Color the port curious yellow on crane paint

EVERETT -“Safety orange” is a color best reserved for traffic cones and hunters’ vests, not a pair of 175-foot gantry cranes, Port Gardner neighbors agree.

The Port of Everett bought the cranes from the Port of Seattle last summer and placed them at the South Terminal wharf – and between some residents and their view of the bay.

At a recent neighborhood meeting, port officials presented residents with a pamphlet of industrial paint samples, urging them to pick a new color for the cranes. There’s “signal red,” “oxide yellow” or “architectural brown.” And “safety purple” must be tempting.

But residents are looking for a color that says nature, rather than the current color that screams “40-ton electric crane.”

Some chuckled at the port’s crane color swatches, but neighborhood chairman Walter Selden said the cranes are a serious concern. He’ll appoint a committee to decide on the colors, taking care to include those who live on the bluff in view of the cranes, he said.

Selden said one idea is to use two colors – blue on the land side for ocean lookers and green on the ocean side for land lookers. The cranes will be repainted before they begin unloading cargo, said John Mohr, the port’s executive director.

“It’ll be kind of fun to see what they come up with,” Mohr said. “I think the one thing we can all agree on is that we don’t like Port of Seattle orange.”

Resident Debra Marassi doesn’t like the cranes, or the orange. She and her husband, Nicholas, live on Sevenich Drive and were concerned not only about the obstructed view but about traffic, noise and pollution the cranes might bring.

“The cranes may be quiet, but the trucks and the trains (they unload onto) aren’t, and they’ll spew diesel (fumes) up to our house,” she said.

“Of course, our preference would be that they just mysteriously go away, but knowing that’s not going to happen, it would be better to have a color that blends with the water so they’re not quite so intrusive.”