The bad news is that repairs won't be completed until October, 2008. The good news, however, is that the nine foot wide driving lanes to which traffic on the Highway 18 bridges between Wisconsin and Iowa is currently restricted will be widened to 12 feet in a little over a month.

Currently, both structures are undergoing concrete deck repair to fix any unsound concrete. This will be followed by an epoxy overlay on both decks to seal the decks and provide a non-slip surface for vehicle safety. Driving lanes are restricted to 9 feet during this time. This should be completed by Nov. 12 of this year.

In the period between Nov. 12 and April 2008, the bridges will undergo shelf plate retrofit repair, ultrasonic impact treatment and magnetic particle testing, all of which are used to locate and repair cracks in the steel. Some of this has already begun. Areas with identified cracks will then be repaired.

During this same period, there will be electrical lighting, door hatches and railing added to the inside of the arch span to facilitate inspections of the interior. Chain link cables will be placed around the hanger cables of the arch span.

Starting April 21, both structures will be completely blasted in some areas and hand cleaned in other areas. Once they have been blasted and hand cleaned they will be repainted with three coats of paint. While the arch span is being repainted, traffic will again be restricted to nine foot lanes.

Crews will be working six days a week to complete the project. They cannot, however, work when it is raining.

While unable to receive FEMA assistance Bagley residents have recently received word that eligible residents in Bagley and adjacent townships will be able to draw from a $401,500 community development block grant for damages resulting from the July flood.

The grant, submitted through Grant County, is to assist income-eligible households to cover certain flood damage costs in renovation projects such as water heaters and basement repairs. "It will also," said Dale Klemme, Director of Community Development Alternatives, "provide some degree of assistance to homeowners who lost homes in the flood." Klemme said his office had been receiving questions about the grant, but he had not yet received any official paperwork.

Auditions will be held Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 2, for the movie that will begin filming in McGregor this week.

According to casting director Ann Wilkinson, auditions will be held for 20 speaking roles and 50-60 extras. The auditions will be held Tuesday from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. at 158 1/2 Main St. on the second floor„the former location of Stoehr Studio Photography.

Wilkinson said that people interested in trying for a role do not have to have previous acting experience.

"We want real Iowa people to play real Iowa people," Wilkinson said.

The plot of the movie, entitled "Duck Farm No. 13," follows two small town teenage girls through a day as they work together at an ice cream stand with their boss, a middle-aged woman. All three struggle with issues of love and acceptance in this funny, poignant, coming-of-age story. The movie will be suitable for most audiences and is expected to get a PG 13 rating.

Wilkinson said that there will be roles for a variety of ages, from older adults down to children. Speaking roles are paid according to Screen Actor's Guild rates, roles for extras are unpaid.

Despite the tragedies which have occurred in his life over the past two years, Wes Morse is an optimistic man. Nevertheless, even he feels that Bagley, ravaged by a July 18 flood, has been treated like a poor relative at a party, passed by while others get the attention.

Because the damage caused by the July 18 flood was not great enough to qualify for federal disaster assistance, Bagley residents have not had the same opportunity to receive help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as have victims of the more recent August floods.

While their neighbors in Grant and Crawford counties, because of the scope of damage from that flood, are now receiving FEMA help, Bagley residents have, up until now, been coming away empty-handed (a $400,000 grant for the community was recently announced). Morse doesn't begrudge other communities the help; he just wishes Bagley had shared in it.

Morse lived in one of the eight homes destroyed by the Bagley flood. He was working the overnight shift at Wal-Mart in Prairie du Chien the night of the flood, and received a call from a neighbor about 1:30 a.m. telling him the area was flooding, and that he didn't know if Morse's two dogs, a chocolate lab and a golden retriever, were safe in the house.

Morse started for home immediately, but had to maneuver carefully around three spots on County Road B where the bank had washed out.

By the time he arrived, there was close to four feet of water in the street. He parked his car on a high spot, threw his cell phone in the trunk, and grabbed a life jacket. The water had already pushed the front porch away from the door, and he was wading in chest deep water.

Morse said when he got into the house he could hear appliances shorting out, but there was no sound from the dogs. "I was sure they'd been electrocuted,
he said, "but all of a sudden they came running." He took the dogs to a nearby farm and locked them in the barn where they could stay dry. "Then, he said, "I stood in the rain and watched." By the time the flood was over, his house was a loss. It had shifted off its foundation and the damages exceeded the cost of the property.

Morse had lost his wife, Laura, to lung cancer Sept. 27, 2005. "About six months after that, I thought now all I have left is the dogs and my house and car. The night of the flood I realized I was now down to the car and the dogs." When Laura's cancer was diagnosed neither had been employed long enough to qualify for medical insurance, and Morse had to file bankruptcy following her illness and death.

"I knew there would come a time when the things that Laura and I bought together would no longer be usable. I just didn't realize it would happen overnight." Morse tries to be philosophical about it, he tells of sorting out what was left after the flood, and "the last videotape I was able to shoot of Laura and me trapshooting„that was gone."

A man of faith, Morse firmly believes that "God never gives you more than you can handle." However, he adds with a laugh, "sometimes I think he has me confused with someone else."

For the first few days after the flood, Morse moved in with some good friends, Dan and Mary Martin, but has now moved to the Valley Apartments in Bagley. "If I can get any kind of government money, I'll rebuild here," Morse said, "otherwise, I'll have to move back to Illinois and live with my daughter." Morse has two grown children, Amanda, who lives in Beloit, Wis., and Jennifer in Roscoe, Ill. who is caring for his dogs.

Morse can't help feeling a little angry. The flood, he believes, should never have happened. The railroad bridge, he says, wasn't cleaned out enough for water to go through, and a logger had left debris in a drainage area coming off the bluffs. The water, he says, bypassed the debris and poured into Bagley.

Although Mores has lived in the area for only a few years, he feels he belongs. "It's just a great community. I could have lived there for a hundred years and not be able to pay back what they've done for me," he said. He also has praise for Wal-Mart. They stood behind him and Laura, who was also working there when she became ill, through her illness and death. "We'd just moved here from Beloit about a year before," he explained, "and they were like family."

A chaplain and assistant training officer for the Bagley Fire Department, Morse started writing stories after his wife died. When Bagley lost a firefighter, the chief hung the man's hat on the wall. Morse wrote a story which was reprinted in the state firefighting magazine. Later, when the Monroe, Wis. fire department lost a member, he sent them a copy of the article. "And you know," he said, "a crew from that department came down to help clean up after the flood."

He wants to write a book about the flood and hopes to donate the proceeds from the sale to help flood victims. He plans to call it "A Village Divided Brought Together by Water." The title, he explained, comes from the fact that River of Lakes was annexed to Bagley only a few years ago, and the only thing that divided the communities was a cornfield and a drainage ditch. When the flood came, the water brought them together.

While Morse works on his book, there is another fundraiser in the works„the Bagley Area Flood Recovery Fundraiser„scheduled for Oct. 13. The theme of the fundraiser is, appropriately, "We will not be forgotten."

The event, a combination auction, pig roast and street dance, is hosted by the Bagley Area Flood Recovery Committee and sponsored by the Main Entrance in Prairie du Chien and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.

Pam Brownlee of Woodman, the event organizer, said she became involved in Bagley through UMCOR, United Methodist Conference on Relief, when she helped with cleanup after the flood. "I was there for two and a half weeks," she said, "and by then it was clear that FEMA was not going to be part of the picture."

Brownlee started thinking of how best to help afterwards, and came up with a plan for an auction and a meal. Then she began talking to other people, and the plan grew. One of those she talked to was Folko Landvogt and his wife Teek, who own the Main Entrance. She had asked if they could locate a band to play some music without charge. "I asked for one and I got six," she said, "plus they're donating one of the pigs." The bands, who will play from 1 to 11 p.m., include Marshall Nesta, Tim and the Floppy Cowboys, Tate and The Usual Suspects, Mississippi, Blue, Bourbon Brothers and Mamas's Worry.

Merwin Auction is donating time and services for the auction, and a man in Dubuque is donating a second pig. First Responders will help with the auction and pig roast. The owner of the Bagley Hotel, Bagley Fire Department and EMS as well as area clergy are also assisting.