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| Fred with Marty Steen |
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| Retaining wall behind pageant stage |
Initially, most of the projects related to preparations for the Nauvoo Pageant. We did a lot of concrete flat work around the pageant site as well as a retaining wall and bench that ran the length of the retaining wall. On the flat pours, my job was to float the concrete and help with the finishing and then to make the expansion cuts with a concrete saw. On the walls, I was involved in building and then dismantling the forms.
Marty asked me to be responsible for setting up the forms for the bench and to make a chamfered edge for the front edge of the seat as part of the form. Facilities Management owns all its own forms. Myself and a seventeen year old young man grouted the wall and bench.
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| Building bench forms |
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| Sanding joints on chamfer edge in form |
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| Clamping steel inside corner made at welding shop |
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| Finished retaining wall and bench |
Another pageant project was that of setting up the portable trailer restrooms for the pageant. They have two 30 foot long trailers that they have converted into restrooms. One for men and one for women. They have to be put in place each year and outside dividers assembled.
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| Assembling restroom dividers |
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| Finished restroom dividers |
A few of the other projects included things like making repairs to concrete sidewalks, replacing roofs on out buildings, rebuilding brick sidewalks, building concrete steps, repairing leaking roof, etc. For most of the projects, I had a 17 year old young man helping me. his name is Austin Evans. He is a good worker and a pleasure to work with. Austin will be leaving on a mission in a year.
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| New roof on out building At Browning Gun Shop |
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| Sidewalk repair at visitor center |
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| New well roof at Browning Gun Shop |
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| Rebuilt brick sidewalk |
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| Facilities Management truck assigned to Fred |
One day, Marty asked me it I would be interested in being responsible for a special project. I indicated that I would. He had me meet with him Casey Cluff who is the Director of Facilities Management. Casey told me that they had a large plaque for Facilities Management and he wanted to have a concrete structure constructed on which the plaque could be mounted. He had some rough drawings of what he wanted it to look like and asked if I would like to build it. It would have to be built to fit the plaque. He also wanted to have the address of facilities built into the structure. Casey said that he would have someone make the lettering for me and Marty said that he would provide any help I would need but that the project would be mine to do. However, Casey said that he wanted me to get his approval on what I came up with and how it would look.
After unpacking the plaque, making some measurements, reviewing some drawings of similar type structures, determining elevation and placement, visiting with Casey for approval, the project was launched. The top of the structure on which the plaque would be mounted was to be one foot thick, four feet high and about seven feet long. That would sit on a base two feet wide, four feet high and about eight feet long. The base was to set on a footing three feet wide, eighteen inches high and ten feet long.
The day after getting the plan approved by Casey, I got Elder Money (a missionary) to dig the hole for a ground form footing with a back hoe and we got the footing poured. The next step was to build the form with a chamfered top for the base and get that poured.
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| Footing for Sign |
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| Building form for sign base |
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| Completed Base form |
Before the form for the top could be constructed, we needed to decide how the recessed portions would be put together. I ordered a sheet of sign board. On that we mounted a beveled piece placed where the plaque would be placed. On that we mounted some blocks to which screws could be put in to hold the plaque. Next we had to mount another beveled piece to which the lettering could be mounted. The lettering had to be mounted so that it read backwards.
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| Laying out all recessed items on sign board |
When that was completed, we built the form for the top and attached the sign board on the inside of the front facing side of the form. Then completed the top form, inserting the pieces for the chamfered corners.
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| Building form for top section |
After pouring the top, we had to let it stand a few days before removing the forms so as not to damage the lettering. However, not damaging the lettering turned out to be more than difficult than we had anticipated. Following the removal of the forms, we had to do some repair to some of the letters while grouting the top.
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| Fred by completed sign to show size |
