Becker’s Blog #12: How’s the Fishing?
Editor’s note: Joe Becker continues his report on the natural-stone segment of the St. Joseph Cathedral restoration in Sioux Falls, S.D.
By Joe Becker
As the long, cold, and snowy winter creeps along, so does our time away from the jobsite. We have been offsite since mid-November, but the absence seems longer.
As the project manager, my involvement in this project started in the spring of 2008, and for two-and-a-half years there’s been a file folder labeled “Church of St Joseph” somewhere on my desk. With 95 percent of the paperwork completed, I put the file to the side and focused on other minor things, like finding more work for the company – because, yes, there is life after St Joseph.
Time is also creeping along for our installers. I’ve never been a field guy, but — having been around them for 25 years – I can safely say that they’d rather be working rather than ice fishing. Not every construction guy ice fishes when they’re not off the job, but attempting to romanticize unemployment is a noble cause.
We do have some work and on occasion I see Al in the shop picking up a project to install. He is usually smiling, but the smiles are even bigger; the fishing has been good.
When we left the jobsite in November, Sioux Falls Construction (SFC) converted the church’s interior to a temporary concert hall. It’s been the tradition for the Diocese of Sioux Falls to have a Christmas concert in the Cathedral; it’s a community event for Sioux Falls, and a big fund raiser for the diocese.
In spite of the construction, 2010 would be no different. SFC covered the marble floor with Styrofoam and ¾” plywood, brought in temporary seats, and built a stage for the choirs and orchestra. The construction team decided to leave the (entrance) marble floor uncovered to see how their new marble would perform under some pretty tough conditions.
Salt, grit, snow would be brought in over the polished floor from thousands of shoes. The conditions are tough but are a reality in a cold climate where, from December until March, there’s the chance of snow and ice.
I did visit the church after the concerts and looked at the narthex floor. There were some noticeable scratches in the darker-color marbles, but nothing out of the ordinary that a buffing machine couldn’t take care of.