Tuesday, November 09, 1999
Bridge rescue brings top award
Clermont lauded for preservation
BY WALT SCHAEFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The project to revert Stonelick Creek to its original course and save the historic Stonelick Creek Covered Bridge has earned Clermont County one of a dozen 1999 awards for historic preservation in Greater Cincinnati.
The 11 other award win ners will be announced at ceremonies and a reception Sunday at the Emery Theater at Walnut Street near Central Parkway in Over-the-Rhine, said Beth Sullebarger, executive director of the Cincinnati Preservation Association, which presents the awards annually.
The awards “recognize the most outstanding projects that contribute to historic preservation in Greater Cincinnati,” including Southwest Ohio, Northern Kentucky and southeast Indiana, Ms. Sullebarger said.
Clermont County Engineer Carl Hartman, whose office led the covered bridge restoration, said Monday: “We are excited to receive this award. The desire to minimize the visual impact by any changes to this historic structure ... or the valley (surrounding it) is very important to us.”
Over years, the meandering creek channel had inched closer and closer to the west stone abutment of the red, 140-foot covered bridge on Stonelick-Williams Corner Road. It was built in 1878 and placed on the National Regis ter of Historic Places in 1974.
“We got started on addressing our concerns about this after we had heavy rains in May 1996,” Mr. Hartman said. “The bridge abutment was in danger of being undermined, and there were some trees along the bank that were being eroded and in danger of falling on the bridge or into the creek.”
The erosion control process used natural materials — rocks, tree stumps, limbs and dirt — to redirect the stream to its original course and create a natural appearance, in stead of using concrete abutments and retaining walls, the engineer said.
The shoring materials were brought in from other county projects, such as road improvements, and were used to replace and reinforce the eroded stream banks.
“We wanted to retain the pristine atmosphere of the Stonelick Valley and the setting of the bridge,” Mr. Hartman said. The $200,000 project was paid for by a $120,000 grant from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and $80,000 from the county.
IF YOU GO
• What: Cincinnati Preservation Association annual awards meeting
• Where: Emery Theater, 1112 Walnut St.
• When: 3-5 p.m. Sunday.
• Cost: Free; registration required.
• Registration: 721-4506
• Highlight: At 3 p.m., members of the local chapter of the American Theater Organ Society will play the Wurlitzer rescued from the Albee Theater when it was demolished in 1977.
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