A recent article in the
Dispatch and Rock Island Argus by Lisa Hammer reported that the Village of
Bishop Hill will receive close to 2
million dollars with a grant and a loan from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture for the water system.
This help has been sorely
needed for a long time. I know because I, along with many others, have been
taking photographs of the tower over those years. I’ve taken pictures of the tenacious
black squirrel that tried living up there. I’ve witnessed the leaks it caused
and the many others. Photographing the resulting icicles in each consecutive
winter became a thing to do. It all led up to the winter of 2006. By December
the ice build-up around the base of the old wooden tower was massive. A couple
of metal struts were bending. There was real concern about one of the legs
giving out. The only company the village could get to work on the tower couldn’t
come until January. The Bishop Hill volunteer firemen were asked to help get
the ice off the tower.
It all came together on Dec.
12th. The firemen were out in force with the new ladder truck and
ready to do battle with the giant icicle that weighed an estimated 11 tons. I
stood in the crowd that had gathered across the street. I kept my small camera safe
and warm in my pocket waiting for the perfect moment for the best shot of the
action. Thirty minutes, and some cold toes, later, I got my photo.
My little camera was what one
photographer called a “happy snappy.” It wasn’t big or complex, quite the
opposite, but it did the job. I sent the result to Doug Boock, the editor of
Galva News. It made the front page of that week’s edition. It was also used for
a year-end montage. What I didn’t know at the time was that Boock submitted it
for two awards with the Illinois Press Association.
That following Sep. I went to
the awards ceremony in Springfield and got to bring home a very nice
first-place plaque for feature photograph. The office got the plaque. I got
photos of me and my big moment.
Lorali Heintzelman, area
specialist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was quoted as saying, “Not
that we needed that [the photo of ice dangling from the tower], we had documentation,
but a picture tells 1,000 words.”
I’m hoping that she was
referring to my photograph and not one of the many others that were taken that
day. Because I’d love to say that I had taken a million-dollar photo.
I will probably never find out. In the meantime, it was still nice to go back, find those pictures, and relive a bit of my past in Bishop Hill.
I will probably never find out. In the meantime, it was still nice to go back, find those pictures, and relive a bit of my past in Bishop Hill.
Link to Lisa Hammer's article:
http://www.qconline.com/news/
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