Sounds like a nice job!

(Sourced from the Wisconsin State Journal)

SAUK CITY - It was a historic moment when the first spade of soil was turned in 1942 and workers started building the Badger Army Ammunition Plant on the land between the Wisconsin River and the green bluffs of the Baraboo Range.

[font=Verdana]Now, a fellow named Mike Sitton is helping to make history again at the Badger plant - by tearing it down.[/font]

[font=Verdana]Demolition of the storied ammunition plant, where workers manufactured explosives from World War II through the Vietnam War, is well under way. Though the landscape still appears cluttered with hundreds of dilapidated structures, there are places where the buildings are gone and the grass is growing again.[/font]

[font=Verdana]The plant is being stripped to its bones with some 800 buildings being dismantled - very carefully because the wood is impregnated with layers of gunpowder and other explosives.[/font]

[font=Verdana]After being mothballed in 1975 and then formally abandoned by the U.S. Army in 1998, the future of the 7,354- acre site has been the subject over the past several years of an intense community discussion.[/font]

[font=Verdana]Eventually, a committee formed to decide the plant's fate approved a reuse plan that called for returning most of the land to its natural state to be managed for conservation, recreation and agriculture.[/font]

[font=Verdana]The land would be divided between three owners - the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the Dairy Forage Research Center on 2,000 acres at the site, the Ho-Chunk Nation, and the state Department of Natural Resources.[/font]

[font=Verdana]While the federal government has turned over the 2,000 acres to the USDA, transfer of the rest of the property awaits the result of lengthy and contentious negotiations between the Ho-Chunk and the DNR over who gets what land.[/font]

[font=Verdana]Those talks are stalled while the government conducts a survey of cultural sites at the plant, according to Mike Degen, who is representing the DNR in the negotiations.[/font]

[font=Verdana]The lack of a resolution has frustrated many who have worked on assuring that the plant is returned to prairie and oak savanna and farm fields, especially members of the Sauk Prairie Conservation Alliance, a volunteer group that spearheaded the battle for restoration.[/font]

[font=Verdana]But members of the group say they take heart from seeing the plant beginning to come down.[/font]

[font=Verdana]"It's symbolic," said Joan Fordham, a member of the alliance. "I think it brings visibility to all that's been done."[/font]

[font=Verdana]The progress is especially meaningful for Fordham. Her late husband, Dave, was plant manager for more than 30 years, guiding environmental cleanup and playing a key role in early discussions to restore the plant. He died in 2003 and one of the first restored prairies at Badger is now named for him.[/font]

[font=Verdana]Sitton, who is overseeing the demolition at the plant, is well aware of the significance of his task.[/font]

[font=Verdana]"I have a part in bringing this place back to the way it was before 1942," Sitton said. "That's my mission."[/font]

[font=Verdana]If it seems a daunting job, it is.[/font]

[font=Verdana]All told, there are 1,688 buildings on the Badger property, ranging from the cavernous brick power plant with its row of smokestacks to the dozens of smaller wooden structures where workers carefully mixed explosives. The U.S. Army is dismantling about 800 of the buildings, all of which have been contaminated with explosives.[/font]

[font=Verdana]The DNR recently cited one demolition crew at the plant for not properly disposing of asbestos-tainted material. The 140 workers who are taking apart the buildings have to wear protective suits and take showers at the end of the day to wash off any dangerous residue.[/font]

[font=Verdana]The U.S. Army has budgeted $60 million for tearing down the plant. Sitton is helping offset some of that cost by recycling as many materials as possible.[/font]

[font=Verdana]A huge furnace - big enough to drive a truck into, according to Sitton, and capable of generating 450-degree heat - is being used to burn off gunpowder residue from steel that will be recycled. Pulverized concrete from the plant will be used to rebuild nearby Highway 78.[/font]

[font=Verdana]Sitton is even selling some items - old chemistry books and light fixtures - on e-Bay.[/font]

[font=Verdana]It will probably take five years or so, Sitton said, to take apart the 800 contaminated buildings. Future landowners will be responsible for disposing of the remaining structures.[/font]

[font=Verdana]So, piece-by-piece, the historic Badger plant is coming down. And just as construction of the plant was considered progress so many years ago, its demolition is looked upon by many, including Sitton, as progress toward a new future.[/font]

[font=Verdana]"Every step," Sitton said, "is a step forward."[/font]