By KAREN PARKER | County Line Publisher
Norwalk Village Board President Mike Wiedl has been in the headlines lately as the Wilton and Norwalk boards spar over the fate of the joint police commission. But when Wiedl isn’t lobbying for preserving the commission, he has another job that takes him on some unusual adventures.
This week, as production manager of F.A.S.T. (Fiberglass Animals, Shapes and Trademarks) Corp in Sparta, Wiedl will truck an oversized football helmet to Levi Stadium, the new home of the San Francisco 49ers. The stadium opened in July, seats 68,500 and is billed as green and sustainable, with such features as solar energy, recycled materials in construction, use of recycled water and a green roof.
And, of course, what stadium is complete without an oversized football helmet? This fiberglass monster stands 12 feet tall and weighs in at about 350 pounds of fiberglass, while the separate faceguard is made of steel and weighs several times that amount. It was sponsored by Toyota.
It will travel in two pieces, and once it arrives in Santa Clara, Calif., Wiedl will reassemble it and add the finishing touches. The faceguard includes a gate, and plans call for big-screen televisions, presumably to track the 49ers’ every play, to line the helmet’s interior.
The project is a first for F.A.S.T. Corp. The major expense of any project is creating the mold. They didn’t have much to go on, Wiedl said. They were sent a 49ers helmet and told to create a giant one. Now, Wiedl hopes that with a completed project to show, there will be more sales to other NFL and college teams.
The company, located just outside Sparta on County Highway Q and Highway 21, has been growing at a fast clip. In the past 10 years, it has gone from about seven employees to 28 working three shifts. Part of that can be attributed to the economic collapse of 2008, when many single owners of small-scale operations abandoned the business, leaving a clear playing field for F.A.S.T. Corp.
The company’s focus has shifted from supplying water parks, which now do more of their own work in house, to public art, company logos, and just about anything big and eye-catching. In Wisconsin, they are probably best known for the 145-foot-long musky in Hayward, Wis., and locally for Bikin’ Ben in Sparta.
Public art is a burgeoning field. The company recently supplied 13 cows to Thorp, Wis., a town of 1,650. Individual businesses sponsored the cows, and each is unique, with names like Tree City Cow, Flower Cow, Pumpkin Cow, Cardinal Cow, Cheese Cow, Quilted Cow, Cammooflage Cow, Intellectual Cow, Aquatic Cow, Polish Cow, Yellowstone Trail Cow, and a Patriotic Cow. The town ordered 13 more recently, Wiedl said.
Perhaps one of the most “by golly” projects stood outside the shed housing the helmet. The 20-foot-tall Dalmatian is bound for Shreveport, La. Each of its 254 spots is sponsored by a business or individual and will light up. The owner of the spot will be able to control the flashing of the light from his or her home computer.
What will they think of next?