Photo by Michael Whitney.
SNOHOMISH — The Robert S. Keaton Memorial fishing dock, one of two at Blackman Lake, has been closed since January because the city wants to hire an expert to give a closer examination.
The city deemed the piles holding up the more than 40-year-old wood dock are too unsafe. Snohomish wants to know how it’s looking underneath.
Except it has yet to seek out a consultant.
“We are still assessing our budgets to determine how to pay for the consultant and the repairs,” city spokeswoman Shari Ireton said Thursday, April 18.
The consultant would inspect the lake’s newer floating metal dock nearby as well. That’s still open and being used.
The closed dock is made of wood and is held up by piles. Its underside raised concerns.
City staff have assumed “that at least the last three or four piles” at the end of the dock “are no longer structurally sound,” the city’s facilities inventory reports. They also noted the dock sways a lot.
The report says what could be needed is to replace the failed piles “and add lateral bracing to further reduce side sway.”
The alternative may be replacing the entire dock if the city is able to, the report says.
That’s why they want an expert to investigate if it’s too far gone.
The Snohomish Sportsmans Club and the Snohomish Tillicum Kiwanis Club fundraised and helped put in Hill Park’s two docks.
The two organizations had a number of members who were part of both groups.
The Tillicum Kiwanis chapter closed up in the late 2010s; the older Snohomish Kiwanis chapter is still active.
The closed dock’s namesake, Robert S. Keaton, Sr., died in 1980 at age 77.
The south dock is named for Vic Mathison, a sportsman who died in 2004. He was “one of the 11 original men who started the Snohomish Tillicum Kiwanis Club in November 1974,” Mathison’s obituary says.
