SL city council unanimously approves Target lava lamp move, Arrival anticipated in December; erection in spring!

By Matthew Weaver
Columbia Basin Herald staff writer
  
   SOAP LAKE: Where does a 50-foot mechanical lava lamp fit within a small town?
Anywhere it wants to. Or, to be more precise, anywhere the community wants it to go.

   The Soap Lake city council unanimously agreed at their meeting Wednesday (November 17, 2004) to contract with Target Corporation to facilitate moving the lamp sign structure, which currently stands on the corner of a building in Times Square in New York City, to Soap Lake.

   "At the present time, it is a matter of waiting for it to be removed from (its) position in Time Square and then, to our understanding, placed on trucks and shipped to Soap Lake," Mayor Wayne Hovde said. Brent Blake, president and CEO of the Soap Lake Giant Lava Lamp Project, Inc., said that the city council decision helped his corporation overcome
several challenges.

   "This just ensured everything is going to work much more smoothly," Blake said. "It's wonderful assistance to our Soap Lake Giant Lava Lamp Corporation.  It's a way to facilitate (the move). It solved all kinds of problems and it's a wonderful thing for the community."    Blake said that the corporation is waiting Target's final signing and returning of the contract, cautioning that nothing is set in stone until that is obtained.

 (NOTE: City of Soap Lake received signed final contract from Target Monday, December 6, 2004!)

   "The plan for Target is to remove the lamp off of the building in Times Square sometime in December or early January and then my guess is it would be a week or less for it to arrive in Soap Lake," Blake said. He said an exact location has to be determined for the lamp to be removed from a number of trucks, stored and examined while funds are raised to get it erected in the spring, the community and corporation's goal.

   "There's a lot of work to be done from this point on to have the community raise the funds to have it rebuilt and erected within the city in an area that will be selected by the community members, and the council has to approve that location, "Hovde said," I’m excited about it, I think it's going to be a very good boost, something that will draw a lot of attention and a lot of visitors."

   And what of Blake's original goal, to erect the world's largest fully functional lava lamp in Soap Lake? "The point about this is, it's a couple feet shorter than what we really wanted, but it's pretty big, pretty substantial and pretty exciting, We are grateful for Target’s assistance in gaining a Giant Lava Lamp for Soap Lake," he said. "So, it certainly would suffice until we can, if ever, figure out how to raise money to build the real thing. Soap Lake in effect gets a giant lava lamp, and that was the original goal and it's now going to happen. The dream's been realized."

Theme structures built for cities throughout the world are constructed to draw attention and tourists. As someone said, "Never underestimate the power of awe."

Soap Lake, a once bustling spa town due to its unique mineral lake (presently being studied by NASA and the National Science Foundation) is located in Eastern Washington State, USA and is in need of renewed tourism and re-development.

The concept of the Giant Lava Lamp, conceived by Brent Blake, and assisted by friend John Glassco, is an appropriate theme structure for the community.

Soap Lake has always been a healing and art community, and the lava lamp is soothing, calming, healing and an art icon. The lava name is unique because the region is one of the last areas of earth to have had massive horizontal flows of lava that is today a beautiful geological wonder. After 14,000,000 years, lava has returned to Soap Lake.

"People will come from all over the world to see this structure of AWE," says Blake.

"Think of the interest this structure will have on people. It is an active, mesmerizing, vividly colorful and always changing kinetic structure. What other theme structures in the world possess such features? Visitors will be thrilled to see such a wonder and will be rewarded by its scale, show of light and constantly changing, oozing and flowing goo!"

Grand Coulee Dam is just up the road and draws 1.5 million visitors a year. The Soap Lake Giant Lava Lamp will draw from those visitors and others and put Soap Lake back on the map and secure the town’s economic future.

Information concerning this project can be obtained by contacting: Brent Blake 509-246-1692

Donation info

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Learn more about Soap Lake at www.soaplakewa.com