Yes, yes–I know: it’s Eileen, not Irene (the classic 80′s one-hit wonder by Dexys Midnight Runners); but it’s close enough, and they’re almost homophones. Since it was Hurriance Irene we’re going with it.

Either way: when I arrived at work Monday morning this was the view down the driveway:

Pretty typical–mild even–after the storm. Along Barbara Street the landscaping came through pretty much undisturbed. But the basin was full, and even had a couple of ducks resting in its waters:

Out back, there was less grass established, but still very little damage. If anything, the grass  that was planted looked greener; but the forebay was sure full of water (which is what it’s supposed to do):

Enough for the Irene update. On to the progress. The front walk path is done and I took a spin on the golf cart to test it out. Scintillating stuff:

Last week, they put in some additional stormwater piping. Here you can see a shot of the work in progress:

And here’s a shot from the other side after the work had been completed (note the manhole and inlet):

They’ve also been working on finalizing preparation for the building pad. They stepped down the grading from the upper to lower levels, to guard against collapses; and they added a safety fence. You can see it from a distance here (with a broader context of the ampitheater [center] and the athletic field [right]):

And a close-up:

Two other notes: 1) they have started building the boulder walls that act as small dams/spillways for the water heading from the upper basin (along Honeysuckle Ln) down to the main basin. When they’re done I think they’ll be a pretty cool feature:

2) They are also drilling for a final, large blasting. There may be more blasting needed for the water and sewer lines; but this is the last significant field to be drilled. During the video you can also see the bulldozer grading for the parking and the excavator working in the background picking out stones for the boulder dams:

Until next week.