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Sunday,
November 14, 2010
photos/EverythingWestport.com
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A lark that would be a landmark.
Serving those who served our country.
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A lark
that would be a landmark. EverythingWestport.com Sunday,
November 14, 2010 photos/EverythingWestport.com
except as noted A lark that would be a landmark. Our latest mystery photo, correctly guessed on
November 5 at 19:54:49 by Tammie Shurtleff of Westport, has like so many other things in
life, a story. As told by Tom and Kate Schmitt Sending
directions to visiting friends and relatives, Tom and Kate Schmitt often include the
phrase: “when you come to the fork in the road,” as a part of instructions
about which way to turn when one comes to the intersection of Old Harbor and
River Roads. Occasionally Tom and Kate would wonder aloud about that
term’s literal interpretation, and from time to time imagined how drivers
might react if, upon reaching the intersection, they were to encounter a
large fork.
Left: Tom
Schmitt in action with his chain saw. Submitted photo. Given the fork’s size – about ten feet long and weighing over 100 lbs.—it was too large for most saws, so after drilling three holes for bottoms of the tines, Tom rough cut the fork using a chain saw. He “sculpted” the remainder using a power planer, gouge, chisel, rasp, and sander. Knowing it would be in the weather, Tom sealed the pine with several layers of epoxy, let it set up for a few days, and then sprayed the fork with five liberally applied coats of Ace Hardware’s finest “chrome” paint. Just before midnight on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, Tom and Kate took the fork to the intersection of Old Harbor and River Roads and lashed it to the stone pier that is located just behind the intersection. The fork attracted immediate attention, so much so that when it was removed before the end of the weekend, many people asked about its whereabouts and told Tom they were sorry it had disappeared.
The “Fork Folk,” as the ten bidders now refer to themselves, approached Tom about coordinating its permanent re-installation, which offered two challenges: obtaining permission from owner(s) of the property on which the sculpture would sit, and fashioning a secure mounting stanchion for such a large and heavy piece. Neither proved particularly difficult. When asked, the property owners quickly granted Tom permission to install the fork and became enthusiastic supporters of the initiative. According to Tom, the owners’ encouragement is “something for which I will be eternally grateful.” Mid-City Steel had perfect material for the stanchion—heavy three-inch high-pressure pipe with walls nearly ½” thick. To the pipe, a Westport Harbor welder affixed three U-bolts to which Tom bolted the fork and then sealed the bolt holes permanently with epoxy plugs. In the meantime Tom and Kate dug a hole five feet deep and roughly two feet in diameter at the location of the fork’s permanent installation. With mechanical assistance, on Friday, October 29th they first raised the fork to an upright position and then lowered the stanchion base into the five-foot hole. After making sure the fork was plumb, Tom filled the hole with rocks and concrete, which, once hardened, secured the stanchion in place. At 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 30, Liz Coxe, the artist, property owners, and several of the “Fork Folk” gathered for a brief dedication ceremony at which they sprinkled a bit of champagne, took photos, and raised glasses to toast Westport’s latest piece of public art: wishing the fork in the road a “long tenure and many chuckles.”
Tom and Kate's "Fork in the Road" sculpture at auction under
the WRWA big tent at their 2010 Summer
Gala. Serving those who served our country. EverythingWestport.com Sunday,
November 14, 2010 photos/EverythingWestport.com
Fire Chief Brian Legendre, Deputy
Chief Sam Manley, Captain Bruce Martin, Lieutenant Brian Beaulieu, along with
firefighters Dan Baldwin, Terry Vaillancourt,
Justin Raulino, Adam Silva, and Bob Porawski escorted disabled, long-term-care veterans from
their ward to the community gymnasium for a day of remembrance, celebration,
and social interaction that's so important to these wounded warriors. Left: Westport
Fire Chief Brian Legendre (right) and Deputy Chief Sam Manley visiting with Vietnam
veteran Neal Young. The VA Boston Healthcare System exists to serve the veteran through the delivery of timely quality care by staff who demonstrate outstanding customer service, and is recognized locally, regionally, and nationally as a leader in quality patient care, positive customer service, medical/allied health education, and health-related research. Lee Greenwood's "Proud to be an American"
poured out of the gymnasium's sound system, making it awfully hard to swallow
the Happy Veterans Day cake. "The Chief (Westport Fire Chief Brian Legendre) was in DC at a recent conference with the Fire Chiefs Association of Massachusetts," Deputy Chief Allen "Sam" Manley said. "While he was there they visited Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The Chief was so inspired by what he saw, he suggested to us on his return that we may want to volunteer at the VA Hospital around Veterans Day," Manley said. Manley, himself a U. S. Navy Corpsman, found the experience particularly rewarding as his son, Tucker, stationed at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, was volunteering in a similar capacity at the same time. "Tucker is deploying to Iraq in the Air Force Security Force (military police) for one year," Manley said. "I was really surprised by the number of off-duty firefighters who volunteered to go to the VA Hospital," Manley said. "We were overwhelmed by the experience."
From the left: firefighters Bob Porawski, Adam
Silva, Justin Raulino, Captain Bruce Martin,
firefighter Dan Baldwin, Deputy Chief Sam Manley, Fire Chief Brian Legendre, and
Terry Vaillancourt. Missing from the photo was Lieutenant
Brian Beaulieu.
- - - - - End - - - - - © 2010 Community Events
of Westport All rights reserved. EverythingWestport.com |
Last Spring, during
a visit to Delano’s sawmill in Dartmouth to pick up lumber for a boat
project, Tom noticed large pieces of clear pine timber that had been sawed
from trees felled near a power line right-of-way. Thinking they might
become fork construction material, Tom loaded them onto his truck along with
the boat lumber and on the way back to Westport began to think about how to
fashion a large and reasonable facsimile of a silver table fork. First
Tom measured the Delano timber to determine how big he could make the fork;
and then using a real fork from the kitchen drawer and a set of dividers,
figured out measurements that would be used for the sculpture. With
those dimensions Tom sketched the fork design on a piece of scrap paper and
later transferred them to the pine timber using a tape measure, straight
edge, and large Sharpie pen.
That interest
prompted Mr. Schmitt to ask the Westport River Watershed Alliance (WRWA)
about donating the fork to that organization’s annual silent auction—a focal
point of that summer gala. He hoped that auction participants would be
sufficiently intrigued by the possibility of a large fork lawn ornament that
their bidding would result in a contribution for the WRWA and its
programs. However, a large number of people who had seen the “fork in
the road” over Memorial Day weekend had another idea—buy it and have it
re-installed, permanently, at the intersection of Old Harbor and River
Roads. Spearheading that effort, Liz 
