The surveying of our building site will be conducted on Monday, October 1. The surveyors will locate the tree clearing line, the location of the two islands in the parking lot, and the construction road entrance. They will also provide us with an elevation benchmark to guide our future construction. The visible result of this activity will be a series of flags at a minimum of 50-foot intervals.

Following the survey, Jesse Connor and I will review the layout to determine if any minor adjustment should be made to the tree clearing line to save any particularly important trees, either by virtue of species or size. We will put bright marker flags on all trees destined to remain, as a guide to future site clearing. We will also examine the location of the two islands to see if, miraculously, we can salvage a few trees within the islands rather than landscaping with new. We may even be able to move the islands a bit. I believe Jesse also has a plan to recover some plants or bushes in the area to be cleared.

Following this process, the township will come out to examine what we have laid out and approve it. Then, in the next few weeks, we can begin actual clearing of the site (tree and stump removal). One of our criteria in selecting a contractor is documented assurance that the wood will be reused for beneficial agricultural purposes such as mulching and soil amendment to farmers. As an immediate follow-up to site clearing, we will need to re-grade the site and build the retention basin to make sure no soil or water leaves the site in the event of heavy rain. We will also build the temporary construction road so that trucks leaving the site do not carry soil onto Leibig Road.

Richard Grzywinski