The Plinth's Last Stand

The plinth made a valiant last stand.

Once more, for your information, the “plinth” is the 41-and-a-half-foot brick base of the ill-fated Sinclair plant's smokestack. Historic preservationists tried and failed to save the smokestack from demolition after a long struggle. Experts studying the stack from the safety of a “manbasket” - another great word - said it should come down. It will be razed in phases soon, officials say.

Although the smokestack is days from destruction, some held out hope for saving the sturdy plinth. What they planned to use it for, I'm unsure. But why throw away a perfectly good plinth?

“It's a very interesting piece of craftsmanship,” said City Council member Monica Vernon Tuesday night. She led the lonely late charge to save the plinth.

Alas, there was a language barrier.

“It's the skirt of the smokestack,” said Mayor Ron Corbett.

“It's the plinth,” said Greg Eyerly, the city's flood recovery director, correcting hizzhonor.

“What do you call it, the flint?” said Council member Chuck Swore.

“The plinth,” came a chorus of voices in unison.

“If you've never heard of the word ‘plinth,' before, maybe you're not the one to decide it's not worth saving,” Vernon shot back late in the debate.

“We've almost got the plant demolished,” said Council member Don Karr. “Now we're going to have a concrete smokestack base there?”

Uh ... no. A plinth.

But in the end, the plinth would go plunk.

“I think we made a real legitimate attempt to save the smokestack,” Swore said of a council that once favored preservation before it found out how difficult and expensive it would be. “We moved to get rid of it. Let's get rid of it.”

Chuck “The Colonel” Wieneke agreed, strenuously.

“Let this thing die,” Wieneke said, gaining steam. “Let's let the thing die!”

At that, The Colonel seized a sledgehammer, raised it above his head and yelled, “Let's take it down tonight! Who's with me?” Ok, that didn't happen. But I swear it could have.

Vernon made one more brave attempt to argue for the plinth's “fantastic workmanship,” but the bricks were stacked against her. When Eyerly told the council that the city would eventually have to pay to have the plinth moved to a new home, the skirt-flint-base was done.

Plinth preservation failed 5-4, with Vernon, Pat Shey, Tom Podzimek and Kris Gulick voting yes.

Look on the bright side, we may have lost a plinth, but we expanded our vocabulary.