The Eagles have landed

Due to the hard work of Ed Marsalis and his family, the bronze eagles are in place on top of the western entrance pillars of St. Anthony School. Ed Marsalis, Knight of Columbus Council #9543, was the project manager and supervised everything from beginning to end. The final stage of the placement took four hours on Saturday March 24. For the installation, a steel template had to be made on which were fastened the eagles with four bolts per eagle. These steel frames where then fastened to the concrete top of the pillar with bolts, which in turn were added further 18 inch bolts and the center of the standing pillars were filled with concrete and the mounted eagles, together with  the concrete slabs were hoisted by an excavator to their position on top of the pillars and the projecting 18 inch bolts inserted into the fresh concrete to make  the eagles a permanent fixture. It was a family affair with the following members participating; Ed Marsalis and his wife Corley, his daughter Paige and her husband Mason Spratlan, together with their children Megan, Marleigh, Matthew and Mason Jr. Mason and his family provided ground work and form assembly for the concrete work and brought the excavator to the site. John Ramsey of Pelahatchie was the equipment operator, concrete man and technical expert who placed the eagles in position after they were assembled on the ground. The excavator was provided by Gamma Enterprises of Madison. The attached photos give insight to the work in progress.