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Welder turns his craft into art

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Welder Bob Rudy donated several steel fish sculptures to his community, which is using the art to draw attention to the Monongahela River in Fredericktown.

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East Bethlehem Township welder Bob Rudy is shown with a 2-ton steel anchor he crafted to draw attention to his business on Fishpot Road.

Editor’s note: Due to production problems with Tuesday’s edition, this story is being rerun in its entirety.

FREDERICKTOWN – It’s become commonplace to see people stopping their vehicles in Fredericktown to take their photographs with a steel art installation of three large fish beside the Monongahela River.

“You wouldn’t believe how many people stop. It’s like a photo op,” said East Bethlehem Township Secretary Maryann Kubacki, discussing the sculpture created by a local welder.

The statue along Route 88 north is one of several steel fish that have been used to decorate this small town, art that was created and donated to the community by Bob Rudy, owner of Rudy’s Fabricating & Machine at 40 Fishpot Road.

Rudy also created at 10-foot steel anchor weighing 2 tons for a local farm, and then he decided to make another one to decorate his shop located in the former J&L Vesta No. 5 power house.

“A guy said, ‘Can you make me an anchor?’ Then he brought me down an 8-inch sample of what he wanted.”

He said one of his sons programmed the design into a metal cutting machine that created the parts for the anchor, which sold for $5,600.

“Now, a guy in Uniontown wants one,” Rudy said.

Rudy said he doesn’t consider himself an artist. He’s a former Vesta welder and coal miner who lost his job there when the mine closed in 1983.

He said he decided to go into business for himself and ended up creating thousands of steel fabrications that went into building the massive Ronald “Smokey” Bakewell Bridge, which opened in 2012 and takes Mon-Fayette Expressway traffic over the Monongahela River near Brownsville. He also performs welding projects for the longwall coal-mining industry.

The solid brick and concrete building housing his shop was owned by Consol when he purchased it 16 years ago.

“It was scheduled for demolition when I bought it,” he said.

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