Feb. 22, 2000
CONTACT: Bob Aaron, 309/556-3181
BLOOMINGTON, Ill.—Illinois Wesleyan University, the city of
Bloomington, the Old House Society of McLean County, and two companies are
teaming up to save bricks from Prairie and Graham Streets that could have
been headed to the dumpster as part of construction of IWU’s new
$25-million Ames Library.
It’s expected that about 25
truckloads of brick and asphalt will be carted away from the site.
The work is slated for Thursday and Friday of this week (Feb. 24-25),
weather permitting, according to Colin Logue, project site manager.
The city of Bloomington is providing the trucks.
Stark Excavating Inc., of Bloomington will handle the demolition and
salvaging of the bricks. Felmley Dickerson Co., of Bloomington will
coordinate the salvage operation as construction manager of the library
project.
"Bricks are prone to theft," said Mark Edwards,
executive director of the Old House Society of McLean County, "because the
resale value is high, so we will be working quickly to clean the loose
debris off them and store them."
Edwards added: "When road
work is done around the city, pavement and the underlying bricks are torn
up and usually thrown away. The city does not have an inventory of
bricks [for replacement] or for streets where bricks are needed for
repair."
The city, according to Edwards, will provide
wooden palettes that the cleaned bricks will be placed on, the bricks will
be wrapped in plastic, and locked in a storage area.
Edwards
said the Old House Society appreciates IWU’s support and cooperation on
the brick-recycling project.
IWU’s Environmental Concerns
Organization (ECO), a student group, will help clean and store the
bricks. ECO President Sacha Latham, a senior majoring in biology
from Campbellsport, Wis., said the group’s motto is "reduce and reuse"—a
motto that symbolizes the brick salvaging project.
The Old
House Society, a non-profit organization with about 120 members formed in
1979, helps to preserve the history of Bloomington-Normal. "There is
nothing like being able to experience history than by going and seeing
it," Edwards said.
"You can’t do that when buildings and streets are
no longer there."
The new Library will contain 103,000
square feet of space and accommodate more than 400,000 volumes and a
minimum of 100 computer workstations. The five-floor building will
be ready for occupancy no earlier than August, 2001. A $12-million
leadership gift commitment from B. Charles Ames, IWU class of 1950, and
his wife, Joyce Eichhorn Ames, IWU class of 1949, is spearheading the
library-construction project. The facility will be named The Ames
Library. A groundbreaking ceremony for the library took place Nov.
6, 1999.
This story was reported by Tina Williams, office
coordinator, IWU Office of University Communications.
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