Businesses – Page 31 – Sequim Daily Photo

Sand Art, 2 of 2

Kali Bradford and Barry Swires were working last Sunday on a new sand sculpture outside the Innovation Law Group on Sequim Avenue. This piece celebrates Sequim and our upcoming lavender festival in July. This piece replaces one I showed you last September.

I love the old truck that Barry is working on. It will have pots of flowers in its cargo area when finished.

I first introduced you to Kali last summer as she completed a sand sculpture for our 2014 lavender festival. Since then she has added paint to her work. She’s found that people looking at painted portions of sculptures now will comment and point out detail more readily.

Rare offerings

One of the newer stores in town is Hart’s Fine Books. Don’t expect to find the latest mass market paperback here. The shop features vintage and rare books and specializes in “ephemera,” mainly from the early film industry. The collection of the late William S. Hart, Jr., the son of two silent film stars, forms the core of the books for sale. If you’re a collector, take a look at the website to browse the interesting offerings.

Eye catcher

This sign is outside Sunny Farms, the “everything store” I wrote about earlier this week.

You’ve probably already guessed, but this is the kind of chick the signs refers to.

The everything store

Sunny Farms is something of an “everything” store. In addition to the nursery and farm store, there are groceries, a small deli, butcher, produce, and supplements. This time of year the nursery comes to life.

The area in front of the store is packed with life: hanging baskets, flowers in small and large containers, shrubs, and trees. I find it hard to shop there this time of year without bringing home some sort of “growie” that I hadn’t intended to fall in love with. Next door in the nursery are veggie starts and a variety of deciduous, evergreen, and fruiting trees and bushes.

It doesn’t help those with weak will that they make their stock appealing. It’s dazzling after a long winter.

Upstairs at the new Civic Center

The new Sequim City Hall has two stories. The second story, shown here, is shared by the Public Works Department and Community Development. This is a view of the front counter/reception area taken from the Public Works side of the building looking toward the Community Development Department. In the Community Development area are offices for the City Attorney, City Clerk, City Manager, Human Resources Manager, assistants, and volunteers.

The Public Works side houses offices of the Public Works and Community Development Directors, City Engineer, Public Works Operations Manager, Planner, and other officials, a copy room, archives, and a library. There are conference rooms on each side of the building. At the back end of this floor is a staff fitness/wellness room and a lunch/break room.

The new Civic Center has been built with expectation of attaining LEED certification, given to buildings meeting various criteria for green building practices that promote healthy occupants and sound energy practices.

The new police station

The Sequim Police Station has lately been located in a back corner of a shopping center, not far from Penney’s. The new Civic Center will bring it back under one roof with other City Hall operations. Most residents will see this area of the station, the records room, which is behind the open reception area on the first floor. Like the rest of the building last week, the room is stark and bare, waiting for workers who will call it home. But the room is striking. Like most of the building, natural light streams in and brightens the interior rooms and one strong impression of the rooms is how light they seem.

Even a hallway, running through a warren of small offices, interview, and conference rooms, seems bright. Natural light comes from the offices on the right side of this shot.

This is the squad room where the officers will work. To the left are holding cells. This room, and an adjacent one where shift sergeants work, were designed to provide clear line of sight into the holding cells. Any signs of trouble can be readily seen; any officers working in this area have ready, eyes-on backup.

It doesn’t look like much, but this gun-cleaning area is a real boon. Not only is it set up to safely receive lead waste that comes from cleaning, it also has a pretty robust-looking ventilation system. A nearby storage area is protected by a refurbished safe door salvaged from the former building.

Inside the new civic center

Though it won’t be open for business until May 18 the community was invited into the new Sequim Civic Center last week for a public open house. After months of watching the building progress it was great to have a walk through to see what’s in store. The photo, above, is of the first floor building lobby not long after the doors were thrown open. Within a couple of hours this area was packed with visitors.

The building feels bright and open…partly because furnishings are still being moved in and assembled. This is the new city council chambers. The dais is populated with computer screens and will have connections for all manner of devices. The rest of the room, so far, is empty.

This is a view from inside the accounting and finance office toward its reception and bill paying area where visitors are standing. Beyond the gathering of people is the reception area for police services. Many areas in the new building have work cubicles assembled and in place. But it looks oh so brand new without chairs and the personality that people bring to a workplace.

The woman in green standing at the door to the right, above, is at an entrance to the new police services area of the building. Visitors were taken on tours of this area. Tomorrow I’ll show you some of what lies behind the scenes in our new police station.