Business association moves Santa structures

Moses Lake holiday signs to be repaired

MOSES LAKE - Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

No, Virginia, he isn't up on the roof of the Adventure Park building at the corner of Beech Street and Third Avenue in Moses Lake.

Not anymore, anyway.

Several signs from a former Moses Lake Business Association holiday project depicting Santa Claus were removed by rope from storage atop the building in downtown Moses Lake Wednesday morning and moved to new storage facilities.

Association Executive Director Sally Goodwin said five of eight total rebar structures were removed from the roof of the building. The other three structures were already on a City of Moses Lake lot, where the five pieces joined them.

"They're just like the ones out along Interstate 90," Goodwin said. "They were built to be Santa going down the water slide."

Goodwin, Rich Engelmann, Kurt Oberloh Jr., Tony McCarty, Charles Sailors and Dale Good worked to remove and move the structures.

Designed by Quincy resident Scott Lybbert, the structures were put together by Moses Lake High School students and built to be placed in the Moses Lake Family Aquatic Center water slide for the first few years.

"Then they didn't go there anymore and after a couple years, we put them up here," Goodwin explained. "We had them set up and they were around the building, and they worked. They were lit and they had these sequential lights, so Santa was moving across the top of the building."

The structures have been up on the roof for a number of years, Goodwin said, estimating about 10.

"They haven't been used for quite a few years," Goodwin said. "We just need to get them off of there. (The building's owner) reminded us of them, and we thought, 'Yeah, we need to get them down.'

The structures will be signed and, with a little time and effort, Goodwin said, eventually rehabilitated, refitted and given new lights. Goodwin said there needs to be discussions before making finalized plans.

"I'd like to see them on a dock or something close to the lake, where they look like Santa's going into the lake, and we can play up our water sports," she said.