Soap Lake seeks new Lava Lite engineers

Change delays completion of project

SOAP LAKE — Shortly after Mayor Wayne Hovde said work progresses on the Lava Lite sign structure comes word the project is looking for new engineers.

Target Corporation gifted the sign structure to the City of Soap Lake in 2004. The pieces comprising the sign arrived in 2005, and sit in a warehouse on Port of Ephrata property. A ceremony in May toasted the groundbreaking of the site where the structure will stand.

A design team including Dennis Parr, Phil Lust and Curt Carpenter had been working on the site in Soap Lake that would surround the lava lamp sign structure, called the Lava Lite. A May ceremony toasted the groundbreaking of the site.

Hovde said Tuesday morning the city and the design team have reached an impasse on the project, and the city is looking to other engineering firms.

"We had an engineer hired at one time there and had a contract out on it," Hovde said, adding that the written contract was never signed. Hovde said some work was done, but the team "never quite came up with what we had desired from the council committee."

Parr and Carpenter declined to comment.

Hovde said the city and the team have both stopped work on the project.

"We're trying to get all of our work back, and some of the work back that was completed and paid for," he said. "And we've asked for a total accounting, which we have, so we can pay the gentleman for any work that's been done, so that everything gets all paid up current and whatnot."

The city is talking with some new engineering firms, Hovde said.

While the sign structure itself was not impacted, Hovde said the timing was pushed back three months.

"Which is not what we wanted to have, but then those things happen in any public works project," he said.

Hovde refrained from giving a new date or time for the sign structure to go up, saying the city wanted to be sure everything is in order before putting a time out to the public.

"We're just trying to get ourselves so those people that have done work on it get paid for what they've done, and we get what we paid for," he said.

Prior to addressing the design team situation, Hovde and coordinator Al Lundberg said the lamp was progressing.

"We're slowed down here by a couple of months due to some changes that had to be made in the planning, basically what it amounts to," Hovde said Friday morning. "We're still moving forward on fund-raising. It's slower than anticipated, but it's still on track to be up and going."

Hovde hopes some work on the structure's foundation can still be done this fall, and then proceed "fairly rapidly" come spring.

Hovde said there have not been submissions for a permit because the city does not have the required final engineering plans.

"We're disappointed that it hasn't proceeded a little faster than it has, but sometimes these kind of get bogged down and going with a little less speed than we really wanted," he said. "But it's still on track to be there and we're moving forward in that direction."

"We are a little behind for a couple reasons," said Al Lundberg, coordinator of the efforts to put up the Lava Lite. "One is getting all the paperwork and that for the permitting and the final things, and the seasons and things. The second thing is the technical side."

For several months, Lundberg said, the movement has been looking for someone who can provide clear lucite panels to symbolize the glass in a miniature lava lamp, and also provide weather protection for the mechanics of the sign structure. Such panels would be over 25 feet in length, diameters he said are twice as long as anyone makes. The panels would be curved and tapered with edges done to fit together.

"You can find people who could do 10-, 12-footers," he said. "But anything over 20 feet, no. And you have to have the form and the heat table."

The sign's original firm, Atomic Props, gave the movement a bid Lundberg called "Quite expensive. Not outrageous, but it would necessitate a little additional fund-raising." Because that company's plans and materials were originally done 10 years ago, he added, there are other materials and other alternatives the movement is exploring.

Also on a technical front, the master control box for the sign structure — Lundberg called this "the brains" — was left on a parapet at its original site in Time Square in New York City.

"Remember the movement is not only vertical, but the pieces turn," Lundberg said. "More importantly, they turn to miss each other. To add the real realism of the Lava Lite, is the fact the blobs are random and they overlap, etc., so you have the master control that makes them move over at the last second."

The original plan was to take the parts out of the master control box, bring them to Soap Lake and build a new box, Lundberg said. An electrical engineer shot down that plan, noting the parts were built in the original box and the cost of trying to rebuild one would be the same.

A company is putting a new sign at the structure's original location in Time Square. Lundberg said they have agreed to clean the parapet as they put up their new sign.

"Which means, when they do it, all we have to do is have our truck down on the street and a shipping tag to Soap Lake," Lundberg said. "It is important and critical enough that we are waiting for them."

The company, which Lundberg declined to name for the record, is in fabrication of their sign.

"As soon as they're ready to put up their sign, we get our control box," he said.

Lundberg said the group is also refurbishing the existing fiberglass "lava blobs" and creating a new one to replace one bearing the Target symbol.

Those costs would be covered by fund-raising, he added.

"Right now we have enough money to do the foundation, lay out the base of the sign and access to the Lava Lite, and to do the repairs that we planned," he said. "If we had to start over in doing the big, clear pieces or totally rebuild the control box, we would have to go raise a significant amount. But we're in line."

Fund-raising has been slow, Lundberg said. Because of national and international interest, he added, there are plans for a Web site in which people can participate in the movement and have the opportunity to receive a certificate of participation, as well as the opportunity to flip the switch in Soap Lake when the sign structure is dedicated.

With weather conditions and if the control box does not arrive or the manufacturer of the clear panels is not selected, Lundberg forecasts a delay until spring.

"But there will be no reason to go beyond that," he said.

Hovde said it is a priority of the city to have the sign structure erected.