Monday, June 21, 1999

Newport makes room for World Peace Bell

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'I've just got to see this'

BY SUSAN VELA
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The building, at Fourth and York streets near the Campbell County Courthouse, was imploded at 8 a.m. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

        NEWPORT — One loud explosion blasted through the air, followed by a series of others, before a seven-story office building tilted and crumbled.

        Sunday's implosion of the 72-year-old Campbell Towers, the tallest building in downtown Newport, left a pile of rubble and a mammoth cloud of dust.

        It also cleared the way for the World Peace Bell, which is meant to help put Newport and the rest of Northern Kentucky on the map because of its call for world harmony.

        “It will ring for one common goal of world peace,” said Wayne Carlisle, the Northern Kentucky businessman behind the project, at the groundbreaking after the implosion.

        Sunday's implosion attracted about 6,000 people to downtown Newport, police said. Many posted themselves at Fifth and Columbia streets, two blocks west of Campbell Towers, eating doughnuts, drinking coffee, reading newspapers, sitting in lawn chairs and setting up video cameras.

        The scene resembled those that precede parades except that this crowd focused their eyes upward at a 95-foot-tall building.

        “I've just got to see this,” Rodney Reel of Walton said as he adjusted his video camera on a stand. “I've seen (implosions) on television but never seen one in person.”

        Bill and Joan Schulte of Lakeside Park and 9-year-old grandson David Moser of Fort Wright sat in lawn chairs.

        “He's the reason we're here,” Mrs. Schulte said of the young boy. “He's really into the construction business. We've been trying to scheme how we can get closer.”

        Their anticipation grew as 8 a.m. neared.

        Then sirens blared.

        Detonations crackled through the air.

        And concrete, brick and steel began to tumble. Seventy-two pounds of explosives had been placed in basement columns and on the first, second and fifth floors to trigger their fall.

        “That was cool,” David Moser said.

        Steven Pettigrew, owner of Demolition Dynamics in Franklin, Tenn., also was pleased. His employees spent about a month preparing the building for Sunday's implosion. They spent Saturday putting in the explosives.

        “It was perfect,” Mr. Pettigrew said.

        The rubble was sprayed with water to minimize dust; trucks sprayed streets.

        Rubble should be cleared within a week so construction on Pavilion Tower can begin.

        The Pavilion Tower is part of the Millennium Monument project, which will feature a 1,000-foot tower complete with restaurant, museum and observation tower and the 54-foot pavilion to house the World Peace Bell.

        The bell will be placed on a specially equipped barge for its voyage up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to Newport. It is expected to stop in 11 cities en route.

        An arrival ceremony is anticipated for late August or early September. The bell is to be hung in October.

       

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