Time ticks away for Port Townsend Tidal Clock

Published 9:57 pm Tuesday, March 3, 2009

PORT TOWNSEND — Time has run out for the Port Townsend Tidal Clock.

The public artwork created in 1987 was supposed to collect marine life in a series of steps inside a giant bowl on the waterfront of this picturesque Olympic Peninsula town, which served as the backdrop for the 1982 film “An Officer and a Gentleman.”

Instead it has collected driftwood and debris.

The City Council voted Monday night to remove the bowl and replace it with a place for public events, the Peninsula Daily News reported.

“This is a very regrettable situation,” council member Mark Welch said.

The art project failed because it was not built as intended, leaving it doomed from the outset because of the nature of government and public process.

“I liken it to if Michelangelo had done the Sistine Chapel in stick figures,” Welch said.

The clock — also known as the Tidal Bowl — was envisioned as a gathering place when it was created with a gift of $200,000 from Ruth Seavey Jackson, a member of a local family with a seafaring tradition who wanted a piece of community art to celebrate the waterfront.

“There were several changes made to the design from the beginning,” Welch said, “the most egregious of which was putting a wall up there. You should have been able to go down and actually touch the water.”

A hearing held before the council vote attracted only a few speakers.

Frank Vane, a member of the arts commission who voted against removal of the clock, asked that the Jackson family’s money be returned.

“Surely the city can pay back the request, and I believe the community will accept this as a fair resolution,” Vane said.

Doug Mason, who has worked on other artistic gifts to the city, said he was concerned about the process.

“It seems to me that it is very disrespectful to the people being memorialized,” Mason said.

Mayor Michelle Sandoval said the proposed changes would be better than the tidal clock, which she described as not much of a memorial.

Town leaders hope to reclaim the space for public events.

“It will be more of a usable space than just a hole,” City Manager David Timmons said.

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Information from: Peninsula Daily News, http://www.peninsuladailynews.com