PORT TOWNSEND — Tell the stories, laugh at the jokes and use the puns while they last, because come spring time, you will not have the Tidal Clock to kick around any more.
The city is planning to fill in the clock ¬– also known as the Tidal Bowl, the Jackson Bequest and the less affectionate Tidy Bowl ¬– and create a more community friendly location on the waterfront.
“It’s a great public space, and it’s time for the community to retake that place on the water,” said City Planner Rick Sepler.
“We can have concerts there, art shows, performances.
“We would have a great facility to do stuff at right there on the water.”
The plan is to fill in the clock with concrete and create a stage with a circular seating area around it.
“The idea is to fill in the Tidal Clock and place a grade there,” said City Manager David Timmons.
“We will also put in some public amenities to make it more accessible.
“We’re not going overboard, just letting people enjoy going back there.
“It will be more of a usable space than just a hole.”
Just mentioning the name of the Tidal Clock, which sits behind the Port Townsend Police Station next to Pope Marine Park, can bring about a spirited discussion of what it is, what it does and where it came from.
It has mocking titles such as the “Tidy Bowl” and the debris catcher for the bay.
Most locals have a story of watching people discovering the concrete bowl for the first time, staring bewildered at the creation, scratching their heads and walking away.
Usually any discussion about the clock brings about a smile, a laugh or a joke. The problem is that the community largely views the area as a joke.
It was never meant to be like this.
Community art
It was supposed to be a community gathering place created in 1987 with a generous gift of $200,000 from Ruth Seavey Jackson, a member of a Port Townsend family with a seafaring tradition, who wanted a piece of community art created to celebrate the waterfront.
Currently the Tidal Park area, which includes the Wave Viewing Gallery and a section of land behind the police station, is being used as an area for dumpsters and refuse from local businesses.
The clock itself mostly collects wood debris as waves from Port Townsend Bay crash against the rocks at the entrance and trap garbage inside.
Sepler said that can be changed with the new plans.
“Remedying the Tidal Bowl is in everybody’s best interest,” he said.
“This is just the first concept, but our goal would be to have this completed by next spring and try to coordinate it with the new maritime center.”
The first draft of the idea was presented to the Port Townsend Arts Commission on Oct. 12.
Timmons said the commission tentatively approved the concept but wanted to see the city work with the artists who created the Tidal Clock before any mandate was issued by the city to make a change to the area.
Talking with artists
Any plans the city has for the wave gallery and the bowl have to be approved by the artists who created them, by the terms of an agreement forged when they were made.
Timmons said that if the artists ¬ — Chuck Fahlen and Doug Hollis, from the San Francisco Bay area ¬– are unwilling to allow a change, the city would be able to cite safety concerns as a reason to fix the tidal clock.
Both Timmons and Sepler said they don’t believe it will need to go that far.
In May, Sepler talked with the artists, who agreed with the idea of moving the wave gallery inland, and off the rotting pilings it now sits upon.
Now the city will see if they can get the artists to agree to the stage concept.
The project never work as planned, and quickly became a bane to the city rather than a boon to the arts.
The bowl was supposed to act as a tidal clock, with graduated layers around the bowl filling with water and marine life as the tide changed.
But, the bowl collects only debris and wood that crashes up and over the rocks at the entrance.
The wave viewing gallery was supposed to have a special hood on top that played a chime as wind blew through the gaps.
“That never happened,” Sepler said.
The wave viewing gallery itself has been partially shut down for almost a decade, because the pilings holding up the deck are structurally unsound.
Sepler, who has been working on correcting the problems with the Jackson Bequest since 1990, said that the original concept was never completed in accordance with the artists’ vision.
“Compromises were made in the construction,” Sepler said.
“The wave gallery was built on the old ferry dock pilings which were rotting.
“They couldn’t cut into the concrete correctly in places.
“They ran out of money, and didn’t seal the bottom of the tidal bowl.
“That’s pretty much where we are at today.”
Sepler said he doesn’t blame the artists, or the contractors, or anyone in the city.
He sees it as a project that was doomed for several different reasons and now, regardless of how it got to where it is now, it needs to be fixed.
“The bottom line is we’ve been working diligently for over a year to fix this,” Sepler said.
“The best solution we have is moving the wave gallery ashore and filling in the clock.”
Timmons said he agreed that this was the best plan to reclaim the area for the community.
“We have to do something,” Timmons said.
“The current conditions and status quo are unacceptable
“We want to do right by the artists, but we also want to do right by the community.”
Timmons said the history of the clock might be retained by completing some type of etching in the are which explains the story of the Jackson Bequest but no clock like features will remain.
“We can still tell the story of the tidal clock and can preserve the concept,” Timmons said.
“There is no way structurally to rehabilitate it to do what it was intended.
“It’s just in the wrong situation so this is the final direction we are going in.”
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Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com
