By MIKE CORN

mcorn@dailynews.net

LA CROSSE -- The choreography was well-performed, obvious that the pair had been practicing.

Rather than ballet shoes, however, these dancers were wearing work boots, shuffling their feet to the beat of the welder's arc underneath the sheets of steel they were standing on.

Brothers Fred and Gary Lohrey were fully absorbed in the task at hand, leveling out the steel sheets as co-worker Kurt Moeder lay on the ground welding the metal sheets together.

This wasn't a stage, although it turned into a stage of sorts for a time, but rather a bridge over the sometimes-wet draw in Grass Park, at the south end of La Crosse.

All three are volunteers on this job, a cooperative project bringing together the Rush County Historical Society, La Crosse High School alumni association, the city of La Crosse and the Rush County Economic Development group. The Lohreys are self-employed in the construction business, while Moeder works for the city, and was using a city-owned generator to power the welding job he was performing.

The bridge, a marvel of need, technology and ingenuity, will link the north and south sections of the park, all in time for the July 2010 class reunion of La Crosse High School.

On the north side of the park sits the shelter house/restroom that is the focus of many community events, including the farmers market, which sets up under the canopy of the shelter house.

On the south side is the Rush County Historical Society complex -- the Barbed Wire Museum, the Post Rock Museum, the historical museum and the Nekoma Bank Museum.

In fact, the bridge was designed specifically to be in line with the sidewalk in front of the Barbed Wire Museum, although there are no immediate plans to extend the sidewalk from the museum to the bridge.

The bridge is the brainchild of the alumni group, which has a massive reunion every five years. In La Crosse's case, graduates from all classes attend the reunion.

"It connects the two sides of the park," Fred Lohrey said of the project. He was named the head of the bridge construction project.

In the past, the reunion has put up a bridge of sorts across the draw, using the likes of wooden pallets. They didn't serve the task well, and so the decision was made to make a real bridge.

It's one in a long list of improvements that have been made to the park.

"We planted 12 new trees in the last month and a half," Lohrey said. "We just keep adding to the park."

In addition to the volunteer effort that is going into the making of the bridge, it's also something of a recycling effort.

The bridge railing -- the heart and soul of the bridge -- came from trusses from a building that Mike Pivonka at Flame Engineering donated for the cause. There are four 30-foot sections, making for a 120-foot bridge.

The railings were set on concrete abutments on either side of the draw, set in a manner that allows for slight movement as the steel flexes in the heat and cool of the weather.

Exactly when the bridge will be done is uncertain, other than sometime before the 2010 reunion.

"The big question is what color will it be?" Fred Lohrey said, as he laughed. "Whoever picks the color gets to paint it."