Soap Lake piecing together lava lamp puzzle

Thorough assessment necessary to see what city has received

SOAP LAKE — So, the lava lamp arrived last week.

Now comes the tough part: Figuring out what's there and what's not.

"There's obvious things that we don't know where they are," said Brent Blake, president and CEO of the Soap Lake Giant Lava Lamp Project, Inc.

Those parts include a lot of nuts and bolts and some transparent plexiglass panels that Blake doesn't think got delivered when the 50-foot tall mechanical lava lamp sign structure, donated to the city of Soap Lake by Target Corporation last year, concluded its trek from New York City's Time Square Feb. 7.

That doesn't mean that Soap Lake won't receive those parts, Blake said, adding that he is talking with the transit company to see if the parts can be located.

"It's not a major concern, and the components, the nuts and bolts, we want all those," he said. "They're kind of important. (They are) a critical part and can be replaced, but at the same time, if we don't have to do that …"

The plexiglass panels that were on the clear middle component of the sign structure maybe have been so fragile that they simply ended up being destroyed in the process of removing it from Time Square, Blake said, but there's no data on that.

"We basically busted our buns to get unloaded to be able to expedite getting the truckers off on another assignment," he said of figuring out what all was delivered last week. "It's going to take a fair amount of time to assess all that, because we don't even know all the parts of the thing to begin with."

Blake said there are blueprints, but they are primarily of the structural steel elements. He does not have drawings and documents of the sign structure's motion components, motors and gears.

So far, Blake said, he has only been to determine some of the things that are obviously not present. The longer the period that they don't turn up, he said, the less likely it is to retrieve them.

"I am confident that they will try to find (what), for whatever reason, didn't get put on and get it to us," he said of the transit company.

The original plan was for five trucks to ship the sign components to Soap Lake, but Blake said that the transit company consolidated on the fourth truck.

"Supposedly (there's) not a fifth truck coming," he said, adding that the components that are obviously not present would not represent a full truck load, calling it a "small delivery issue."

The Soap Lake Giant Lava Lamp Project is looking for volunteers to participate, Blake said, noting that there is an "incredible need" for people with some expertise in electrical, motors, structural steel and welding who would like to help out.