Bird Snider and crew with the new pump house.
photo by Jeff Tryon
The Beamery brings more logs for the play space.
Frank Hohenberger’ s early photo of playing marbles.
Local builder / craftsman Brian“ Bird” Snider and local stone masons the Bay & Sons, in collaboration with Steve Miller Architects, created a new pump house to cover the well. Snider logged and hand-hewn the yellowwood beams for the structure. Snider will create a kiosk that will mimic the design of the pump house.
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources and the Brown County Visitors Center will support the kiosk with a graphic rendering of maps of the county and town, guiding people to interesting things to do.
“ We’ re partnering in a new way with them to crosspromote all of the activities in the county regardless of who oversees them,” Rudd said.“ It’ s a great partnership.”
There will be similar kiosks at the park and the Hoosier National Forest, he said.
Local contractors Wheeler Electric and Wagler Brothers Excavating added their skills to the project. The project began in earnest last May, when the town of Nashville received a $ 50,000 grant for“ Place Based Investments” from the Indiana Office of Tourism Development and Office of Community and Rural Affairs to build an all-ages play space on the corner.
“ The key has been extensive public involvement in shaping the future of this space and relating it directly to our history,” Rudd said.“ That’ s the really neat thing that I’ ve seen evolve out of this project.
“ It’ s hard when you bring that many people to the table and it’ s not something we’ re used to doing,” he said.“ That’ s kind of a new way of working together even within the town. The Arts and Entertainment Commission and the Food and Beverage Commission, both town entities, have been really strong partners.
“ Getting everyone to work together has been a learning experience and we’ ve learned a lot. It’ s going to be a great thing.” •
Sept./ Oct. 2017 • Our Brown County 51