Page 24 - LDC FlipBook demo

After an intensive two day conference, work resumed, with a closed (all union) shop in place and a promise to hire local labor whenever possible.
Two days after they returned to work, three men were killed when a cave-in occurred.
Earl Dryden, 47, and his son Walter, 20, of Wirt, Indiana, and Roy Noble, 36, of Lawrenceburg were buried for three hours before rescuers could reach them, too late to save their lives.
They had been working alongside Clayton Sailor and Jimmy Seymour of Lawrenceburg and J.H. Sutton of Wirt in a 20 foot deep ditch at the east end of Center Street when the sides began to give way. Sailor, Seymour and Sutton managed to escape, but were not able to save their coworkers.
There were changes to the Flood Control Board after
the death of Mayor Spanagel. He was succeeded as Mayor by Loren Edwards, already a member of the board, but now in a different category since the Lawrenceburg Mayor was automatically a member. In a somewhat confusing musical chairs situation, Morris McMamanan took over Edwards’ former seat.Then, McManaman was appointed Circuit Court Judge and his seat went to W.M.Turner.
The Flood Control District declared its first tax rate in a legal notice published August 30, 1940. A proposed rate of 40 cents per $100 assessed valuation was predicted to raise $28,715 in 1941.
By the end of September in 1940, the Lawrenceburg Register estimated that the levee was already one- third complete.
A work force of 180 men were moving an average of 20,000 cubic yards of fill every day with twenty-three large pieces of earth moving machinery.
No less than six flood gates were to be installed: at the Ohio River end of Walnut Street, near the Roller Mills plant, on the B&O Railroad at the west end of town, on the west end of the new four lane US 50, and two on the east side of the levee.
In the east, the new highway would go over the top of the levee near the new high school.
The old fairgrounds were being torn down, residences and business places in Newtown were to be removed, and plans were underway to move the old Lawrenceburg Cemetery.
Plans were already being made to build a bigger and better fairgrounds just outside the levee on US 50.Work would not begin until the spring of 1941.
In late September of 1940, about 400 residents celebrated the construction of the levee with a dinner at St. Lawrence School.
Frank Hutchinson acted as toastmaster, and there were congratulations all around.
Special guest for the evening was Rep. Eugene Crowe, and there was accordion music, and group singing.When Victor O’Shaughnessy was introduced, the entire room broke into a chorus of “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.”
Congressman Crowe and O’Shaughnessy were also honored with standing ovations.
Walter Decker came in for special praise for his work, and tribute was paid to Mayor Spanagel and the late William O’Brien, Jr. for their work in obtaining funds for the project.
The Register noted at the end of a long news story that the event had closed with the National Anthem and that a party had followed at the American Legion Home.
While construction was proceeding on the new levee itself, the members of the Flood Control Commission were working with the Corps of Engineers to install a series of collector drains and pumps.
The project was divided into several sections, the first
of which was the building of the collector drains. Bids were to be opened in February of 1941.This would be followed by a series of pump stations to help keep more “seep water” out of the levee protection area.
In March, the District sold $167,000 worth of
bonds to cover the cost of acquiring rights of way and other portions if the project was not covered by Federal grants.
They also announced that the very last portion of the levee, which was to protect the Seagram buildings along Tanners Creek near the old city cemetery, would finally be constructed.
The moving of the bodies in the old cemetery also fell to the Flood Control District, which conditioned intensive search for the names of those who had been buried there.Two teenaged sisters, Darling and Winifred Grace, were hired to copy the inscriptions on every remaining tombstone.A special section was obtained at the Greendale Cemetery for the Newtown graves.