Commentary 8-25-16

A Collective Effort
Clearly, the successful rehabilitation of our Memorial Bridge is the result of a collective effort and not just one individual’s effort. Therefore, thanks are due to all of those who contributed to this community cause.
First, thanks to our Vice Mayor, Gary Plass, who nine years ago in 2007, when he was first mayor, launched our bridge preservation effort by requesting that I review and provide him feedback to the HDR consultant’s report about our bridge.
Next, thanks to our State’s Department of Transportation agency, Caltrans, for re-inspecting our bridge in 2008, acknowledging their 1979 structural calculation error, thereby, substantially increasing the Sufficiency Rating of our bridge, removing the associated weight restrictions and opening the path ultimately leading to rehabilitation rather than demolition and replacement.
Thanks and special kudos to the other four members of our Friends of Healdsburg Memorial Bridge community lobbying group.
These include David Dietz, now deceased, who applied for and obtained the listing of our bridge on the National Register of Historic places and created our bridge preservation Facebook page; Keith Power who collaborated with David in that effort; Deb Viola who created the three-panel, 3-foot by 30-foot photo of our bridge which was displayed on a truck driven by Vince Dougherty in the 2010 Future Farmers parade and in now hanging in our city’s firehouse; our Healdsburg Tribune editor Ray Holley who conceived the “We love Healdsburg Memorial Bridge” logo message displayed on our banners and distributed bumper stickers and Ellen Minter who created and managed our bridge preservation website.
Thanks to the board of directors of our Healdsburg Museum and Historical Society for their written resolution delivered to our city council in early 2010 by the board’s then vice president Ted Calvert.
This resolution strongly urged our city to fully explore the rehabilitation option. Thanks to our 2010 city council members Jim Wood, Tom Chambers, Gary Plass, Lisa Wittke Schaffner and Eric Ziedrich who selected rehabilitation as the preferred option out of 15 proposed options, thereby not only preserving our historic and iconic bridge but saving taxpayers about $10 million.
Thanks again to mayor Tom Chambers and vice mayor Gary Plass who after being stymied by Caltrans, did not throw in the towel, but instead, successfully appealed directly to our Federal Highway Administration to obtain rehabilitation funding.
Thanks to our Federal Highway Administration for providing 88 percent of the funds required for engineering studies, an Environmental Impact Report and rehabilitation construction. Most of the balance of the funding came from Prop B funds.
Thanks to our city’s Public Works Director Brent Salmi and our city’s Bridge Rehabilitation Project Engineer Mario Landeros for their first class job in rehabilitating our bridge, especially for restoring the replicas of the original bridge lamps. By the way, if anyone remembers in what year those lights went out, please call our museum.
A special thanks to all of the members of our Healdsburg community who supported our rehabilitation cause by attending the many related city open houses and public meetings to voice their views.
Last but not least, thanks to my wife Geri for her patience and unwavering support of my nine-year mission.
– Mel Amato is a Healdsburg resident