News & Media
September 28, 2010
Community effort bringing Stack back
Last year, not long after Omega Protein picked local Fleeton native and retired Air Force Lt. Col. Monty Deihl to run its menhaden fleet and processing plant here, the new manager and former boat crewman found himself in a skiff out on Cockrell's Creek.
Cruising about on a nice day, Deihl and his wife found themselves passing by the 130-foot, round smokestack on Omega Protein property, the only remnant of the first menhaden plant in a Northern Neck county that once had many.
"We saw the damage lightning had done at the top and bricks that had tumbled down from it," Deihl said. "My wife looked at me and said, 'Monty, if this falls down, it's going to be your fault.'"
This week, thanks to an ongoing Save the Stack grass-roots community effort that Deihl and Omega Protein are playing a big part in, critical repairs and restoration work is finishing up what will keep that from happening.
A crew from Industrial Access in Alpharetta, Ga., has spent the better part of the month on scaffolding, restoring the structure, which was built around 1902.
Deihl, one of more than a dozen locals in a steering committee for the Save the Stack effort, said the work has included replacing damaged brick and mortar, as well as the steel straps that help support the structure.
"They've also installed a stainless-steel cap on top to keep water out," he said, noting that a system is included to handle lightning strikes.
Work on the restoration effort, expected to be finished by the end of this week, doesn't mean the Save the Stack fundraising will stop.
The group set $350,000 as its goal, but decided to start the work even though recent counts showed the total had yet to reach $200,000.
"We knew lightning had struck it twice this summer alone, doing more damage at the top," said Deihl, who was proud to announce Omega's pledge to put $86,000 into the project.
"Even though we were still short of our goal, and even that of the restoration work itself, we decided it was too dangerous to wait," said Deihl, who said a small note was obtained to cover the shortfall. "To wait another season to get this done might have meant there was no stack to save."
Blaine Altaffer, who is heading up the Save the Stack effort and fundraising, said he wants people interested in it to realize one thing.
"Just because we went ahead with the restoration doesn't mean Save the Stack is done," he said.
Altaffer noted that the group is still $100,000 or so from its goal and the funding needed for other work to be done. That includes stabilization of the shoreline around the stack, landscaping near it, the addition of a plaque, signs and more.
The structure, which vented smoke from coal boilers used in the original Morris-Fisher Co. plant, is a symbol of the menhaden industry's start.
Saving it is a special mission for Deihl, who traded a three-hour commute to the the Pentagon and later to a job with IBM in Northern Virginia for a 45-second commute to the Omega plant from his home in Fleeton.
He worked on his father's menhaden boat during the summers between college, then went into the Air Force after college.
His great-grandfather, grandfather, father and three uncles were all captains, his brother is a spotter pilot, his father-in-law is a vessel engineer and his 19-year-old son is a first-year fisherman on one of the boats.
Indeed, on the afternoon when he showed a reporter work progressing on the stack, one of those uncles, Bucky Deihl, cruised by in a skiff to check out the work.
"Because of the five generations of family members in this industry, it gives me a special pride to see this work getting done," said Deihl, who noted that it never would have happened if the whole community hadn't gotten involved.
And, echoing Altaffer, the Omega Protein manager reminded folks that the Save the Stack campaign is a long way from its goal.
"But at least now, we know it won't go down with the next storm," Deihl said. "It's something that will now stand as a reminder of our history for generations to come."