Progress is being made at Veterans’ Memorial site

HARTINGTON — Work is underway at the site of the new Hartington Veterans Memorial getting the entire lot leveled so the new memorial will have a flat surface to build on when it is eventually constructed.

The lot is a challenging area with a slope of ten feet from the west end where the entrance will be off of Broadway Avenue, to the far east end at the alley west of the Knights of Columbus Hall.

As previously reported, all the current backfill that was on the lot was sand except for six inches of top soil. After the building that once stood on the site was torn down years ago, the remaining cavity of the basement was filled with sand. Based on soil testing by Certified Testing Inc., it was recommended the sand be removed and entirely replaced with a good clay-based soil that could meet the soil compaction requirements to avoid any future ground settling.

The past few weeks, new soil from Laverle Heimes’ land was trucked in by Bob Heimes’ Dirt Man crew with volunteer help from Gayle Hochstein, Ken Hochstein and Ron Arens. Tyler Peitz, Nebraska Land Tiling, assisted in spreading the dirt with his grader after it was dumped on the site.

As the dirt was brought in, it was continually spread out evenly building it up from the original concrete basement floor that was still intact. The dirt had to be packed with a packing machine that compacts the soil. Compaction tests are taken with every two feet of dirt brought in and packed and the compaction must meet the minimum level.

“All the compaction tests done were above the minimum requirement which was good news and allowed the continuation of the work,” said Project Chairman Dan Kathol.

Before the entire area can be filled with new dirt, the footings and walls must first be put in place. This work is being completed by Larry Leader Concrete Construction Inc., and his crew out of Yankton.

A lot of concrete has to be poured for the footings and walls, with the concrete supplied by the Hartington Gerhold Concrete Co. Corey Hochstein, owner of PHP Co., Hartington, is assisting with his concrete pumping truck, which was able to pump from one location on State Street as its extended arm and tube allows for easy pouring of concrete from a distance and into tight spots.

The concrete must set for a period of time to cure and harden before the remaining dirt is trucked in and packed to fill the remaining area of the lot.

Previously, all the sand was hauled out and the new dirt brought in at the northeast corner of the lot at the alley entrance off of State Street.

Because of the wall that is now constructed, the previous east end access off the alley will now be blocked off because of the new wall so the remaining dirt will need to be brought onto the site off of Broadway at the entrance point of the new memorial.

“When we get to the point of bringing in the remaining dirt in a few weeks to finish filling the entire area of the memorial, we will need to work with the city crew on the logistics of managing the trucking of the dirt onto the site as well as bringing in the necessary equipment for the work so as not to significantly disrupt the everyday traffic on Broadway,” said Kathol.