PORT TOWNSEND — City Planner Rick Sepler said if there is one lesson to be learned from the current state of the Tidal Clock and Wave Viewing Gallery, it’s “to do it right the first time.”
The city plans to do it right this time with renovations to the concrete “art” bowl, the gallery and portions of downtown Water and Washington streets.
“If all the vectors align, then after Labor Day next year, we will be walking through a new downtown,” Sepler said.
“It will be a completely reclaimed area.”
Sepler presented the plans for downtown to the audience at the Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce’s luncheon Monday afternoon.
“These projects provide a great opportunity for visitors and residents alike to use portions of the city that have laid dormant for some time,” Sepler said.
The projects include repaving the streets with paving brick, putting utility lines underground, widening sidewalks, creating access for the disabled to Memorial Field, installing more sidewalk furniture and renovating the waterfront behind the police station — where the Tidal Clock currently sits.
“After 20 years, the city has decided to move on,” Sepler said.
“No longer will we have to explain to people what [the Tidal Clock] is.”
The clock — not-so-affectionately known as the Tidal Bowl — was envisioned as a community gathering place when it was created in 1987 with a 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.
The clock was supposed to collect marine life in a series of graduated steps inside the bowl.
Instead it collects debris from plastic bags to telephone-pole-sized logs as waves from Port Townsend Bay crash against the rocks at the entrance.
Now the clock is being demolished and a stage will be installed in its place.
The plaza near the clock will also be renovated.
Open space
Sepler said instead of parked cars and Dumpsters, it would become open space for people to walk along the beach, sit and watch the water or listen to concerts on the new stage.
The Wave Viewing Gallery was originally going to come ashore and off the rotting pilings that it currently rests on.
“That has changed,” Sepler said.
“It will be less expensive to put new pilings in than moving it ashore.”
Sepler said the installation of 16 new pilings would last the gallery well into the future.
The ground-breaking for the projects is planned for later this year.
Sepler said the next step is to finish the permitting process and then send the construction out to bid.
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Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com.
