The meeting with the park board went at well as could be expected. The existing bridge is definitely not safe to use. The city made the right call to close it. After looking at the pictures contained in the engineer's report I can conclude that we are lucky that the bridge didn't collapse with people on it. The concrete piers are sound and can be reused for a replacement bridge.

The park board and the city council are working very hard to get the bridge replaced. There has already been one grant application submitted for the replacement with a new 12' wide bridge that is capable of carrying emergency vehicles and pedestrians.

There was some discussion about the historic nature of the existing bridge and the park board was adamant that any reuse of the bridge would have to be fully funded for them to make saving the bridge a priority. I can sympathize with those that want to save the bridge and in this case, I believe there is far too much structural damage to make repairs a viable option.

The next step will be a special meeting of the park board to before forwarding their recommendation on to the city council. I will advise as soon as I know the dates for the meeting.