WATERLOO -- The Grout Museum has awarded a contract for construction of its $11 million Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum expansion, and received a $50,000 grant for construction of a stained-glass "contemplative area" inside it.

Cardinal Construction of Waterloo was awarded the construction work for the addition, out of six bidders, Grout executive director Billie Bailey said.

Cardinal's bid "was well within our budget and we're very happy with it," Bailey said.

Specific construction timetables may be known as soon as next month. "After the first of the year, we're going to sit down with Cardinal and work our schedule," Bailey said. Museum officials also will begin meeting with its design and technical consultants to begin working on museum exhibits.

Construction work will begin in 2007 and is anticipated to be completed by the fall of 2008.

The addition, six years in the making and named for Waterloo's five Sullivan brothers who perished together during World War II, will be a series of interactive historic exhibits from various wars in which Iowans have served, from the front lines to the home front, and from the Civil War to Iraq and Afghanistan.

It also will serve as a research archive for Iowa veterans. More than 600 stories from veterans and civilians on the home front have been recorded. An important part of the museum will be a library and archives, a gift of the McKinstry family of Waterloo, which will serve as a valuable research resource for historians, and family and friends of veterans.

Visitors will be greeted at the expanded museum's new main entrance, at West Park Avenue and Washington Street, by a reconstructed bow of the USS Juneau, the ship on which Waterloo's five Sullivan brothers served, and perished, during World War II. Visitors will have a chance to stand on the deck of that reconstructed bow on the museum's second level.

A re-creation of the Sullivan brothers' Waterloo home also will be featured as part of the World War II exhibit area.

Current plans are to reconstruct Civil War-era boxcars used to transport troops; a World War I-era combat trench; a replica World War II-era M-4 Sherman tank and a re-created Navy ship's ward room for the Pacific theater of the war; the front of a Korean War-era jet fighter; a portion of a Vietnam-era Huey helicopter; and a Gulf War-era tent.

Along with the museum exhibits, the Community Foundation of Waterloo/Cedar Falls and Northeast Iowa awarded the museum $50,000 at the foundation's 50th anniversary event this week for construction of the stained-glass contemplative area, similar to a chapel. where museum visitors may pause for some quiet reflection.

The museum will contract with Vietnam veteran and artist Mark Bogenrief of Sutherland to design and build stained glass artwork for the exterior of the Veterans Memorial Room.

This space has been designed and placed in a separate area, removed from the activity and sounds generated in the exhibit galleries. The exhibit design committee feels that stained glass is an appropriate medium to set this space apart and provide the setting and mood required. He has performed work on a similarly themed outdoor memorial in Le Mars.

The present museum is 29,000 square feet. The addition will be 30,000 square feet, more than doubling the museum in size, of which about 13,000 square feet will be available for display space. The museum's existing exhibits will remain in place.

Museum officials are working with city planners on developing a parking plan for the museum. West Park Avenue will be closed at Washington Street during construction, Bailey has said. One proposal being considered is closing Park permanently at Washington to provided a disabled-accessible parking area. She has said city officials are studying that as part of an overview of other possible traffic changes downtown, including some work on the interchange of U.S. Highways 218 and 63.

Funds for the museum project were raised from federal, state and local governments, including Black Hawk County and the city of Waterloo; the R.J. McElroy Trust, the Young Family Foundation and private and corporate donors.

Contact Pat Kinney at (319) 291-1484 or Pat.Kinney@wcfcourier.com.