Turning the Corner

At least I hope we’re turning the corner on the seasons. There’s the possibility of more snow this weekend, but we got about two inches of spring rain on Monday and Tuesday. Remarkably, with the sun and wind on Wednesday and Thursday the grounds dried fairly well.

It’s still kind of muddy on the grounds, so there’s more planning right now than actual projects. All the contractors will be having a powwow here within the next two weeks to finalize the exact order of getting things done. In a project of this size, there are so many people dependent on one another. Excavation crews, builders, electricians and everyone else want to know when they should be the grounds. And as anyone who has ever built anything knows, change orders cost time and money.

All in all, there’s a lot of eagerness to get going. It’s been a long winter, and it still doesn’t seem to want to end, but everybody wants to get outside and finish the job.

We’re also helping the Wisconsin Public Service Farm Show prepare for their event on the grounds next Tuesday through Thursday. That show uses all four exhibit hangars and the ground between them. Lots of big farm machinery will be here, most of which looks like it would really fun to play with. I’d like to snag a few pieces of the farm machinery after the show to help with the site construction, especially those rock pickers and seeders…

The new Vintage Aircraft type club/workshop building is coming along well. We should have the roof closed up this week. It took a while to finish the walls, since we had a few days of high winds a couple of weeks back.

There’s one change in the location of the Lost and Found area. Instead of at the Main Gate with the Oshkosh and regional/state Visitor Information booth, we’ve decided to put Lost and Found in a building just to the southwest of the SkyShoppe along the flight line. There are some reasons for that: That area supports the entire grounds, so a more centrally located spot is good for those from the North 40 aircraft camping area or the south end instead of going all the way to the Main Gate. The building by the Main Gate will now exclusively have information about Oshkosh and other cities in the region, as well as the state of Wisconsin.

We’re also finalizing locations for other buildings, such as the Protect Our Planes volunteers, program distribution and others, which we’ll talk about in coming weeks.