PORT ANGELES — The shy octopus rearing back and greeting visitors to City Pier will be taking a trip Tuesday morning across town, but is due to return this summer.
The sculpted sentinel of the Feiro Marine Life Center for the past seven years will be lifted off its rocky perch by city workers and transported less than a mile to a spot behind the Odd Fellow building on First Street.
The move will start at 10 a.m.
Once there, sculptor Maureen Wall will oversee the process that will transform the topiary octopus into a mosaic.
Port Angeles Jet-Set Soroptimsits, the group that originally funded one of the most noted public art projects in the city, hopes to rededicate it at the same site next July during the Arts in Action festival.
Pam Sanguinetti, environmental committee chairwoman for the group, said the octopus’ long tentacles had been looking ragged and city workers had had trouble keeping it up.
“They agreed to maintain it, but it was asking a lot of them,” she said.
Schoolchildren from the area are asked to collect mosaic material and can help Hall rebuild a section, a written statement from the group said.