The Madison County Historic Preservation Association says it’s halfway to its goal of raising more than half-a-million dollars to replace a historic bridge destroyed by arson last April. Brenda Hollingsworth is the association’s program manager. She says the fundraising goal for replacing the Cedar Bridge near Winterset is $550,000.
“We are at, $246,000 dollars," says Hollingsworth. "We have made an application for A Great Places grant that would pay for the remainder of that and we will know by December 15th whether or not we’ve received that grant.”
The Great Places Grant is from the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs. If they don’t get the grant, Hollingsworth says they plan to stay on their proposed timeline of beginning construction in late 2018.
This is the second time the Cedar Bridge has been destroyed. It burned in 2002, and insurance helped fund a replacement, but premium rates increased and the insurance was dropped. Hollingsworth says that will never happen again, and all six covered bridges in Madison county are now insured.
