Park fish slide needs review from an expert

It likely will take a larger scale operation to fix the popular fish slide at Conner Waterfront Park beneath the Rainbow Bridge.

At the July 19 Town Council meeting, Mayor Ramon Hayes and council members endorsed having the 13-foot sculpted slide professionally assessed to determine if it can be saved. Weather blistering makes annual repair work necessary to its surface and interior by volunteers John Doyle and Ollie Iversen.

Doyle, a retired Town administrator, and Iversen, a Town parks commissioner, have devoted time in the spring and summer to grinding, sanding, painting and sealing the slide’s exterior. But now its interior has also suffered the effects of winter weather conditions.

“There are some bad spots inside,” Iversen said in a presentation to the council last week. “There are splits that have to be smoothed out.”

These problems have forced the slide to close out of safety concerns.

“The materials are incompatible with concrete,” Doyle explained the next day.

“Things have happened with cold weather that hadn’t been expected,” Iversen said.

He appealed to the council for professional help, something he and Doyle had refrained from doing.

“All the places we’ve fixed are holding up,” Iversen said, “but we still have work to do on the inside. We need help with the grinding and epoxy (resin).”

One suggestion made was to place a protective tube inside the slide.

“It would have to be very narrow,” Public Works Director Brian Lease said. “You would have to limit the size of people using the slide.”

For now, Hayes has proposed and received council support to assess the slide professionally.

“We would prefer to save it,” he stressed.

Iversen noted how the slide, created by the late renowned Pacific Northwest fish artist Tom Jay, has become a La Conner shoreline landmark.

“It’s iconic,” said Iversen. “Wherever I go, and people talk about La Conner, they know all about the fish slide.”

Lease cautioned that finding someone in a timely manner who is qualified to assess the slide will be a challenge.

“The issue,” Lease said, “is to get a contractor here to look at it. We need someone here to look at it before winter.”

All of which means the slide will remain closed for the foreseeable future.

“It won’t be open this year, “Iversen lamented, “and that’s unfortunate.”