Covered bridge preservation program endangered

WASHINGTON - Only six of the 19 original covered bridges in Madison County, Iowa - made famous by the love story “The Bridges of Madison County” - remain.

But nostalgia is a luxury few communities or the federal government can afford these days. President Barack Obama's budget proposal for 2012 would eliminate 55 Department of Transportation programs, including the National Historic Covered Bridge Preservation Program.

The program provides about $8 million a year in grants to repair or rehabilitate a dozen or so covered bridges - an infinitesimal portion of the $3.8 trillion federal budget. Transportation Department officials said communities would still be able to apply for grants for covered bridge projects, but they would have to compete with other highway and bridge projects for funds.

David Wright, president of the National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges, agreed that federal spending needs to be reduced.

“But I regard preserving things which are national treasures - all sorts of things that are national treasures - as an enterprise that one doesn't have to abandon,” Wright said. “Maybe one has to slow it down. Maybe $4 million, not $8 million. I don't know. But not ‘no money.' I don't think we've reached that point.”

But even the county official in charge of the bridges of Madison County says other needs come first.

Todd Hagan, Madison county's engineer and head of the local covered bridge program, said the county needs federal help keeping its roads paved more than it needs covered bridge aid. Paving expenses, he said, may force the county to return some roads to gravel.

Without dedicated federal dollars, prospects for finding money for covered bridges are grim, preservationists said.

Private preservation funds for historic bridges are hard to come by, said Kitty Henderson, executive director of the Historic Bridge Foundation.

The covered bridges' main function now is to look scenic and attract tourists. Eight to 12 tour buses visit Iowa's Madison County each month.

The county received $375,000 through the federal preservation program to install infrared cameras and fire detection equipment on its bridges after arson fires destroyed one bridge and another arson fire nearly destroyed a bridge.