By Clyde A. Small II Columbia Basin Herald staff writer January 20, 2003

They're testing the proverb: "Many hands make light work." 
And in this case, the light in question is a giant lava lamp.

Members of about a dozen different civic groups, organizations and agencies, meeting as concerned citizens, talked for three hours Saturday morning about ways to "polish up" the jewel that is the town of Soap Lake. Highlighting the day's topics were the internationally publicized "giant lava lamp," progress on the new Masquers Theatre building, a garden-club commissioned sculpture and the status of a world-class destination spa resort.

Architect Brent Blake, the Soap Lake man credited with dreaming up the idea of installing a 60-plus-foot-tall lava lamp in town to attract tourists, moderated the discussion. The volunteers first met Nov. 23, 2002. "Our key purpose here is tourism and economic development," he said. "We all need to pool together to accomplish these goals." For all their projects and programs, the issue was funding.

Grant Count Economic Development Council Executive Director Terry Brewer was on hand to explain the importance of the group submitting a WA-CERT (Washington Community Economic Revitalization Team) application as a means of putting projects before the state's Office of Trade and Economic Development. "WA-CERT brings no money to the table," he said, however, it does put plans on a priority list that is viewed by many different entities and agencies having access to grants and loans.

The City of Soap Lake is already on the WA-CERT list for a sewer upgrade but Brewer recommended submission of a new application specifically designed for "enhancing tourism."
Brewer will work with city officials to complete the new application for the council's consideration at its next meeting. The Grant County WA-CERT team, a nine-member panel, prioritizes submitted applications and forwards the list to county commissioners who then send it to the state.

"Tourism is probably the city's future," Blake said. 

Councilman Maynard Hagen, attending the Saturday meeting as a concerned citizen, suggested lumping funding needs for city sewer plant rebuilding, tourism enhancements and economic development together and asking for help from Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash..
"The infrastructure is going to be vital for anything we do," he said. 

"I think she is a resource we should approach."

Art Williss, vice chair of the city park board, said making the city's parks, especially East Beach that sits between the lake and Highway 17, attractive and appealing is a good way to lure visitors. "If we get them to stop there, they're going to stay awhile," he said. Williss wants to change the name of Elder or Block 30 Park to Veterans Memorial Park and dedicate it on Memorial Day this year.

"Parks are a handshake and open door to Soap Lake," he added.

Perhaps the biggest asset of the town, and oftentimes the most overlooked, is the lake itself and its mineral waters and mud, some said. Fredrick Slough of the chamber of commerce introduced a special guest he had invited to the meeting, Jaroslava Stovickova, owner of Seattle's Jaroslava Day Spa. She visited Soap Lake about seven years ago.

"I just love this place," Stovickova said, noting under Soap Lake's somewhat depressed exterior its potential to be a "beautiful, glowing town." "I'm nuts about it."

She believes the uniqueness of the mineral water and properties of the lake's rich, black mud would attract people from all over the world. In Europe, many thriving towns have mineral springs, quite popular with health-conscious individuals. Europeans routinely check in to spas yearly for two to three weeks.

"They leave the spas much more healthier, and then come back," Stovickova said. "Why not here?"

Indeed, that was the thinking of administrators of McKay Healthcare and land developer Roger Beck a few years ago when they signed on to a joint venture to study building a 97-acre bio-spa, hotel and village on land located outside of Soap Lake but just a few miles away on its north shore, Slough said.

"We really got quite a ways into this," he said. Unfortunately, Beck died unexpectedly last July.

Slough gave examples of how civic leaders in Leavenworth, Wash. and developers of the Skamania Lodge created popular destination resorts that brought prosperity to their areas and believes a wellness bio-spa would do the same for Soap Lake.
Brewer was also involved with the spa project.

"It would do a world of good not only for tourism, but the economy in general," he said.
John Glassco reported on progress at the downtown Masquers Theatre building. It is expected to be ready for shows as a "basically occupiable building" by late spring.

"We should have performances this summer," he said. The funds for the structure have been raised entirely from private donors and $125,000 is still needed for a BOB. Seats, sound and light systems and final finishes will cost another $150,000 to $200,000, Glassco said.

Dorothy Downing of the Soap Lake Garden Club announced with "extreme excitement" the bronze, one-and-a-half life size sculpture entitled "Calling the Healing Waters" will be soon complete.

"It's no longer pie in the sky. It's going to be here," she said.

A site must now be found and about $17,500 raised for the final payment for the art piece. Volunteers and donors are needed, she said.

"It takes a whole community to make a project a success," Downing said.
Finally Blake reported on happenings with the giant lava lamp, a project that has the blessing of the city council.

"The city is behind it," Councilman Wayne Hovde said, but added there are no funds in the budget available for the giant lamp. Though many of the news reports about the lava lamp are tongue-in-cheek, he said, it's still free advertising for the town.

"They spell Soap Lake right and they don't say bad things about it," Hovde said.
"The city council is endorsing the lava lamp," Councilwoman Leslie Slough added. "I hope it does become a reality."

If nothing else, Blake said, the big fanciful lamp has created huge publicity for it and the city of Soap Lake.

A Web site about the city and the lamp established about nine months ago, up until a few weeks ago had averaged 150-200 visits a day. After front page news stories in papers such as the Seattle Times, Boston Globe, USA Today and dozens of others, television interviews and live telephone interviews on stations in New York, Australia and Canada, Web hits reached 50,000 in an eight hour period last Tuesday.

"This has been a phenomenal thing," Blake said.

A media analyst told Blake an estimated 300 to 500 million people around the world had heard of Soap Lake and the giant lava lamp.

Blake said it doesn't matter what people think of the idea. Whether it's negative or positive, there's a benefit. It might help a theater's completion, or a piece of fantastic artwork find a home, or initiate the ground breaking of a destination spa.

"Whether the lava lamp gets built or not, it becomes part of our culture," he said. "It opens doors and allows good things to happen."