guide book of value?