By MARGIE TRAX PAGE - Staff Writer - mtrax@starbeacon.com
JEFFERSON — They may not know it now, but the carpentry students at the Ashtabula County Joint Vocational School are carving out their own place in county history, engineer Kevin Grippi said.
Grippi, along with engineer John Smolen, Ashtabula County Covered Bridge Festival president Betty Morrison and Geneva City Manager Jim Pearson met with the students Tuesday for a project kick-off meeting to officially start work on the shortest covered bridge in the nation.
The West Liberty Street Covered Bridge will be 18 feet long, two feet shorter than any other covered bridge in the nation, Grippi said, and it will be built by the ACJVS carpentry students.
The idea for the shortest covered bridge came when Geneva city officials realized the West Liberty Street bridge, which was built in 1908, was deteriorating quickly. Forced to either fix the bridge or close the road, council members voted to obtain a grant to build a unique covered bridge.
Now the work, and the donated timber, are in the hands of the students.
“You are getting the extreme pleasure of working with John Smolen,” Morrison told the students. “Nobody knows more about building bridges than John. Be sure to soak up all the education you can from this man.”
Morrison said the tourism industry is the bread and butter and the future of Ashtabula County.
“You can all look back and say, ‘I am a part of history. I helped build the shortest covered bridge in the nation,’” she said. “People are going to come from miles around to Geneva to see this little bridge.”
Student Mike Johnston said he sure he will be talking about this experience for a lifetime.
“I’ll be that old man who can tell his grandkids, ‘look at that little bridge I built,’” he said. “We’ll all be old and driving around in our hovercrafts, but the bridge will still be there.”
Pearson said the bridge will be the center of a city-wide revitalization plan aimed at making Geneva a showcase of tourism for the county.
“Let’s get it built,” he told the students.
Grippi said more donations of money, roofing, and windows are needed for the project. Donations can be made by calling Pearson at (440) 466-4675. Monetary donations can be made by sending checks to Geneva City Hall, 44 N. Forest St., Geneva, Ohio, 44041. Please mark “shortest covered bridge” on the check.
