Saturday, January 12, 2013 • Whidbey News-Times
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Park wants stage to go with new amphitheater Deception Pass to host state parks centennial celebration By JESSIE STENSLAND Staff reporter
Deception Pass State Park rangers are looking for local groups and individuals interested in helping to build a stage to go with its rebuilt amphitheater. If possible, they hope to get the project done in time for the summertime celebration of the park system’s centennial. Park Manager Jack Hartt said he was ecstatic by the work done last year by Oak Harbor Boy Scout Nathan Wagner. Wagner and the volunteers he enlisted tore out the aging amphitheater near Cranberry Lake and rebuilt it from scratch last spring. “The new design doubles the capacity, moves people closer and is more user-friendly,” he said. “It was really quite an upgrade.” Wagner, a junior at Oak Harbor High School, explained that he took on the project as an Eagle Scout Project. He’s a member of Troop
Courtesy photo
Oak Harbor teenager Nathan Wagner rebuilt the amphitheater at Deception Pass as an Eagle Scout Project. 4063, sponsored by Oak Harbor LDS 2nd Ward Church. Wagner said he approached the park management about doing a project and was given a list of options. He chose the biggest challenge. “I knew it was going to be a lot of work, but I didn’t realize how much,” he said. The first step, Wagner said, was to come up with a design for the rows
of seating for about 250 people. He went to a family friend, former city engineer Eric Johnston, and asked for his help. Together they came up with the terraced design. Next, he approached a couple of businesses for help with the materials. Frontier Industries of Oak Harbor donated thousands of dollars worth of lumber while Fastenal donated nuts and bolts. Hartt said the Deception Pass
Foundation also contributed to the project. Wagner pulled together volunteers from several Boy Scout groups, his church and the high school. They measured the site, tore out the old amphitheater with a backhoe and then got out the auger. They drilled 128 holes in the soil, put the posts in the holes and secured them with concrete. The bench tops were attached to the
sawed-off posts. In all, it took 738 man-hours to complete the project. Wagner spent six months on the entire project, but the actual construction took just a month. “It went surprisingly fast,” Hartt said. “They were done just in time for the Memorial Day weekend.” Hartt said the amphitheater, which has a view of the famous bridge, is a busy place in the summer. The evening interpretive programs are held there, as is the Arts in the Park musical program and various presentations. On Aug. 3, the governor and other bigwigs from across the state are scheduled to visit the amphitheater for a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the state’s park system. While Deception Pass State Park is just 88 years old, it’s the most popular in the state system and will be the hub for the centennial celebrations. While the new benches will be perfect for the ceremony, the amphitheater needs a stage. Hartt said he’s hoping to find another gogetter like Wagner — or a group of go-getters — willing to take on the project from start to finish. Anyone interested can contact him at 360-675-3767, extension 26.
Mayor wants to look at other firms for design of treatment plant By JESSIE STENSLAND Staff reporter
The Oak Harbor City Council will decide next Tuesday whether or not to continue working with an engineering firm that the mayor doesn’t trust. Among the items on the City Council agenda for the regular meeting is a request to solicit “requests for qualifications” for the design of a new sewage treatment plant,
which is estimated to cost $93.5 million. The meeting at City Hall begins at 6 p.m. The national firm Carollo Engineers was chosen to do the facilities plan and preliminary design work two years ago through a “requests for qualification” process. A panel of city leaders reviewed the qualifications of four firms that applied and overwhelmingly chose Carollo to do the work, which has cost about $1.2 million so far.
Mayor Scott Dudley said the former city engineer had apparently planned to keep working with Carollo through the design phase, but he wanted the council to have the choice of looking at other firms. “I think we should keep our options open,” he said. “I like options.” Still, Dudley said he thinks it’s likely that the council will reject the option and continue with Carollo. He admits that
going through the process of picking a new firm may delay the project by about three months, but he feels it’s worth it. Dudley hasn’t been shy about criticizing Carollo for the work the company has done in helping the city pick a site for the treatment plant. He was upset when it came to light that the “Freund site” next to the RV park had been ruled out of consideration early in the process for
unclear reasons; the mayor and others felt it would have been the least costly option if given due consideration. He argues that the company presented information in a biased manner to encourage the council to pick the “North Crescent Harbor” site that was the choice of the former city engineer, who wanted to put a water reclamation project there. Dudley cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of building
the plant in the vicinity of Windjammer Park. In addition, Dudley said he doesn’t completely trust the cost estimates presented by Carollo, especially for the large Freund site. “No matter where they look, it was $93.5 million,” he said. “It just doesn’t make sense.” An official from Carollo declined to comment, but referred the News-Times to the city engineer.
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