Photo by Michael Whitney.
SNOHOMISH — Work is underway to repair the closed Robert S. Keaton fishing dock at Hill Park, and now it will get a new deck.
Crews tore off the deck and found it was rotting. This was not known in advance. It was known many underside wooden piles and wooden joists needed repairs to restore the more than 40-year-old wood dock.
The City Council last week authorized adding $48,957.66 to the project budget for materials and labor to have the company working the dock fix the deck. The money is from the city’s parks maintenance fund.
The new dock will use Douglas fir deck planks, steel piles and Douglas fir joists.
City parks workers were not available to work on the deck because they are currently tasked with playground installation at Fischer Park, city public works and parks director Nova Heaton said.
With the addition of the deck work, the budget for fixing the dock is now budgeted for up to $183,000.
One of council’s alternative options was to have the city pursue bids for the deck which would keep the dock closed longer into summer.
Fixing the dock involves specialized underwater repair. When Snohomish first bid the dock job out, only one company that specializes in underwater construction responded. The city hired them.
It was not worth seeking bids to hire somebody else who would probably charge the same price for the materials and labor, Councilman Felix Neals said. Other council members agreed.
This dock is one of two on Blackman Lake. The other is a floating metal dock. The Snohomish Sportsman’s Club and the old Snohomish Tillicum Kiwanis Club fundraised and helped install both docks.
