Chadar Ochel (Dining Hall/Kitchen) Project - Day Three

Demolition began today on the old laundry building, camping/nature center, radio station and commissary staff quarters. The day started at 5:30 a.m. when the excavator started tearing down the laundry. By 7:30 am, all these buildings were in pieces!

-It is interesting to watch as the buildings are torn down and the materials are hauled away. Even though most of the debris will end up in the landfill, great care is taken to separate items that don't need to end up there. For example, all of the metal is removed so that it can be scrapped. All of the concrete (used for foundations and piers) is also separated and will eventually be ground up and reused. The trees and shrubs that were removed will be shredded and used for mulch or wood chips. The bulldozer operator is quite skilled at separating out these items as they go along.

-All the debris is loaded into dumpsters and then sent to the local landfill. There were 8 dumpsters filled yesterday! Once they start demolishing the chadar ochel, there will likely be many more and even semi-trailers filled with the debris.

-Our kitchen, which is strictly kosher, has five walk-in coolers - dairy, meat, pareve (for produce), a freezer and a garbage cooler (dining room trash is refrigerated to keep out animals and control odors). We sold several of the coolers and yesterday they were taken down and removed from the kitchen. Other items that were sold also were picked up - the stoves, some prep tables, coffee urns, etc.

-Over the 62 seasons that Ramah Wisconsin has been in operation, great care has been taken to build the infrastructure of the camp. There is much "behind the scenes" which is rarely seen by campers and staff. For example, we have several generators used to provide electricity in the event of a power outage. These generators can power our water pumps (our water is pumped from wells that are deep in the ground), the septic system (the city sewer doesn't go this far into the woods), public buildings such as the kitchen and Bet Am, essential functions in camp like the business office and infirmary. The commissary staff building that was torn down housed one of these generators and some of the electric panels controlling different areas around camp. Our electrician continued to work on Wednesday to move the lines for the new chadar ochel.

-The contractor was here yesterday to review a myriad of issues that come up on a daily basis. He coordinates everything with our on-site Maintenance Supervisor, Tom Merkel. We are fortunate to have Tom and his staff work year-round maintaining our site. This week, when they would normally be closing down the camp, they have focused on clearing out the chadar ochel and getting everything ready for the demolition. It's been a busy week for them!

Click here to see the pictures of the demolition from Wednesday.

A video of the laundry room demolition can be seen by clicking here.

Watch the commissary staff quarters being torn down by clicking here.

Benji Bearman
Business Manager