Pro Life Worth Living

My Christmas Letters #1. 10/09/09

Merry Christmas, Mr./Ms Republican Senator,

As, you eat off your corporate table this Holiday, while planning your upcoming re-election fundraisers, I would ask that you remember a friend of mine, Billy, who is a non-smoker and was over $250,000.00 in debt, just because he found out (the hard way) that he has congestive heart failure and deemed uninsurable. But wait, that is not my point, because he could never have afforded a private premium anyway so please read on it gets better . . .

. . .Three days ago, he again went in to the hospital, and thanks to your delay in passing a universal healthcare plan, he is now screwed for the rest of his life and out of All his assets. Only In America, the Free, Ye-hah! Speaking of FREE, maybe you or one of your compassionate friends at the next Right to Life rally would like to consider purchasing his family homestead, so he could be totally penny-less and asset free, while he sits and stresses about how he's going to live, while he waiting for his next big medical impending hit, that because of Americas great Medical care, he will probably live through again, just to be hounded by your corporate friends for payment of his enormous medical debts daily but Don't worry Mr/Ms. Senator, he will hire another of your boys again to handle his eventual bankruptcy case and will most likely end up on the government paid SS and pay off your friends before he goes to the forever Life.

At this time of Sharing and Caring, I hope you will answer, What good is LIFE alone, without the RIGHT to good health when your here? Then, look in a mirror and reflect on the day you swore on a bible, then vowed to protect ALL your constituents, not your corporate sponsors agendas or the rich buying up the assets lost by others misfortune. Please consider expanding your ongoing support for "life", to also endorsing a "Life worth living" for a 52 year old man named Billy and for the millions of other real Living PEOPLE, who are dying each day from being forced into this medical nightmare-WWJD, Senator?

Peace of mind,

Christie Weber

Private Healthcare costs American JOBs

Public Healthcare NOW, Saves more than lives!- Businesses move our jobs to Mexico, etc. One reason; to avoid the expense of healthcare to the American workers. Our government then subsidizes billions to keep that same job here (?). Eliminate the looping of our private insurance corporate theft of our businesses profits, and business will be able to afford their own facility improvements.

Private Healthcare costs American JOBs!

You pay for mine and I will continue to pay for yours.

How can anyone deny that you need to be a made like a Steel Bridge just to survive without universal healthcare today- It will get you one way or another if we dont reform the unfair system we have today.

I was pondering how the insurance companies changed the Universal Healthcare argument from, " it's bad" and " that we will have to wait in long lines", blah, blah, blah, to the greedy, "I got mine and dont want to share" loudly coming from fearful grandmothers on medicare across America while burning their ARP Cards?

It appears to me, that the only real way to get good government health care in the USA now days, is to be on the government tax dole (medicare or poor w/kids SS), or to work for ( or marry, as I did) a government employee- teacher, police, etc. - Talk about LUCK!

Take it from me, a mother of two and ex wife of a WisDOT game warden. Our State tax paid health care was a great thing, yes we had it all. We never waited in line, always had the best care and never got shut out from a specialists, yet all your taxes paid for almost all of it. Thanks, my kids are much healthier for your dollars spent and yes I think we were worth every penny and we desereved all of it.

But, did I really deserve tax paid health care more than the woman, mother next door, just because I fell in love with the right government employee? My kids over hers? Husband? No, I don't think I did. My kids should not have been treated better than the plumbers assistants kids either, so PLEASE let them all join in the club NOW. It's life or Death for some.

If government paid medical was really so bad for us (medicare, VA), would they care about sharing or losing some of their beni's today? Heck NO! Would they be fighting out of FEAR alone. Nope. A few more will not make a diff. when you add them all up who are doing it.

Whether it is a Government run plan or private government purchase plan, the arguement is just splitting hairs lead by insurance companies to slow the passage of any plan. Either way, I know first hand, we have many great socialized government health care plans already living really well in the USA to chose from that work and work very well today.

If they decide NO, that Health care is not part of our rights, way too socialist in free-trade America, then take the nay-sayer's gravey-train away too by dissolving ALL government tax-paid medical plans, so at the very least, we will all live as equals
and with the same words "In God We Trust" in America.

Health Care for One, then FOR All!

That's my opinion.

Michigan Street Milestone

At 79 years old, The Historic Michigan Street Bridge, a Door County Veterans Memorial , has met yet another milestone in its fight for survival. Stephanie Hinkman of the Federal Highways Department, said today that the bridge rehabilitation "contract has been awarded". FHWA will be providing 80% of the rehab costs, while the WisDOT will cover 20% of the 18 million dollar rehab bill.

The rehab, which now also includes a very expensive, new remote monitoring system, will not use bridge tenders, but instead the draw structure will be computer and video controlled by connecting it to the newer Maple and Oregon Street bridge tenders house 770' away with fiber-optic cable installed by Charter Communications this spring.

At present, this corridor is served by the New 2-lane Maple and Oregon Street companion bridge and this corridor is experiencing higher than average crash rates, because presently it is undersized and never intended to be a single stand alone bridge to handle the high traffic needs of this busy commercial/industrial area. Once the 2-lane Michigan Street bridge is returned to service, the downtown, for the first time ever, will have safe 4-lane, 24/365 no downtime service across the canal.
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To celebrate the great news and the start off "National Historic Preservation Month", Citizens for Our Bridge, will be holding a "Photo Op" May 6th at Noon, on the historic Michigan Street Bridge (with WisDOT's help) to document the original condition before they begin the historic bridge transformation to being remote monitored and newly modernized. All are welcome, but they must have a camera or video and agree to donate a copy of all footage to CfOB for our archives.
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CfOB, is a non-profit 501c3 organization, dedicated to the long-term preservation of the Historic Michigan Street Bridge and the historic community that surrounds it. For thirteen years CfOB has been actively working toward saving the historic bridge with a no downtime solution and played an active role in securing the 2 lane Maple and Oregon companion bridge to resolve the 4 lanes required for federal funding to address safety. We have also over the years, listed the bridge on the National Register of Historic Places, Wisconsin Register of Historic Places, and onto the "Wisconsin's 10 most endangered list" twice , working with many national and regional historic preservation groups.

The next phase of our plan is to celebrate 80th anneversary, after the DOT has secured the rehab, by concentrate on building a 3 million dollar (min.) Michigan Street Bridge Endowment Fund, which will be dedicated to the ongoing bridge maintenance. This fund will once and for all insure this historic structure and the community, will never have to fight for or worry about, simple repairs or it's future ever again . . .

The Michigan Street Bridge Re-Plan

May not be as it appears, once again…

Just a few months ago, Citizens for Our Bridge couldn’t get the WisDOT to paint any more than 5′ above the road bed in the bridge rehab plan. They claimed that even the over-coating option was not needed and the existing paint was in good shape. Now, just a month from letting out bids, they want to take painting to an extreme, spending much more money and extending the downtime significantly into another summer season, while possibly pushing the project over budget. These proposed changes will intentionally add millions - with no plan to apply for stimulus money, leaving the painting unfunded. The explanation provided is a plan to pay for it out of the general fund. Really?
How can the state now afford to spend millions more than what has already been budgeted for this project? Can we afford to let them try? What will happen if they can’t? Is the plan to restore the main bridge connecting the heart artery of our major commercial and industrial zone being intentionally set up to go over budget… just as Senator Alan Lasee and Leo Zipperer predicted might happen in their oppositional letters? And are these NEW million dollar changes and expenses being included without adding them to the new rehab budget cap? Who’s delaying progress here? Who’s ignoring safety concerns? Who’s negatively impacting our economic base? Who are “they” and what do they want?
Read on…Last week the WisDOT strategically introduced “new plans” to extend out the rehab for much longer than necessary. YES, for another whole season as it appears, and for no GOOD reason and in conflict with their own report. Tony Depies, Sturgeon Bay city engineer again agrees that this new plan is a good idea, with no concern for the economic impact on our community. Out of the blue and contrary to the state’s own report, they are now adding encapsulating, sandblasting and painting the entire bridge structure, to be undertaken AFTER all construction is complete, not during. They are also adding the removal, instead of the recommended rehabilitation, of the entire segmental girders, when only spot-replacement of smaller parts is recommended in their report.
Why is the WisDOT ignoring their own BRW Rehab Inspection Report now and adding new out-of-budget additions, just 1 month before going out to bid?
Tony (City Engineer) says; “I have cruised through the (BRW) document very quickly and actually want to thank you because it seems very comprehensive and well done.”
Abba Lichtenstein (world renown bridge expert) says; ” If the segmental (rolling girders) are sound why are they being replaced? No need for an engineering genius to explain.”
BRW, Inc. (bridge inspection experts) say in their report, created after testing the Bridge, “The existing lead-based paint system is a long lasting one that is generally in good condition, especially above the roadway splash zone. It is capable of continuing to provide protection to the underlying steel for many additional years and the sand-blast removal alternative is therefore not recommended.”
Please WisDOT, with all due respect, we need proof that these changes and subsequent further delays are “needed” before rubber stamping it and moving forward. We need to ask why the most recent “replace, instead of repair” changes to the plan have been included and why an “over-kill paint job” is being added at great expense ($3 - $4 million) to this project. If we have an ounce of concern left for the merchants downtown or our own citizens’ safety, why not follow through with accomplishing the spot-painting, out of season and during the construction phase? Yes, the community would gain a whole summer season and the state would save millions. Why is that no longer a major concern? Spending more time and money than necessary on this project, in this particularly tight economic climate is suspect for concern.
Our historic downtown is dying after a two year street project (that could have been done in just a few weeks) and local merchants need this bridge rehabbed and reopened as soon as possible. The accidents in the downtown area have risen to an all time high and, at the same time we have the funding for the REHAB if we simply follow the original plan. We need to support what’s best for the city by wrapping this up in 10 months as planned instead of adding on 6 months to a year and spending $2 - $3 million dollars more.
BRW In-Depth Inspection REPORT states:
Paint SystemThe previous paint system on the approach span trusses was removed by sandblasting in 1984. The bridge was then re-painted with a coating system that included a lead-based primer. That paint system has performed well and is still on the bridge. The condition of the paint on those members above the roadway splash zone is generally good. There are some localized areas of paint loss on the upper chords (See Photo S34). Within the roadway splash zone, there are some localized areas of corrosion, especially at connections. As was previously described above in the sections on Truss Lower Chords and Floorbeam End Connections, there are areas of corrosion and significant pack rust in the truss lower chords and floorbeam connections to them. The floorbeams themselves and most of the stringers on each of the trusses are in good condition (See Photo S35). This is because of the protection that the deck above has provided.
Localized areas of coating failure throughout the trusses, which is most predominant in the splash zone, should be machine-tool cleaned and locally re-painted as part of a ten-year or twenty-five year rehabilitation of the bridge. This repair of local paint deterioration does have a limited lifespan and would need to be performed several times over an additional period of twenty-five years of bridge service.
Alternatives to machine tool cleaning and re-painting local areas of paint deterioration for a twenty-five year bridge rehabilitation include the following:Providing an encapsulating paint system over the existing paint for the entire bridge. Providing an encapsulating paint system would be substantially more expensive than local machine-tool cleaning and painting but it would be less costly than blast blast-cleaning and then re-painting the entire bridge. However, for an encapsulating overcoat paint system to be effective, the existing paint system that will underlie it must be tightly adhering to the base-metal. Adhesion tests were performed on the existing paint system of the trusses at random locations. Results from these tests varied from nearly no loss of adhesion (See Photo S36) to nearly complete loss (See Photo S37). Additional testing of the existing paint and consultation with several coatings manufacturers would Michigan Street Bridge over Sturgeon Bay BRW, Inc. be warranted before deciding to overcoat-paint the bridge steel instead of locally machine toolcleaning and painting areas of deterioration.
Sand-blast cleaning and re-painting the entire bridge. Complete removal of the existing lead based paint system by sand blasting would require confinement of residues and related abatement measures both above and below the deck. It would have to be done with the bridge closed to traffic. Based upon information obtained during a subsequent site visit in February of 2001 with the contractor who previously sand-blasted and painted the bridge in 1984, the existing lead based paint system is a long lasting one that is generally in good condition, especially above the roadway splash zone. It is capable to continuing to provide protection to the underlying steel for many additionalyears and the sand-blast removal alternative it is therefore not recommended.
Please ask the WisDOT to quit playing games with the public, using huge budgets and extended delays on this important infrastructure project. They know this will open debate again and risk the preservation and reopening of this vital link.
See you June 11-14, 2009 for the SBSF5CHECK OUT our Web site: http://www.steelbridgesongfest.org/See Our YouTube Short Clips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe1OILn6-o8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bw3HrNjvmwJoin us on Face Book:http://www.facebook.com/s.php?q=steel+bridge&init=q&sid=00ac4c16891059efb2464fa225010546Blogger:http://steelbridgesongfest.blogspot.com/
Citizens for Our Bridge,SBSF311 Pennsylvania St.Sturgeon Bay, WI 54235ph. 920-495-3779

Tags: Citizens for Our Bridge, SBSF5, Steel Bridge Song Fest
Christie

Steel Bridge Songfest O5'

Hi Bridge Lovers,

We are working hard on this years festival set for June 11-14. Acts are being confirmed already, and I will get into that in the next blog but, If you know of a great songwriter that you think would like to help us save a bridge, please send him/her to our website at steelbridgesongfest.org to volunteer.

Or, if you can offer your talents in any way, this is the year we need them all. Just sign up on our website. If you don’t have a specific talent, we can assign you one. We want to make this year, our 5th anniversary, the best yet.

NEW! Checkout the newest video clip done for us by Susan Howe and James Becker; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe1OILn6-o8

Also on Facebook, look up "Steel Bridge" and become her friend, shes great.

THE BRIDGE uodate:
The Steel Bridge is in its last phase before its first rehab and we need people to write letters to Governor Doyle and Senator Alan Lasee asking them to protect this project and to support it's completion without ANOTHER delay. We will be presenting updates on both the Bridge and the Event plans, hopefully weekly, so watch for more.

Thanks, Christie