Easterday Construction Co., Inc. 2010 Culver Little League Team
LaPaz Garden Court Progress
We struggled with this project through the winter when just a couple of more good weeks would have kept us going. Then with the wet weather this Spring, our progress on the site was further impeded. The site soils have a lot of clay, so when it gets wet, it stays wet, it’s not workable and doesn’t want to dry out. Despite covering the site with concrete blankets, the underlying ground became saturated and frozen.
Utilities have been an issue too as both the Town of LaPaz and AEP have vacillated on what they wanted regarding the sewer and electric service respectively. The sewer situation has been settled and is in the ground. We believe that the Town of LaPaz made good decisions for both themselves and LaPaz Garden Court. The revised solution provides gravity service to the site and also provides capacity for future expansion in the area. The electric service has basically gone back to the original design after exploring multiple scenarios. We think this just clarified the best route in both cases.
We’ve made some great strides forward this Spring and early Summer though! We are gaining on our schedule and the project is really coming together. Siding installation has just been completed bringing exterior finishes on the building to about 95% complete. Site work is proceeding. The detention ponds are roughed in and nearly complete. The walks and curbs are in place and the driveways should be started any day.
Inside, all infrastructure rough-in is complete and drywall is complete. Painting and other finishes will be starting within the week. Things are coming together nicely!
Unfortunately we had a break-in , but for whatever reason, the resulting damages and missing materials were minimal. We have secured the building further against similar assaults and have been assured of additional patrols by the State Police. We don’t anticipate this being a problem again as the building is secure and well patrolled.
This is our 7th Garden Court facility (See others here) and we continue to enjoy our relationship with the Garden Court team of B.A. Martin Architect, P.C., Hughes & Associates, Real Estate Management Corp. and Dr. Ronald Liechty representing the Garden Court, Inc. organization. We continue to look forward to Culver Garden Court starting later this year.
Boy Scout Headquarters Update
Work is proceeding. The decking is in place and we’re installing shingles today. The schedule is for completion the end of next week.
We have cut out a BSA emblem from plywood which CEF staff are painting for installation when the project is complete.
See previous Boy Scout Headquarters entry here.
Culver Academies Boy Scout Headquarters
This year is the 100 year anniversary of Scouting in America and as a tribute Culver Educational Foundation has contracted Easterday Construction Co., Inc. to build a new Boy Scout Headquarters in the Woodcraft Camp at Culver Academies. The structure is a scaled down version of a woodcraft camp cabin. It is a modified post and beam construction built nearly entirely out of cedar. The original cabins were designed to sit on piers so that they could be moved if necessary. There are historical pictures of the original cabin being moved from one location to another on campus.
Easterday Construction has been responsible for the construction of many projects at Culver Academies over the years and family legend has it that our founder, my great grandfather, Russell L. Easterday, began his construction career with James I. Barnes Construction on a project for the Culver Academies back in the 1920’s.
In recent years at the Culver Academies Woodcraft Camp we built the new Boys’ Showers, renovated both the old girls’ showers and the old boys’ showers, built the new Craft Pavilion and a new Counselor’s Cabin. All of these have had coordination issues due to accelerated time schedules, environmental preservation regarding site requirements, aesthetics necessary to fit the existing facilities and sensitivity to the safety, security and needs of the young children the camp serves.
On this project as well as the Counselor’s Cabin and Craft Pavilion pictured, we were assisted by Scearce Rudisel Architects with design issues and obtaining the State Plan Releases. Mary Ellen Rudisel Jordan and her staff have been helpful and responsive on these projects and the fact that she has a former Woodcraft Camper a Chipmunk from the last graduating class of Woodcraft Chipmunks on her staff hasn’t hurt!
Abraham Lincoln Quote on Thomas Jefferson
“Jefferson had the coolness, forecast and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document an abstract truth applicable to all men and all times, and so to embalm it there that today and in all coming days it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling block to the very harbingers of reappearing tyranny.” – Abraham Lincoln
From an essay by John W. Whitehead of The Rutherford Institute. The article can be found here.