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$1,000,000 wall
03/06/2007 6:57 AM by John M
The newly-rebuilt wall at St.John’s was dedicated yesterday, only a few weeks after the reopening of the intersection of Grace and 31st (also the victim of 2004’s Tropical Storm Gaston).
wow, I should have been a brick mason!
I don’t think many people know but the only property that belongs to the church are the buildings. The cemetery is actually maintained by the city. The wall may have fell under the authority of the City. This could explain why it took so long for the build.
I believe the story behind the wall is that many years ago when the city built the roads surrounding St. Johns, they had to excavate in order to do so and as part of that process built the retaining wall. It is therefore the city’s responsibility to maintain.
The wall actually was the City’s responsibility to fix. They own it, and Bob is correct. Apparently there was some discussion about responsibility and in the end, it turned out that the City owned and was responsible for it. I have this as fact from Danny Athans (of St. John’s Realty) who is active at St. John’s and may have been on the Vestry (governing body) of St. John’s Church as the time the wall crumbled. He apparently was involved in some of the negotiations with the City when they realized that the City was responsible for fixing the broken wall.
Speaking of the City – am I the only person who thinks the ‘fix’ for the sidewalk on 23rd Street between Grace and Franklin Streets is at least weird, if not extremely poorly done? There is now a cement sidewalk, but the bricks have not been laid that I thought were supposed to be on the side of it, and the orange sign thingies have blown around and been run over….does anyone know if the City intends to revisit this “repair” which appears to be more than somewhat botched?!
P.S. “Archie’s” story sounds right – I know that there was a change in grade to East Grace Street years ago, and that would account for the wall.
In re: The sidewalk on 23rd between Grace and Franklin Streets. The project appears to be only partially complete. The concrete that was poured is only a base for the bricks that will be installed over the top. The city is probably just waiting for the brick crew to catch up on other projects that were already scheduled. This group usually does a pretty good job. I’m sure it will look much different when complete.
I wonder how much those contruction signs cost. I see them all around town completely destroyed yet the city still complains that it needs more $.
Sometimes, those signs belong to the subcontractors the city uses. Still, you would think they would be more responsible with their equipment.