Bridge saga ends?

Post date: Aug 24, 2013 10:30:18 PM

Walking bridge gets approval from JLDI

By HARRY PERKINS Hub Regional Correspondent | Posted: Saturday, August 24, 2013 9:00am

JOHNSON LAKE — The discussion about where to put a bridge over the outlet canal of Johnson Lake ended Tuesday when the Johnson Lake Development Inc. Board of Directors approved the location chosen by the Hike and Bike Committee. The bridge has been proposed as a link from the hike and bike trail along the east side of Johnson Lake to the Roper Trail that passes through Johnson Lake State Recreation Area.

On a roll call vote requested by Chuck Olsen, campaign chair of the Hike and Bike group, JLDI’s board approved a resolution offered by Bruce Hanson, president of the Hike and Bike Committee. The vote was 25-3 with two abstentions. A secret ballot was suggested. Olsen’s request for the roll call put each board member’s vote on the record.

The resolution also urged the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District to find an unspecified accommodation for the sailors who had opposed the location as being hazardous for large boats. The location, sailors have said, will deny them use of the deep water ramp near the Captain’s

Quarters. The 202-foot-long bridge is to be placed east of 10 boat slips and west of more than two dozen covered boat stalls located on the south side of the outlet canal. It will be 18 feet above the canal water.

The bridge was accepted by Central, owner of Johnson Lake, as a gift from Eilers Machine and Welding of Lexington as a memorial to the late Brian Eilers, founder of the firm. The JLDI board was told by Kevin Boyd of Central’s Gothenburg staff and Ron Fowler of the Hike and Bike Committee that if JLDI failed to approve the location recommended for the bridge, the Eilers family would withdraw its gift.

Chase Eilers, the 24-year-old president of the company, said Thursday he first suggested to the committee and Central that the bridge be located near the entrance to the outlet canal where it would offer a full view of the lake. The location was rejected as being too far from the Roper Trail through the state park. He estimated the cost of the bridge at nearly $300,000. Eilers said a location alongside the driving bridge on Johnson Lake Drive was unacceptable to the Eilers family. He did not specifically say the offer of the bridge would be withdrawn if the proposed location was not used, but spoke instead of the family’s objective in offering the bridge.

He envisions the bridge as a work of art. “We don’t see the point of having a piece of art backed up against that wooden bridge,” he said, adding

that people going to it would also encounter the odor of the sewer where the sewer line nearby enters the ground to cross beneath the canal.

He said he also suggested placing the bridge at the inlet canal. “People could fish off that bridge.” But he said the Hike and Bike Committee still doesn’t have the land for the trail on the north side of the inlet canal though the Pelican Bay properties. He laughed as he added, “It would be a bridge to

nowhere.”

Eilers said he is a sailor with a 24-foot-long boat. “I don’t have anything against the sailors,” he said. But he disagreed that a boat mast couldn’t be raised

or lowered with the sailboat in the water. “It can be done.” He said the plans for the bridge are in the hands of Miller and Associates.

“We’re ready to start building it. Next year we won’t have the time,” he said.