Building Joel’s Bridge : Moorpark Will Start Span Over Perilous Arroyo

Nearly one year after Joel Burchfield disappeared into the Arroyo Simi, the community that mourned his death will break ground today for a bridge that could have saved his life.

Joel’s family and friends will join Moorpark city leaders this morning at a ceremony celebrating the start of construction of a pedestrian bridge over the stream. The ceremony will be held near the end of Liberty Bell Road--the spot where authorities believe Joel waded into the arroyo on his way home from school and was swept to his death by the water, racing after a winter storm.

His body was found a day later seven miles downstream.

Joel’s father, Dan Burchfield, said Friday that he would use the occasion to thank neighbors for helping his family survive the ordeal. He also planned to read a poem he had written, titled “The Bridge Builder” and dedicated to the son he lost last Jan. 31.

“It seems like yesterday in one way, and then it seems like we’ve gone through so much,” he said.

The same could be said of efforts to build the bridge, a project city leaders have pursued for years. Last winter, as Moorpark residents reeled from Joel’s death, City Council members pledged to have the bridge ready by the next rainy season.

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But the process proved far more arduous than council members expected. The land needed for the bridge’s southern landing belongs to Southern California Edison, and negotiations between the city and company soon stalled. The company had plans for developing its property along the stream and wanted complete access to the land through Arroyo Vista Community Park road, which is owned by the city and closed at night.

City officials insisted that the two issues be kept separate. Talks stood still for months.

The project’s slow pace alarmed the Burchfields and their friends, who knew that children were still crossing the stream at Liberty Bell as a shortcut to and from school. The Burchfields began attending every City Council meeting, sometimes filling the council chambers with children who had known Joel and who tearfully asked the council why the bridge hadn’t been built. To keep pressure on Edison, the group began writing company officials, imploring them to move forward.

The pressure worked. Edison officials dropped demands that the bridge and the park road be discussed together. With the company’s cooperation, the city gained access to the land Jan. 1. Excavation for the bridge abutments is expected to begin Monday, said Dan Gerstenberger, owner of the company that will build the $500,000 bridge.

Rob Jacalone, a friend of the Burchfields who repeatedly pushed council members for action, said that he had no idea the project would face so many delays during the year.

“When Dan and I got back into the middle of this [last fall], we were kind of in awe that it had taken so long,” he said.

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Today’s ceremony will reunite many who were touched by Joel’s death.

Ventura County Sheriff’s Department search and rescue personnel who hunted for Joel after his disappearance will attend, as will Mayor Pat Hunter and other Moorpark officials.

The volunteers who have stood guard over the arroyo during recent rainy days, warning children not to cross, will watch the beginning of a project that will render their services obsolete by next winter.

The ceremony won’t be the last, however. Dan Burchfield said he has planned a service Friday at Holy Cross Church to give Joel’s family and friends a chance to remember him. That is something Dan and his wife Laura do every day.

“I’ve learned so much in the last year, so much I didn’t want to learn,” he said. “But you raise a kid, and now it’s turned around, and it’s like he’s teaching me.”