Fiddlehead Sculpture
Proposed for New Bridge
By M. D. Drysdale

Randolph sculptor Jim Sardonis thinks the new Main Street bridge doesn’t have to be just another bridge.

It should have something special and unique about it, he told the Randolph Selectboard Monday evening.

"It’s an opportunity to make a statement for Randolph, something unique" he said. Being a sculptor, his vision of "something unique" is sculpture that would go on either end of the bridge, to emphasize the gateway into the village. The selectboard seemed interested.

Sardonis has already created several sculptures in stone in and around Randolph, but he is most famous as the artist who built the sculpture "Reverence," better known as the Whales Tails, which stood near the Interstate interchange for many years before being moved to Williston.

The Whales Tails became a sort of symbol for Randolph, Sardonis said. He acknowledged that not everybody in town was enamored with the sculpture and with a grin he showed a photograph of it on the cover of a book called "Weird New England."

But the sculpture is also on the cover of an art history textbook, and while the Whales Tails were here, they did become a sort of symbol the people could remember, he pointed out.

The sculptor’s suggestion for the Main Street bridge is a set of eight-foot-tall graceful bronze fiddleheads, placed on four-foot granite pillars at each of the four corners of the bridge.

"I’ve always thought of the fiddlehead as a great symbol of Vermont," he said. "They are growing, unfolding, full of potential, beginning to be something else."

He demonstrated a small scale model of his proposal. The model was originally created for a sculpture contest for a bridge in Augusta, Me. The idea made the finalist round there but eventually was not chosen.

A sculpture for the bridge would be costly, Sardonis acknowledged. Besides his own work in creating and building them, there would be an larger expense at the foundry, where the bronze figures would be cast. He estimated the set of four displays, including the granite bases, would cost in the vicinity of $100,000.

Some private money would be available for the project, he guessed.

"But you do it once, and then it’s done forever," he reminded the board.

The board was not about to slam the door on the proposal, despite the price tag. Chairman Jim Hutchinson said that two aspects needed investigation "seriously and quickly."

Funding sources would need to be checked out, and the bridge engineers must be approached to see if there’s a place on the bridge for the scultures or if they need separate footings.

"The consensus is, we’ll investigate," he told the sculptor.