Ready to fight a fire!

Report and photos by Dennis Casebier

The drywallers were here through some time today. Phil informs me they didn't quite finish and they plan to come back tomorrow.

The hydrant for the Library fire protection system was completed before noon today and water flowed! Phil Motz came over the FRS announcing that the two 5,000 gallon tanks were approaching "full." He called a gathering at the hydrant at 6:15 PM for anyone interested.

There was a ceremonial opening of the valve with the tanks pretty much full to see how far the hydrant would fling water -- proving once again we'll grasp most any opportunity to have a celebration out here! It threw water seven feet from the hydrant under the force of gravity alone.

Gus and Stella Lind, Kristy and Phil Motz, and Mark Wire wrestled the water project to completion this morning. Congratulations and thanks to all who helped with this over the past several weeks.

Stairway to second floor finished

Report and photo by Dennis Casebier

General Contractor Cordova with two men spent the day here. They were taking care of some odds and ends. The most significant task was to finish off the staircase on the steps to the second floor of the Depot. They did that and it looks very nice.

Also today Phil Motz and Gus and Stella Lind strung wire to some ceiling fan positions in the new building that had not been on the original plans and hence had not been put in place.

Perhaps most importantly, we finalized the plans today for that portion of the water system that will provide water for fire fighting around the new building. Now it will be only a matter of several days and we'll have that system in.

Ready to go

Report by Dennis Casebier
Photos by Dennis Casebier and Roger Mitchell

Today, the "A" Team, consisting of Phil Motz (in charge), Gail Andress, Gus & Stella Lind, and Morris Swain assembled on the west side of the Library/Depot with all the materials in hand to install the septic system that will support the new facility.

At the controls of the Jack & June Greening Tractor, Gail Andress did the digging, with shovel accompaniment provided by the Linds and Morris Swain.

With the big hole dug, Gail lowered the new 1,000 gallon septic tank into the hole.

Meanwhile, the crew had the sewer line ready to connect from the building.

Gail then dug the ditch for the 50-foot leach line and dumped the required amount of leach rock in the bottom. The leach line was laid on the rock and more rock placed on top of that -- according to code.

The job will be finished tomorrow by laying newspaper on top of the rock on top of the leach line. Then the whole thing will be covered with dirt.

While the leach line was being laid the new septic tank was filled with water. Next thing you know, we'll be almost "ready to go," so to speak.

Tanks, a lot

Report and photos by Dennis Casebier

We are experiencing beautiful weather. Our high temperature today was over 80 degrees with only a breeze. Things have been pretty quiet around the construction site for the past several days, until today.

Rudy of C & R Tanks of Tulare, CA arrived at about 10:00 AM with our truck load of tanks. We led him in through the service entrance and up to the job site. He nosed his big rig out towards the Stotts Stamp Mill gate and then backed in along side the pad constructed by Gail Andress where the two 5,000 gallon tanks are to go.


The straps were removed from the three round tanks, they were rolled off, shifted into position, and set down. The whole process took no more than 30 minutes. We positioned the big tanks so their fill holes and drains line up with about six feet between them. This will facilitate getting them all hooked up to the water system.


For the fourth tank, the 1,000 gallon septic tank, a different procedure was used. Gus and Morris put straps around the tank then lifted it off the truck with the Greening Tractor. The tank was then moved over near the spot where it is to be buried.


The total delivery was of two 5,000 gallon water tanks for fire fighting purposes, one 2,500 gallon tank for potable water, and one 1,000 gallon sepic tank.

Stairway to second floor built

Report by Dennis Casebier
Photos by Chris Ervin

There was a lot of rain in the East Mojave today. It rained off and on here in Goffs all day but it was not particularly heavy. Searchlight, on the other hand, experienced heavy rain more than once today and then heavy fog late in the day.

In spite of the bad weather much was accomplished on the Library/Depot project. General Contractor Dan Cordova and two of his crew showed up early in the morning and spent the day building the stairs to the second floor of the depot. For the first time there's a convenient way to reach that space. Before you had to use a ladder.

A crew consisting of Gail Andress, Gus and Stella Lind, and even myself through part of the day, laid a 2" water line all along the west side of the Library/Depot. That included digging the ditch (that's Gail's specialty using the backhoe), laying the pipe, and getting it glued together. Gail then covered the ditch and smoothed it out.

It was a long working day under adverse weather conditions, but the job is done. That finishes most of what we can do in the way of laying pipes now until the water tanks are delivered and put in place.

MDHCA Director Russ Kaldenberg spent a good part of the day here today. He'd been following construction progress on this blog, but today was the first he'd actually seen it. He got here just in time to be able to access the second story of the Depot with the new stairs.

The electrician Fred Compton was here today. He brought a load of electrical supplies and is due back tomorrow.

It is cold and wet here in Goffs tonight.

Outside painting finished

Report by Dennis Casebier
Photos by Chris Ervin

This was quite a day. As previously reported, the Case backhoe tractor was down due to the failure of a seal in a hydraulic piston. Gail Andress got up early this morning so as to be at the Case tractor parts place in Las Vegas when they opened at 6:00 AM. He bought the necessary part and then high-tailed it for Goffs.

Gail arrived here at 7:30 AM and then he, Gus and Stella Lind, and Morris Swain worked for four hours to get the piston repaired. And, lo and behold, it worked just fine! (Gail said he used to make repairs like this all the time, but he hadn't done one in 40 years!).

The crew was back out there right after lunch. They dug a trench along on the west side of the building adjacent to where the stairs will be, laid the water pipe, connected a pipe to the input to the new building, and got it all covered back up again. It was getting dark by the time the job was finished. It was necessary to get that stretch of pipe laid because Mr. Cordova plans to work at that spot tomorrow to build the stairs.

The plumber was here today running a line into the attic for humidifiers. He made other adjustments to the water system.

The painters finished with outside painting today. They finished all the yellow and green.

Mr. Cordova thinks the roofers will come out soon to get the tar paper on the roof to make it water proof. He will call early tomorrow morning to get a weather check before sending the roofer out.

The weather today was pretty good. Not especially cold early-on, but by late afternoon there was a stiff breeze out of the west and it was colder.

Spirits are high at Goffs as this beautiful new building comes into focus. A lot of good work was done at Goffs by a lot of good people today.

Slab poured and lumber delivered

Report and photos by Dennis Casebier

Today was a very busy day for the Goffs Cultural Center with all activities centering around construction of the new Library/Depot.

Craig Merriam's concrete crew came on to the property at 6:00 AM. The four concrete trucks from Mohave Valley began arriving a little before 7:00 AM, staggered at about fifteen minute intervals. This was in addition to the three trucks that poured the footings Friday.

The five men comprising the concrete crew worked frantically handling that amount of mud. But in not much more than a hour and a half the footprint of the slab was filled in and the four trucks had come and gone.

The crew spent much of the rest of the day finishing it off. The result is a really fine-looking slab upon which the Library/Depot will be based.

At mid-afternoon, a huge lumber delivery truck arrived with a heavy load from Palm Springs. The contractors had all left. They had indicated to us where they'd like the lumber placed, so it fell to the Goffs crew to direct the placement of the lumber and assist the driver in the actual unloading.

That required nearly three hours - it was getting dark and a cold breeze had come up before that work was done.

So now there's a massive assortment of lumber out there ready to be made into a building and we understand the contractor will be back tomorrow morning and begin nailing boards together! This is pretty exciting stuff for us MDHCA members at Goffs.

For our part, the following people were present and helping out as they could throughout the day: Gus and Stella Lind, Ron Shepard, John Harrington, Hugh & Carol Brown, Morris & Judy Swain, Jan Sears, Jerry Sears, and Dennis & Jo Ann Casebier.