This weekend, some folks noticed damage on the newly rebuilt footbride over Ravine Road in Lake Park, including Daniel Osborne, who posted the above photo to the East Side Neighborhood group on Facebook.
"That feeling you get from the first scratch on your brand new car," Osborne posted. "Hopefully this will buff right out."
County Supervisor and co-chair of the County Board's Parks and Culture committee Dr. Sheldon Wasserman explained what happened.
"The damage was caused by a parks contractor testing the surface condition of the bridge," Wasserman said. "It was necessary to pull off the material to ascertain if there is a water source behind the coating."
So, the chipping was not due to an accident or vandalism, but instead was part of the work to complete the project.
"Yes, that is correct," Wasserman added. "The bridge is an ongoing project, and tests and minor construction will continue into spring.
"Things should be good as new by the time the project is completed."
The bridge officially reopened in a ceremony on Nov. 15.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
