Staff outlines plan to rename Common Bridge in Madison County; ceremony tentatively set for May 19

A Madison County staff member told the meeting they are moving forward with plans to rename the Common Bridge the "David P. Grama Memorial Bridge" and tentatively schedule a ribbon-cutting ceremony for May 19, which the staff member said would have been David Grama's birthday.

The staff member said the county would replace the current 1-inch plastic signs with aluminum signs ordered from Paul Peterson Company and that county crews would remove the old signs and install the new ones. "The signs that are up there now are about 1 inch thick plastic, and they've been up there. They they're starting to show their wear," the staff member said. The vendor estimate for the aluminum signs was given as $3,002.33.

As an additional option, the staff member described a historical-marker-style walkway sign — the smaller interpretive panels with pictures and verbiage, not the large brass highway markers. They said vendors need the final text and images to provide a price but estimated a roughly two-week turnaround once content is provided: "...the turnaround time on that would probably only be about, 2 weeks." Mounting brackets would be fabricated by Adept Products; the staff member gave an estimate of $644 for those components.

The staff member also raised a potential delay for brass plaques planned to be mounted at both sides of the bridge opening. "They said that typically, those are made in China, and there's been a big delay in getting those," the staff member reported, adding that some U.S. manufacturers are available as alternatives but that timing and availability could affect whether plaques arrive in time for the May 19 ceremony.

On scheduling, the staff member said they had discussed the date with organizers and that the engineers office would need to approve it. "I told her that both the engineers office said you guys would have to, you know, approve that date," the staff member said. The staff member said they would coordinate with Julie Grand and meet with Tim Rohi to finalize wording and production details.

The Chair acknowledged the update and said the date would be noted in the minutes. No formal motion or vote on the renaming or associated purchases appears in the provided transcript; the staff member stated the expenditures had already been approved previously and that they did not expect additional board action was required at this meeting.

Next steps the staff member listed were to finalize sign wording and images, confirm vendors and lead times, secure any necessary engineer's office approval for the ceremony date, and then confirm whether to proceed on May 19 or postpone until plaques are available.