New parapet

A little more than a month ago a bit of the parapet of the old Murray Department store building fell off. On Monday workers showed up and began to repair it.

It was not obvious what they were doing at first, but by the end of the day it was clear that they were not just patching the one spot from whence the bricks had fallen, but they were replacing the entire top of the parapet. By Wednesday morning they had only a little bit of the original brickwork left to remove.

A few hours latter it was all done. The new parapet does not match the old building well, but it was probably the easiest way to deal with what may have been a structural problem. And if you look at the next building, the top of it does not match the bottom well, so it is not the first mismatched building in the downtown. What do you think?

On to other items. There has been slow progress on the planking of the Talbert Bridge during the past week or two, and this morning I saw the workmen on the job. The planking on the approach segment in Weston Cemetery has been completed in the past week, and it appears that they are almost finished with the planking on the south approach. Still to be done is some of the planking on the main span of the bridge, the side rails, and the transition from the ground to the bridge.

In still other news, I got an election flier today with the names of the candidates in the Republican primary on May 3. The three candidates for mayor are Herbert Arihood, Rick Williams, and Steven Reames. Frieda Bretzinger is unopposed for Clerk-Treasurer, as are George Cover for Council Member Ward Three and Richard Comingore for Ward Four. Scott Barton and Rich Odle are running for Council Member at Large, Liz Austin and William Hollerman are facing off in Ward One, and Mark Callaway and Russell Overton are competing for Ward Two.