OPEN SKIES PROJECT

June 2022 Cleanup

Summer is now here and with it work is in full swing at the Open Skies Project. From June 10th to the 19th a group composed of us owners, our families and friends, and a handful of very generous volunteers from the community all swarmed the mountain top with rakes and brooms and shovels and hammers in a week-long cleanup event to start preparing the property for restoration and renovation. The main goal for the week was to clean up as much of the property as possible and start boarding up windows and holes in walls and roofs. We need to stop the damage from getting any worse before we can even hope to start repairing anything. As we have mentioned in previous stories, the sheer amount of destruction and decay posed the biggest problems to us. We couldn't even mow the grass until we got all of the building debris and broken glass picked up.

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We also started sealing up the windows of numerous buildings with Tyvek building wrap. It's cheaper and faster than plywood sheets, and with the number of windows we have ahead of us, both of those are crucial. If it even lasts a single season we'll be happy. From there, we began cleaning out the buildings as we sealed them up. Broken glass, trash, torn-out drywall, pieces of ceramic fixtures, smashed furniture - it all needed to be scooped up and hauled out. We rented a 30-yard dumpster from Waste Management and had it filled to the top before the week was even over. And that's not even counting the stacks of scrap metal and broken furniture we piled up outside the dumpster.
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Infrastructure Report

In addition to all of the cleaning and securing of buildings, the on-site sewer and water continued to be a major focus for us. We have a collection of maps and blueprints from the five decades the property had been in use, but the details of the underground utilities were often incomplete, unclear, or contradictory. At best we had a general idea of where the pipes, manholes, and valves were, and which buildings were connected where. So several teams of us set out to map everything in detail. Using metal detectors and shovels we found all of the manholes and storm drains on the property and dug them out of the dirt and grass that was reclaiming them. The water valves were trickier, and there were several that simply could not be located. Either the maps are inaccurate or the valves have been removed (or in one case possibly paved over). But once we had found everything that could possibly be found, we set about labeling and mapping their exact coordinates for use in our own internal planning maps. More details about both the sewer and water systems will be included in upcoming stories.
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What We Accomplished

• Building 49 completely cleaned out and sealed up
• Building 44 completely cleaned out and sealed up
• Building 43 partially cleaned and sealed
• Building 45 partially cleaned and sealed
• 30 cubic yards of debris and waste removed from the property
• Lawns along entrance road and around buildings 44, 46, and 49 cleaned of glass/debris and mowed
• Grass and dirt removed from sidewalks, roadway, and parking spaces around buildings 43, 44, 45, and 50.
• Glass, ceramic, and debris removed from roads in housing area
• Baseball field cleaned of debris and mowed
• All sewer manholes located and marked
• All sewer lines mapped out
• All storm drains and culverts marked and mapped out
• Most water valves located and marked
• Security cameras, internet antenna, and intruder alarm system upgraded

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What's Next

• Find remaining water valves and test all of them
• Clean water cistern (and repair if needed)
• Pressure test main water lines to initial buildings
• Have off-site wells professionally inspected (and repaired if needed)
• Finish sealing up buildings 43, 45, 46 and others as we move outward from there
• Begin demo of building interiors. Remove drywall, drop ceilings, and any remaining furniture
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Thank you!

We want to give a special thanks to everyone who helped out with this event. Diane and Mindy who supplied all of the food and cooking supplies; Carl and Carol who helped them with the cooking, cleaning, and transportation of supplies; Scott, Donovan, Jill, Matt, David, Adam, and all of the others who have no stake in this project and yet volunteered their time and worked like crazy throughout the week; Dan and Mary for once again letting us borrow their ATV for hauling people and supplies around the property; and everyone else who joined us throughout the week, including family, friends, and total strangers. Thank you all!