PORT ANGELES — The group Friends of the Fieldhouse is pressing to find a way to persuade the public and City Council that Erickson Park is the ideal location for a huge inflatable building, the group’s founder told a business group Monday.
The inflatable structure — dubbed the “Bubble” building — was donated in November 2007 to the Port Angeles community, but so far no land has been found to set it up.
The building measures 296 feet long, 118 feet wide and 40 feet high, said James Schouten, founder of the Friends of the Fieldhouse, to a Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce audience on Monday.
“The bottom line is we need to create community awareness and make sure that people are informed about this issue,” he said.
The building is four years old and has a 30-year life expectancy, he said.
Artificial grass
The group is hoping to install artificial grass in part of the building for soccer and lacrosse, with the other half having hard floors for tennis courts, he said.
Friends of the Fieldhouse is raising funds to pay for those expenses.
It would cost about $600,000 to develop a site, Schouten said.
Dr. Gene Turner, who is on the Clallam County Family YMCA board of directors, said the building is one of his priorities.
“The top priority is the continuation of the swimming pool — that needs to be taken care of,” Turner said.
“And beyond that, this is very important because this is in essence free of cost to the city other than, hopefully, the donation of a piece of land to put this on.”
Friends of the Fieldhouse already has $160,000 in funds earmarked for the project and about $100,000 in materials and in-kind labor ¬Âpromised.
“That leaves us with about $350,000 left to raise,” Schouten said.
Several sites in Port Angeles were evaluated, with Erickson Park being the group’s preferred location, he said.
Technical owner
The Clallam YMCA is technically the owner of the Bubble and has agreed to operate it — but only if it is located at Erickson Park, which lies between Civic Field on Race Street and the YMCA building on Francis Street.
“It just makes the most sense for the Y for it to be located there, which is near their other facilities,” Schouten said.
The Bubble was awarded to the Y by the U.S. Tennis Association in New Jersey for the $17,500 cost of shipping.
The four location options studied by the fieldhouse group were Volunteer Park, Jessie Webster Park, Shane Park and Erickson Park.
At Erickson Park, the Bubble would be placed on a parking lot at Third and Francis streets, with part of it covering an adjacent grassy field between the parking lot and the skate park.
“It is so rare to find such an ideal location,” Schouten said.
“The odd thing to me is that in private conversations with City Council members, I could probably get four of them to vote to put the Bubble at Webster Park,” he said.
“But I think that if they heard from the community on that, it would have the most opposition out of all the options.”
Building height
He said that Civic Field has walls higher than the Bubble, as does an apartment complex about a block away.
“Due to the softness and roundness of this building, it is much less obtrusive than a metal building or a brick building would be,” Schouten said.
The City Council tabled the issue of finding a location at its Oct. 21 meeting and has not revisited the issue.
For information about Friends of the Fieldhouse, contact James Schouten at 360-452-8281.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
