ARLINGTON – Maybe you remember your grandfather telling you where the old gas stations used to be.

Such stories aren’t useless trivia.

Old-timers’ recollections, combined with high-tech radar, will save Arlington businesses some holiday heartburn this year.

Ground-penetrating radar confirmed memories of long-forgotten gas stations downtown, discovering as many as 14 underground tanks along several blocks of Olympic Avenue.

Six of those sites are definitely old gasoline tanks, said Paul Ellis, Arlington’s capital projects manager. The other eight probably are, but consultants are still studying the radar images, Ellis said.

A $6 million project to rebuild Arlington’s main street had been scheduled to be finished by fall.

“The goal of the (Arlington City) Council was to have this all done before the Christmas shopping schedule so that we didn’t disrupt the economic viability of the downtown businesses,” Ellis said.

But that was when the city anticipated finding only a few old gas tanks, said Allen Johnson, city administrator.

Now, the project has been put off until 2007. The tanks will be removed and the soil cleaned up this summer, Ellis said.

Rich Senff, owner of Action Sports on Olympic Avenue, appreciated the city’s decision to delay the project, even though he was disappointed.

“It’s unfortunate,” he said. “We can’t move forward until we get them out of the way, but if the tanks are going to delay work, at least they’re thinking about the long-term effects.”

One other benefit will be more time to plan the reconstruction of Olympic Avenue, Johnson said.

“The council, I think, was getting pretty nervous. We had too many deadlines coming up,” Johnson said. “The general feeling is one of relief. It gives us a little more breathing room.”

The city found the old tanks by talking with members of the Stillaguamish Valley Pioneer Association. Several sites of old gas stations, repair shops and car dealerships were identified.

“All the information we got from them was dead-on accurate,” Ellis said.

City officials found other old tank sites by researching fire insurance maps from 1905 to the 1940s. They also looked up old phone directories for possible sites, Ellis said.

All that research found 14 likely sites. Radar was then brought in and found tank-shaped objects at each one, Ellis said.

Next, consultants will test the soil around the tanks to see if any of them have leaked. If so, that soil will have to be removed, he said.

If any of the tanks are clean and empty, they could be removed or filled with concrete, Ellis said. It’s unclear how deep they are buried, but in the past such tanks were often covered with 1 or 2 feet of dirt, he said.

It’s too early to tell how much extra the cleanup might cost, Ellis said.

Even so, it’s cheaper than finding out later, he said.

“I think the whole thing is an upside, because we found this out before we got into construction,” Ellis said.

Reporter Scott Morris: 425-339-3292 or smorris@ heraldnet.com.