Old Water Tower catastrophic event!

The facts as I know them.

Last Thursday Columbus had a large storm roll through about 5:30PM.  It seems lightning struck the Old Water Tower which in turn blew off the outer layer of bricks with mortar spreading over several houses.

The worry is a collapse with the 60,000 pounds of steel 60 feet in the air (numbers are approximate).

As you can see it doesn't LOOK bad, except for the 60,000 pounds of steel right above it.

SO - two houses have been evacuated as a precaution.  An engineer said the structure has been compromised but that is still just a gut reaction.   No one has been inside for a few decades and there are no plans to go on.

My brother who does this sort of thing said that in the late1890s the way things were built.  One layer of bricks for each story and towers were built VERY VERY good.  Over engineered.  HE says fixing will be a LOT cheaper then demo-ing.

My question is - if it Is fixed, what are we going to do with it. There is no need to fix it if it will just stand there being ignored for another 100 years ready to fall down again.

I talked to my buddy who is working the tallest crane in Madison for Fiendorf and said demo-ing would be REALLY hard and VERY expensive.  The economy is good that there are no construction people to spare.  (My home brew friend just put a bid out for a million dollar brewery in Sun Prairie and found this out with few takers - not enough construction people).

ANYWAY - the plan was to have the Fire Department fly a drone up there to get a better look at the outside.   More info when I hear anything.

***********************************

In other news - I came in 1st place last night in a 10 man league in Fan Duel and 97th place among 26,000 in tournament that got me into a bigger tournament next Monday.

***************************************

Sugarfoot #2

Spill of sunlight melting warm
beside a window.
Soft fur creature, throating
a vibrato of contentment.
Is this the swarthy hunter
who stalked the wily June bug
through last evening's twilight jungle?
Your eyes weren't made
of liquid love last night.

      -E.V. Melotte

***************************

On other depressing news - The Japanese beetle is back and I see 4 trees on Avalon that will be dead soon because no one did anything to stop them.  The golf course has 11 trees on the 2 fairways that I can see that will soon be dead if they don't get their asses in gear.

Lindin (Basswood, Tilia) trees seem to be the meal of choice this year and you NEED to kill these bugs or they will kill your trees AND grass.  Once they leave the tree theo go into the grass and eat the roots.

Short term spray but long term spread Milky Spore on your lawn as it kills Jap beetles and helps your lawn.

Soon to be dead trees on Avalon.