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January/February 2003 IBEW Journal Illinois IBEW members have reason to believe that the nation "will well note and long remember" the work theyre doing on the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Lincolns hometown of Springfield. R. David Burns, Jr., business manager of Local 193 in Springfield, said IBEW members doing the electrical work have a sense of reverence for the nations heritage but also for the future. "Its a feeling that this is going to be here for a long time," Burns said. "And its definitely the kind of job your kids will point to, saying my daddy built that. "
A major effort has been made to avoid making the facility a musty preserve of scholars, but instead a vibrant center of citizen activity worthy of the memory of the 16th President. The design calls for childrens rooms, a community center, conference rooms and a panavision foyer where Burns says visitors "will have the feeling theyre standing between" Lincoln and Sen. Stephen A. Douglas in the seven 1858 debates that launched Lincoln onto the national scene. Consequently, museum contractor Eigizii Electric sent staff to the California production company that will run the exhibits, "to make certain everything is just right," Burns said. The video data installation was done by four IBEW members from Local 21, Downers Grove, Illinois, who work for SBC/Ameritechs Construction Department. Local 21 Business Representative Michael J. Sacco said the four built a 150-station CAT 6 voice and data network for the library. Much of the success of the project is due to close association between the Springfield Building Trades and the citys Capital Development Board. Both buildings were covered byproject labor agreements, with Burns and other building trades representatives meeting monthly to keep wrinkles from developing. From eight to 24 Local 21 members were on the library job at different times, under contract with Mansfield Electric. The complex rises 75 feet above grade and is being financed by $50 million from the state of Illinois, $10 million from the city of Springfield and up to $50 million in federal funds under a grant formula of $1 for every $2 in non-federal funds. A total of $35 million in private contributions is also expected.
The new library, says Lincoln biographer David Herbert Donald, "will permit, for the first time, the vast and unequaled holdings of the Illinois State Historical Library to be fully displayed" at one location. The new library takes great pride in saying that its 46,000 items "outnumber the combined Lincoln collections of the National Park Service, the National Archives and the Smithsonian Institution."
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