BRIDGE IN MOORPARK TO EASE COUPLE'S PAIN.Byline: Gloria Gonzales Daily News Staff Writer The months of lobbying city and company officials muted the pain of losing a child, as did the simple passage of time. ``We didn't want to feel that Joel's death was all for nothing. The point of all our work was to try to make some sense out of it,'' said Laura Burchfield, who along with her husband, Dan, kept the pressure on city and company officials to build a bridge across the Arroyo Simi near where their son drowned one winter afternoon after being swept into the rain-swollen creek. ``It's horrible that it took such a tragedy for the bridge to be built, but that seems to be the way things go sometimes. The stoplight doesn't go up until someone gets hit by a car and dies.'' On Saturday, 18 months after their son's death, the Burchfields will stand by as friends, family, city officials and community leaders remember Joel and dedicate ded·i·cate tr.v. ded·i·cat·ed, ded·i·cat·ing, ded·i·cates 1. To set apart for a deity or for religious purposes; consecrate. 2. the 161-foot Arroyo Vista Community Park Access Bridge. ``My husband's going to speak, and Joel's brother, Ryan, who's 9 now, is also going to say something very short,'' Laura Burchfield said. ``And then Joel's best friend, Stephen Hiserman, is also going to say something. He's 13 now, that's how old Joel would be.'' The city will present the family with a plaque that will be placed on one end of the bridge, as will one from Conejo Valley The Conejo Valley is a region spanning both Southeastern Ventura County and Northwest Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States. It was discovered in 1542 by Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, and eventually became part of the Rancho El Conejo land grant by Masonic Lodge No. 807. The city plaque will be engraved en·grave tr.v. en·graved, en·grav·ing, en·graves 1. To carve, cut, or etch into a material: engraved the champion's name on the trophy. 2. with a poem, while the lodge plaque will bear the inscription inscription, writing on durable material. The art is called epigraphy. Modern inscriptions are made for permanent, monumental record, as on gravestones, cornerstones, and building fronts; they are often decorative and imitative of ancient (usually Roman) methods. ``For all the children who will pass this way, Joel Burchfield.'' The $700,000, 15-foot-wide bridge, which residents have been using since construction work was completed about two weeks ago, had been planned for the arroyo since 1985, but poor communication and cooperation between landowners and government entities slowed progress. Without a bridge, Joel and many other children living in his Mountain Meadows Mountain Meadows, small valley in extreme SW Utah, where in 1857 a party of some 140 emigrants bound for California were massacred. It was a period when friction between Mormons and non-Mormons was acute, with Mormons bitterly resenting the coming of U.S. neighborhood took a short cut to reach Chaparral Middle School Chaparral Middle School could refer to
Joel took just such a shortcut (1) In Windows, a shortcut is an icon that points to a program or data file. Shortcuts can be placed on the desktop or stored in other folders, and double clicking a shortcut is the same as double clicking the original file. on his walk home from Chaparral Middle School on a rainy Wednesday on the last week of January 1996. The route across the concrete-lined section of the arroyo near the end of Liberty Bell Road shaved shave v. shaved, shaved or shav·en , shav·ing, shaves v.tr. 1. a. To remove the beard or other body hair from, with a razor or shaver: about one mile off their trek home. After the death of their son, Dan and Laura Burchfield crusaded for the speedy construction of the bridge. The couple barraged City Council members, executives of Southern California Edison Southern California Edison (or SCE Corp), the largest subsidiary of Edison International (NYSE: EIX), is the primary electricity supply company for much of Southern California. It provides 11 million people with electricity. (the landowners) and the Ventura County Flood Control District with faxes and phone calls about the issue. ``The bridge . . . is due in large part to the commitment of the Burchfield family to seeing the project come through,'' Mayor Pat Hunter said just before construction on the concrete span began. ``They are really the ones responsible. The city owes the Burchfields appreciation for their aggressiveness.'' Hunter said Thursday that the bridge will give residents another north-south link across the arroyo, allowing children and adults safe passage from one side to the other in all weather conditions. ``It connects the neighborhood with shopping and schools and parks on the other side,'' he said. ``I just wished it had happened sooner.'' The dedication ceremony for the Arroyo Vista Community Park Access Bridge will be held at the bridge at 10 a.m. Saturday. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion