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Last spring, when the entire fifth grade class at the Springs School showed up at an East Hampton Town Board meeting to ask the town to replace the bridge over Pussy’s Pond, Councilman Brad Loewen was quick to jump up and tell the kids that if they designed a bridge, they had a commitment from the town that it would be built.
The kids took that message to heart, and spent the entire spring getting lessons from community members in engineering and design and raising money to build a new bridge. They met with Mr. Loewen and the town engineer over the summer to complete designs for the project and had a booth at the Fishermen’s Fair where they raised $2,000 by promising bronze name plates for donors.
The town authorized a $20,000 bond in July to do the work, which Mr. Loewen said would have been more than enough money to rebuild the bridge.
The kids’ designs are now on display in Town Hall, but their plans recently came to a screeching halt, after the town put a freeze on capital borrowing after learning that there had been serious improprieties in the way capital funds had been used to cover shortfalls in the town’s operating budget over the past two years.
Now, Mr. Loewen has just two months left in office before his term expires, and he and his wife Cynthia have begun a campaign to ensure that the town keeps its promise to the kids.
“They pulled everything that wasn’t already under contract, but it was a kind of a contract. It was a verbal agreement with these kids,” said Mr. Loewen.
Cynthia Loewen was the first to raise the issue in a letter to The East Hampton Star two weeks ago, which prompted a series of phone calls to Town Board members Julia Prince and Pete Hammerle, who will both still be on the board next year. They have pledged to restore the funding for the bridge next spring.
“I guess enough people called Julia and Pete and kinda drove them crazy,” said Mrs. Loewen. “It worked. They both promised they would put it on the agenda.”
Mrs. Loewen said that she and her husband plan to keep advocating for the kids after Mr. Loewen is no longer on the Town Board, and will put a plaque with the names of the kids who designed the bridge on a boulder near the pond next year.
“They worked so hard on this project. They’re so proud. We can’t let our children down. I really believe that,” she said.
“Even when I’m a civilian, I’m gonna hold that promise,” said Mr. Loewen.
Bill Taylor, the town’s Waterways Manager, has also been working with the kids over the past few months, and he said this week that the school has agreed to take a stewardship role, assigning students to check on the bridge every day to make sure that it hasn’t been vandalized.
The town ripped out the old bridge this spring after freezing had caused it to buckle and vandals had ripped off railings and burned portions of it.
Pussy’s Pond, which is just down School Street from the Springs School, is in the center of the hamlet’s historic district, just behind the blacksmith shop, across the street from the Springs General Store and near Ashawagh Hall.
Springs School students often took part in science class experiments on the bridge, and often used the bridge to bike to school. Many recall fond memories of listening to English teacher Irene Tully read the novel “Bridge to Terabithia” to students while sitting on the bridge.
Tracey Frazier, a fifth grade teacher who helped spearhead the initial effort to rebuild the bridge, plans to travel with her students next Tuesday to Town Hall to ask the Town Board to keep its promise.
“The commitment has already been made. My fear is that it would disappear altogether,” she said. “They can model fiscal responsibility and integrity for the kids if they cut it to $10,000.”
Ms. Frazier added that her students from last year, who are now in sixth grade, keep stopping her in the hall to ask how the bridge project is doing and what they can do to help rebuild it. “It’s unbelievable the effect it had on them as stewards of the community. Kids ask me about it every day,” she said.
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