Email to Ray Tilton from Bob sent Jan 2nd-
Thanks for reaching out about the plaque. This has been a long and frustrating road and I’m delighted that someone is finally taking an interest in the facts.
Please note that I am the President of the Friends of Eagle Plaza and I am also the Executive Director of the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District. Because I coincidentally hold both roles, there is some confusion that the plaques on the Eagle Plaza are handled by the LEATHER District. These are separate organizations and the LEATHER District is not involved in the plaques.
Here’s the series of events.
42 Heart Plaque “receivers” were installed in the concrete on the Eagle Plaza when the sidewalks were poured. When purchased, a heart plaque is made and screwed into the receiver. There were 21 available receivers when the plaza opened, those 21 had plain wood inserts installed instead of metal hearts. An additional 2 were sold, hearts were ordered by me and installed by 1532 Harrison.
Rachelle contacted me about purchasing a plaque for herself when she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, she asked for a discount which the board approved. Sadly, she passed away before sending payment. I made the executive decision that the Friends of Eagle Plaza would pay for the plaque.
About this time, a plaque was ordered for Daddy Sal, I place the order for 2 plaques, Daddy Sal’s and Rachelle’s. When the plaques arrived, neither would fit, the holes for the screws in the receivers did not line up with the holes in the plaques that were sent. A contractor at the Eagle had a grinder and agreed to modify Daddy Sal’s plaque and we managed to get it to fit. It was the end of the day and he only had time to do one. Daddy Sal’s plaque was installed. The next day, the same contractor wasn’t at the Eagle and an Eagle employee tried to modify Rachelle’s plaque, unfortunately, the plaque was irreparably damaged.
I contacted the manufacturer about a replacement. The maker is on the East Coast so not able to visit the site. The maker and I have sent numerous photos and digital drawings back and forth and the maker has so far, sent me 23 plaques, none of which fit. At some point this fall, it became apparent that of the remaining 18 receivers, the screw holes are in a different place on every single one. It turns out that the receivers were made by computer but the holes were drilled by hand, unfortunately, inconsistently on 19 of the receivers.
I have sent a rubbing of each of the receivers to the maker and requested Rachelle’s plaque denoting a specific location.
I have not gotten a recent reply from the maker so, I can’t estimate when the next plaque might arrive.
Follow up email sent Jan 3rd from Bob-The situation is one of mechanics rather than money. The maker said they will stand by their work and correct the situation.
They initially told me the receivers were made by computer which instantly eliminated from consideration what the actual problem was. So for something like a year and a half or two years we were sending digital files and plaques back and forth which was never going to solve what the actual problem was.
Eventually, I found out that the company we’re working with subcontracted the work and that the holes were made by hand, the latter fact was unknown to the company we’re working with since they subcontracted. That changed everything. Now that we know what the actual problem is, it’s a matter of getting the firm to correctly execute the production so, in my opinion, we’re pretty close to a solution.
While there is a “community” push to find a new vendor, this would involve considerable expense and time. We would have to find a new vendor that does sidewalk plaques in stainless steel, most sidewalk plaques are bronze so this is a rarity. Any new maker, if local, would want to make their own templates for each plaque which would likely cost thousands. With a new manufacturer, new, expensive slip tests both with and without an anti-slip coating would have to be done, taking at least a month or two and new city approvals would have to be obtained which would likely take some time.