By John McCallum
Managing Editor 

Scouts' Eagle projects serve communities

 

Last updated 4/26/2018 at 10:14am

Caleb Wilcox

Ben Rose provides visibility for Cheney depot's future home

Cheney High School student Ben Rose had never heard of the Cheney Depot - until he undertook building a sign for it as his Eagle Scout project.

Rose said his grandfather, Martin Seedorf, was keeping an eye out for potential projects for him and heard the Cheney Depot Society - the organization attempting to move the former Northern Pacific Railroad Depot from its current location to a new one on First Street - was in need of a sign to help drum up financial support.

Seedorf serves on the city's Historic Preservation Commission, and knew who Rose needed to get in touch with to see if a sign was desired.

"He asked around and it just started to snowball," Rose said.

Coming up with the project concept was the easy part, as Rose quickly found out. The Depot Society didn't know if it wanted a permanent sign or a temporary one since the fate of an old house on part of the property was up in the air.

Whether the building is moved or razed via a fire department controlled burn is still not certain, but either way, Rose provided information that led the society to finally decide on a permanent sign.

"Luckily the fire department has thermal blankets they can throw on it, which is what they do to surrounding buildings when they do a controlled burn," he said.

Rose then designed the sign, with a city-approved engineer signing off on the documents. Next came the permitting process, including one for the sign itself, let alone construction.

A decision needed to be made whether to build the sign on site or off. In the end, Rose went half way, constructing the sign off site and then erecting the assembly at the location.

Next, materials. Rose said the recommended minimum amount of concrete for this type of sign was 28 bags of Quickrete, which when loaded into his family's Ford F-150 pickup truck caused it to ride so low as to almost scrape the ground. The sign needed to be made of marine-grade plywood so it would withstand the weather and not warp.

Rose said they applied five coats of waterproof house paint on both sides of the sign, which is in two parts, each two feet by six feet. The waterproofing was applied last August, enabling it to dry more thoroughly in the hot weather.

Rose designed several different templates for the letters, and volunteers used a router to do the lettering. With the exception of the plywood, which came from Windsor Plywood, all of the materials came from Jarms Ace Hardware, with the Depot Society reimbursing the Scout for the expenses.

The sign finally went up last October, the end result of Rose's leadership, the help of 18 volunteers who worked 170 hours and 15 minutes and over a year's worth of effort.

"That was mostly due to the planning," Rose said of the latter.

The part of the process that was the most fun for Rose was the installation of two placard-style signs hanging on hooks at the bottom that say "Future Home." Rose said putting those on signified that the work was done.

Rose, who hopes to be an engineer, said he enjoyed the whole process, especially since it gave him a chance to put some of his math skills to the test under actual conditions. The deepest satisfaction, however, is the sign's location on First Street in his hometown.

"I get to drive by it and go,'yes!'" Rose said.

Caleb Wilcox's path gives homeless single moms and their children some solid footing

Cheney Boy Scout Caleb Wilcox's Eagle Scout project focused on providing some ease to people caught in an uneasy situation - to say the least.

Wilcox talked to former Scoutmaster Lee Carney, who sits on the board of the non-profit, "naomi." Formerly known as Hearth Homes, the Spokane Valley organization provides shelter and a "transformational" environment for homeless single mothers and their children.

The organization has two homes on a piece of property where the women and children safely stay, but the route in between was uneven and gets muddy when the weather turns nasty, making it hard to walk and push strollers. As his project, Wilcox proposed to fix that by installing a 70-foot long compacted path between the two dwellings.

"They were pretty open about that and happy to see it," the Cheney High School senior said.

Carney said that, as with all Eagle projects, it's not about doing the work but planning and preparing in order for others to do the job. Wilcox set about doing that, designing the path along with what materials were needed and pursuing any permits the work required.

Wilcox got Action Materials to donate gravel for the project, secured the use of a compactor from Star Rentals to push the gravel down and a donation from Cheney Feed and Tack that helped purchase wood from West Plains Lumber, who gave him a "good price."

He also got equipment from others in his troop, and 17 individuals - seven adults, nine Scouts and himself - to show up and do the work.

The team assembled last November at the naomi site, and Wilcox said it took several hours to dig out the existing turf and form a rough bed for the path. Once that was done, they laid down a layer of fabric liner, framed the path with the wood and put in and compacted the gravel, which turned out to be more than was needed and subsequently used elsewhere on the site.

"So they got some free gravel for their parking lot, and we spread it around for them," Wilcox said.

The entire process was a full day's work, running from 7 a.m. to well after 6:30 p.m. when Wilcox left.

Wilcox said one of his challenges was scheduling, particularly with the gravel, which he said he didn't want delivered and then left sitting around for a long time. The other was a utility line they discovered near the path's proposed route that was closer to the surface than previously thought, something they were able to avoid in the end.

Ben Rose

Carney said the path paid dividends this winter to the women who stayed in the homes, making a difficult situation a little less so.

"That allowed the girls to push their strollers and walk back and forth without getting muddy," he said, adding that it helped them concentrate on other things and to "not have so much drama in their lives."

"Caleb and his crew did an excellent job," he added.

While the project helped Wilcox meet his Eagle Scout requirements, he said the path gave him a sense of satisfaction knowing it would be used to help make others' lives a bit easier.

"Knowing they would use it a lot and appreciate it," he said.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.

Author Bio

John McCallum, Retired editor

John McCallum is an award-winning journalist who retired from Cheney Free Press after more than 20 years. He received 10 Washington Newspaper Publisher Association awards for journalism and photography, including first place awards for Best Investigative, Best News and back-to-back awards in Best Breaking News categories.

 

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