What If This Weekend's Weather Wrecks Bangor's 'Umbrella Sky' ?

It's been a couple of months since the "Umbrella Sky" exhibit was installed on Cross St. in Bangor. The bright umbrellas drew quite the crowds following their unveiling, but as soon as the first big storm came through the area, some of the umbrellas were damaged and became entangled or came apart altogether.

Umbrella 12, Zak Hauger

I had heard they were repaired at one point but then noticed some more damage following another storm.

Umbrella Sky 2, Cori Skall

So that got me wondering what kind of challenges caring for an exhibit might create. Is there a maintenance budget? And who's responsible for that and how does the repair work get done?

Umbrella Sky 1, Cori Skall

I reached out to Betsy Lundy, Executive Director of the Downtown Bangor Partnership, (one of the organizations that helped bring the exhibit to Bangor) and she said there was, indeed, a plan in place for all of that, especially in light of this weekend's coming storm.

Umbrella Sky 4, Cori Skall

"The upcoming hurricane will definitely test the integrity of the installation. There is an installation in Miami very near the beach that is up year round and fares well even with their extreme weather."

Umbrella Sky 5, Cori Skall

Lundy said they have a budget specifically for taking care of damages the installation sustains in bad weather.

"We do have ongoing maintenance of the installation. We did have Impact Plan send us replacement umbrellas to complete the reset."

Umbrella Sky 8, Cori Skall

"We did build maintenance into the budget, however during our last reset of the umbrellas, we had our contractor investigate why some of the umbrellas are not faring well and it is because there are a number that do not have the fabric glued properly to the spines of the umbrellas causing them to unhook. When we take them down this Fall, we will be able to get them completely shored up for reinstallation in the Spring."

Umbrella Sky 3, Cori Skall

"Beyond that, next year we will continue with a monthly reset of the installation, if necessary. Hopefully, by replacing the umbrellas that were improperly affixed by the manufacturer, it will be just a check-in and require little servicing."

Umbrella Sky 6, Cori Skall

So regardless of what Tropical Storm Lee may bring us this weekend, it's good to know that if the installation doesn't whether the weather so well, there's already a plan in place that takes into consideration the repair and replacement of anything that gets wrecked.