Kitsap Sun: Mural Celebrates Clear Creek Project
Mauro O’ Neil of from the Kitsap County Storm Water Department paints the mural on Wednesday. - LARRY STEAGALL/KITSAP SUN
SILVERDALE – Dozens of volunteers with paint brushes crowded around the wall of a once-decaying farm house sitting along the Clear Creek Trail just north of Highway 303. Piecing together a mural, like paint by numbers, some had to yell out in search of the paint color corresponding to their section of the mural. The mural, on which finishing touches were added Wednesday, celebrates the success of Clean Water Kitsap’s Clear Creek project. The stormwater upgrade project, which aimed to enhance animal habitat and improve a perennially flooded section of the Clear Creek Trail, was completed last spring. “It’s a fun way to connect with the trail walkers and teach them about our project in a new way,” said Renee Scherdnick of Kitsap County Public Works. The mural depicts Clear Creek, winding along the wall and into Dyes Inlet, painted on the left side of the farmhouse. The Clear Creek Trail follows along the bottom edge of the wall correspondingly. “We wanted to give a sense of the area and the unique flora and fauna,” said Michelle Perdue, outreach and education coordinator for Kitsap Public Works. “… We also wanted to give a sense of the trail system and the users of the trail system.” Weaved through the panels of siding, fish swim, birds fly and trail users walk. “People and nature and water are all intertwined,” said artist Erica Applewhite, who designed the mural, titled “Bringing Clear Creek Back to Life.” The mural also features volunteers from the Clear Creek Task Force, the group that built the Clear Creek Trail, as well as one of its leaders, Tex Lewis. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t proud of that,” Lewis said. “... It represents all the community that’s worked on the trail. I’m just one of them.” The task force has put in about seven miles of trail stretching from Dyes Inlet to Trigger Avenue, with junctures connecting the Ridgetop neighborhood and Harrison Medical Center. Lewis is a key reason there was even a farmhouse to paint. When the county bought 16 acres of farmland along Clear Creek more than a decade ago, the plan was to extend the Clear Creek Trail through the property to connect it to the Ridgetop neighborhood. The abandoned buildings on the property -- called the Markwick property, after the family that previously owned it -- were marked for demolition. Lewis, however, saw a future for the dilapidated farmhouse. “I’d like to see the building as a caretaker place and maybe explore a little bit more having the place be a meeting place for kids,” Lewis told the Kitsap Sun in 2007. Through volunteer work, the building — dubbed “the pavilion” until an official name is announced — got a new roof. Half of it was renovated for CCTF tool storage and the walls were removed from the other half to create a covered picnic area. “This (mural) brings the Markwick site in as being part of that (trail) system,” said Perdue. Additionally, the parking area in front of the Central Kitsap School District P-Patch is now open to the public. In the fall, the area will see the addition of educational signage about Clear Creek and a plan for paving the rest of the trail to the Ridgetop neighborhood is still in the works. “I’m really happy to see how the community has come around and embraced the trail system and the creek,” Lewis said.
Jared Brown Kitsap Sun USA TODAY NETWORK