Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office inmate Kevin Didick awaits lowering of precast concrete stairs being dropped into place this week at Falmouth Heights Beach. When the job is completed later this month or early next, six identical sets of stairs will be in place as well along this three-quarter-mile stretch of prime public beach. The old steps were installed back in the 1950s in some cases and in the early 90s for the others. Didick is framed by the heavy duty crane on hand to do the lowering.
The lifting and lowering has begun. As you can see, the stairs are being eased onto a concrete block base and footing, which the inmates had already constructed. The man topside is the crew chief supervisor, Deputy Joe Brait. Joining two other inmates in the sand below is the construction worker and driver who delivered the pre-poured stairway from his company, Wiggin Precast. He and Brait also did the expert eyeballing required to get the stairs flush.
The work continues and the alignment gets closer. Bruce Mogardo, assistant superintendent for the Falmouth Beach Department, says the job will wind up costing taxpayers virtually nothing because the two major components are being donated. The materials side, which includes the seven sets of concrete stairways, comes compliments of a local contractor. The labor side includes Brait and the six-man inmate crew he brought with him.
Things are now snuggled up just about plumb. Just in time for beach season opening, which isn’t far away. Inmate crews and Falmouth beaches, incidentally, are no strangers to each other – something a check of past work logs would verify. Several years ago, the crews built a handicapped ramp making this same descent from parking lot to sand, only in this case at Old Silver Beach. Two years ago, they built a similar ramp here at Falmouth Heights Beach, also known as “the finish line” for tens of thousands of Falmouth Road Race runners.
Media release and photos furnished by Barnstable Sheriff’s Office
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