Alex Lear, The Forecaster
Wednesday, February 20, 2013 at
11:10 am
BATH —
Fundraising bricks to pay for improvements to a 19th century freight shed are
available for order.
The City
Council gave unanimous consent Jan. 2 to a proposal from the Bath Freight Shed
Alliance to include the bricks in a sidewalk to be constructed this year along
Commercial Street.
The
bricks cost $150 each. An order form is available at bathfreightshed.blogspot.com,
from bathfreightshed@gmail.com, or at the Bath Winter Farmers Market, which
runs Saturdays through April at the shed from 9 a.m.-noon. Forms are also
available at the real estate office of Sharon Drake, 136 Front Street.
The
group, which plans to donate the bricks to the city, is selling engraved space
on the bricks to charter members as part of its membership drive. Each brick
will have two engraved lines, with space for 20 characters and spaces on each
line.
The shed
improvements, which could cost between $18,000 and $23,000, include repairs to
the building's Commercial Street-side sill and its foundation wall. The work
would run concurrently with excavation of the Commercial Street side of the
shed for construction of the sidewalk.
Restoration
of the shed's exterior is planned as a later project.
The shed
is also the construction site of the Virginia, a replica of a historic pinnace
built at the Popham colony in 1607-1608.
The
sidewalk work will be funded primarily through federal funds distributed by the
Maine Department of Transportation, and should go out to bid in late spring and
be constructed this summer, City Planner Andrew Deci said last month.
Direct link: http://www.theforecaster.net/news/print/2013/02/20/bath-shed-fundraising-hits-bricks/151788
Alex Lear can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 113 or alear@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @learics.