Soap Lake names site for lava lamp sign

SOAP LAKE — Lava lamp engineer Dennis Parr stood in the doorway of the Port of Ephrata warehouse and eyed the city of Soap Lake off in the horizon.

"You'll probably be able to see it at night," he said of the lava lamp sign structure gifted to the city by Target Corporation in 2004, which has been lying in pieces on the floor of the warehouse in Ephrata since its arrival in February 2005.

At their last meeting, the Soap Lake City Council named the site where the sign structure will ultimately wind up, pending a survey of the ground by Spokane company Environmental West in coming weeks.

The site is on Canna Street, about half a block south of Main Street, Soap Lake Mayor Wayne Hovde said.

Brent Blake, president and CEO of the Soap Lake Giant Lava Lamp Project, Inc. and originator of the idea for a giant, fully functional lava lamp in Soap Lake, said he believed everything is progressing well with the project, which he added is lucky to have Parr's commitment as a volunteer.

"The city made a decision on site and location contrary to my choice and the choice of our advisory committee, but it's a decision that's been made," Blake said. "Even though I'm disappointed about that decision, I'm supportive of their commitment to proceed and develop this site that they've selected and get lava lamp completed and up this year."

Lava lamp coordinator Al Lundberg said the city council took a "long and deliberate" period of time to select the site. Several possible locations were considered, he said, including one on private property, but the city did not reach an agreement with the owner.

"In the meantime, the contract for a large area the city had been looking at for a long time as a possible park site became available," Lundberg explained. "The city gained a lease for everything on the east half of what we're calling the lot, a big open area. The city owned an in-holding on that, and they said, 'If the lamp is on our property, but the whole purpose is to develop that land as a park, that would fit together.'"

Funding for the project, estimated to cost around $100,000, is still being looked at, Hovde added, but will ultimately come from the private sector. Parr said he is already spending money for work on the lamp.

"To have the lamp up by this summer, we will have to hustle," Lundberg said, noting that several unknowns still exist, including the actual total cost and the ground that would sit beneath the site. "That's why the boring will be done."

Parr explained four or five borings will be taken from the site to test the integrity of its soil.

"We know we're sitting on basalt, but we have to make sure what type of basalt is it," he said. "Is it good enough to set this thing on, because not only is the foundation going to be heavy, but the wind forces are going to be extremely large. That means the foundation's going to be large."

Parr explained that occasionally basalt can be over a cave, a void or clay deposits because it lays down in layers over eons.

"Each test will probably (go down) 30 to 40 feet," he said, "and we'll be taking cores and samples all along the way, probably on 5-foot increments."

Parr said the lamp weighs roughly 52,000 pounds and its base will be elevated 12 to 15 feet off the foundation. The top of the lamp will be about 60 to 70 feet in the air, he said.

"The site where we're going to set it is about, I'd say, probably 15 to 18 feet above street level," he said. "It's one of the high spots in Soap Lake."

Because the sign structure was hung on a building in New York City's Time Square, Lundberg said, it will be bolted onto a "steel superstructure" in a similar manner at the site. Parr said the lamp sign structure will go upon an elevated basalt outcropping.

"We are looking for donations and working with the city," Lundberg said. "Being part of a new park development opens avenues for funding. We're still looking for community donations, but it's not an unreasonable figure to raise, and we see that the site has potential."

Parr said steam and pressure cleaning of the lava lamp sign components were completed before the weather got cold, and bearings for its motion system are in the process of being changed. The selected site is undeveloped, he added, but Curt Carpenter, landscape architect with the City of Moses Lake, has volunteered his time to assist with the site development.