There are always a lot of newsy items that don’t merit big headlines, but are noteworthy for our community. Here are a few of them:
For openers, it’s hard to get an accurate count of how many people gathered along Main Street from Badger Middle School to Regner Park Saturday morning to watch West Bend’s Fourth of July parade. It had to be several thousand.
Parade ended amidst crowd at Regner Park.
There was little talk about the divisive politics afflicting our country 250 years down the road from the profound, world-changing Declaration of Independence.
No document has ever had a bigger positive effect on the human condition on our planet, with the exception of the New Testament of the Bible.
The philosophical statement by 55 delegates from 13 colonies insisted that every human being be treated with mutual respect — if he or she earned it with contributions to the common good.
The parade-goers showed their love of our constitutionally sound country. They love the United States in their bones. They lined Main Street in red, white and blue dress. Many brought their children so the next generation learns and appreciates what a gift we U.S. citizens have been given.
The candies thrown to children was the least of the gifts bestowed upon those youngsters.
Washington County’s biggest snow plow.
My wife’s favorite parade participant was the huge Washington County snow plow, which keeps our strong economy “humming” in winter. My favorites were the youth dancing groups and the float with the giant replica of the Statue of Liberty that has welcomed people of all stripes to be at home here.
For a couple of hours, we American citizens were one, forgetting what divides us and enjoying being together in common support of the big ideas that make America great:
- Mutual respect.
- Hard work and ingenuity that enable good lives.
- Compromise toward collective benefit.
- Deep appreciation for what our founders hammered out in Philadelphia on hot summer days without air conditioning.
- A recognition that our imperfect country is a work in progress that needs the best from the better angels within each of us.
One tidbit that popped up at the listening session conducted recently by Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann: Two advocates for the Sandy Knoll County Park are pushing for expansion of its nine-hole disc golf course to 18 holes.
The two proponents said that the Sandy Knoll course has become so popular that it is paying its own way. No county taxes are needed. They predicted that the added nine holes would also be self-sustaining.
Schoemann encouraged them to go through the county park management process to get the expansion moving.
I hiked into the Riverside Park to check out the clean-up of Fluvio (meaning action of a river), the second sculpture put into place by West Bend Friends of Sculpture (WBFS) 33 years ago.
When it was started , the WBFS board wanted to make sure that the community bought into the idea of sculptures as a possible asset for the city. So to get people engaged, WBFS contracted with Australian sculptor Paul Trappe to create a piece of community art.
Fluvio Sculpture
He ordered two huge pieces of limestone from a quarry in Valders, Wisconsin and had them delivered to a downtown West Bend parking lot. The stone blocks arrived on a stormy night, and we had a heckuva time getting them off the trailer. WBFS borrowed a powerful forklift from West Bend Equipment Company to do the job.
Trappe then outlined the final shape and textures that replicated ripples in the river bottom made by moving water. He invited everyone in the community to use his chisels and hammers to chip away the excess material. It took several weeks under his supervision.
The finished piece was delivered to its current location in Riverside Park, where it seems to float above the surrounding native plants.
Over the years, though, soot and stains took hold, and Fluvio lost some of its luster.
Enter Gus Peter, a local art restoration master and sculptor himself. WBFS contracted with him for a clean-up. Peter hauled in a power pressure washer, a pump and a long hose to reach the river. He restored the piece to its original near-white look.
Go take a look; use the Riverside Park parking lot off Indiana Avenue. On the way, pause to soak in “West Bend Resolve” at the entrance and the soaring sculpture “Paradisadae,” which is perched on a knoll not far from the end of the driveway.
P.S. The first piece put into place in 1992 by the “friends” for the community collection was “Tableau in Steel,” a Corten steel cut-out silhouette of local residents in Regner Park just off the entrance from Main Street.
The now 34-year community collection will be home to 60 pieces with three more works added this year.
It’s not surprising that sculptures, man-made objects, have been received so well in West Bend, a manufacturing community that has a long history revolving around man-made objects.
