August 30th, 2010:
July 9th, 2010:
Our Citizens deserve a City Pool. We had one for 20 years and it served as a wonderful outdoor recreational activity for teens and families. You could see it from the freeway. Ferndale was “COOL “ because, it had a pool . Local people, figured it out, raised the money and built it. As history repeats itself the Pottle Construction Family was on the frontline with their tools. It is this same family that just built your new Boy’s and Girls Club in Pioneer Park. There is a special place in “Weather HELL” for Ferndale Folks. We were freezing and wearing coats and sweaters all of June, through the 4th of July then “Boom” 90 degrees . To escape the heat you see little kids and families are running through the Riverwalk fountain free of charge. My son Maxwell and his 14 year old buddies are escaping the heat at VanderYacht Park, rope swinging out and dropping into the Nooksack River. This is free, fun, refreshing and dangerous. Swift currents, underwater log jams, and cold water have taken young lives before and will again, given time. I have taken responsibility to bring together concerned people to change Ferndale for the better by building a large affordable swimming pool for year round use. I have asked the Mayor and fellow City Councilors for support. Steve Malpezzi is the only City Councilor besides myself to consistently rank a pool as a City priority. He is a Scout leader and father of 3 boys and sees the need. The public has reconfirmed the pool idea many times in public meetings and park surveys. The City has borrowed 5 million dollars to build a huge new police station but not one dime for anything supporting what the majority of Ferndale Families really want and that is an affordable, warm, safe, clean place where all ages and races can come together and share the positive community values of aquatics. Our Good people of Ferndale most certainly deserve the best. I had dropped the ball on the dream of rebuilding the Ferndale Swimming pool until our kids brought home 2 state Championships. Dr. Bill Baader said “We need to try again because the class of 2005 is remarkable” Next week Jake Locker is coming to town to lead the parade. I will ask him for his help. We are at the 10 yard line.
June 10th, 2010:
On behalf of the Ferndale Double Dome Board of Directors would like to seek the Mt. Baker Chapter of the Red Cross's moral support and written endorsement for the large public safety center proposed for Ferndale.We are in the planning stages and will be making many public presentations educating our people about the wonderful benefits of this facility in the coming months. We will be holding a small public meeting this coming Monday night the 14th at the Ferndale Community Service Center on 2nd street at 7pm.You are welcome to come or any volunteer that you may want to send. My phone is 739-0408. Our Website is www.ferndaledoubledome.org. We have been a 501-C3 since July 7th, 2007. It is our intention to apply for State and Federal Grants and would like to feel comfortable incorporating the Red Cross relationship into our written Feasibility Study. There will be a large aquatic Center in the first phase and available to the Red Cross for any classes on swimming, life saving, CPR or volunteer training or joint fundraising. A simple letter on your letterhead is all we would need. Please contact me if I can be of further assistance . Lloyd Zimmerman
June 1st, 2010:
Hello Board of directors and community pool supporters. I am forwarding this months issue of the Roundup. It is the newsletter of the Monolithic Dome Corp. I would like it if you all subscribed to it as it is free and keeps you abreast of the Monolithic Dome movement world wide.I wanted for you to all click on the link for ,"Monolithic Dome multipurpose center/disaster" shelter in Avalon Texas. It is the link under the first article called "Smooth Sheltering" It will clearly state that they built this school dome for 85 dollars per square foot. In comparison Our new Boy's and Girls club figured out to be $ 217.65 per sq. Foot. It cost 4.6 million to build 21,134 Sq. Ft.. With our method we can build a one acre enclosure (43,560sq.ft.) for 3.7 million pool included. Our European traveler and board member,Tom Dudek, will be back with some fabulous photos that pertain to our project. Our June meeting will be Monday, June 14th. at 7pm at either the City Council Chambers or WECU. We have gotten to big for my pub . I will make the location decision based on availability of the rooms and the need for electronic media as the date gets closer. Thank you for your continued support on a dream that is much bigger than my brain. It has been 35 months since the founding of the non-profit Ferndale Double Dome.
| Thursday, May 27, 2010 | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
May 17th, 2010:
Swimming Pool or Police Station ? I present that choice to the people in and around the Ferndale community to think about for many sound reasons. Let us explore the economic benefits of investing in one versus the other. If we all agree these may be the worst economic conditions since the 1930’s, that is a starting point for our discussion. Jobs are scarce these days. Unemployment is high, especially for teenagers. I recall my teenage years in the 1970’s, summer jobs then were picking strawberries then raspberries, then blackberries, mowing lawns, delivering newspapers, loading hay, and collecting roadside beer bottles for the refund deposit . The Big Bucks for older teens was working on salmon fishing boats or Alaskan cannery jobs. These days there are more kids and fewer opportunities for youth employment due to a variety of factors such as child labor laws, high minimum wages, and less agriculture industry and competition from professional immigrants. Kids want money for the things it will buy. My 14 year old son Max, always needs to shop for something that he saw on TV or heard about at school from his equally unemployed friends. Building a large year around aquatic facility to serve the largest population of high school students in Whatcom county will create as many as 200 part time service jobs for local teens, They need the money and are available for work. It would be an economic machine that creates money and pumps it into the burning pockets of teens. They will be spending it fast on Fast food ,pizza, shoes, video-games, clothes, and college savings account funds. Some Teens may help contribute to the Family rent ,mortgage, food budget or City water bill in these tough times. Any transaction paid through the personal effort of our youth is a positive event for learning. I have never heard anyone say “Spare the credit card and you spoil the child.” The Teen work ethic is a valuable lesson to be learned and cultured. The long term economic benefits are huge to young adults, their families, our City, State and Nation. The mathematics of money ,finance and economics are brutal lessons not to be lost or delayed. To not learn the lesson is certainly to fail in the future. Disneyland ,is a positive example we can compare. Walt Disney created a fun, healthy, family friendly economic generator for Southern California and Florida. The millions if not billions of dollars that are generated and circulated through jobs and services into regional economies are staggering. Fun Activity equals Money. Create an ongoing steady , clean ,green activity that is needed and market it. We could sit back and enjoy this economic model, as it will repay the investment to community many times over in the coming years. Not only in jobs, but , increased overall public health, reduced social depression, increased sports tourism. The prevention of juvenile delinquency , drug use and gang activity. Promoting healthy activities, improving race relations and keeping kids off the street and positively engaged under the eyes and wisdom of multiple generations of community. Let’s analyze the economic strategy of borrowing 5.5 million dollars into upgrading our police station. I struggle with finding justification because they are apples and oranges in comparison. The Police station will not be creating any new private sector jobs except the short term construction jobs that add to the tax base. The temporary jobs may even go to out of the area workers from other communities that under bid our local contractors. That would mean your borrowed dollars would not be locally circulated. The fact is 5.5 million dollars with interest will be more like 10 million dollars after 20 years of debt service that will go to out of state bond investors. That is 10 million that will not repay itself, that is 10 million dollars that will not be circulated through our teenager’s bank accounts. that is 10 million in lost wages and lost opportunity. In tough economic times We must put everything under the financial magnifying glass to closely look at the lasting value and impact it has on our town. I sit on your City Council and this process is blunt ,brutal and sad, We Ain’t Got the Money” we hear from our City treasurer, Mark Peterson. He knows and watches every dime coming in. Tax dollars coming into City Hall have dropped and further budget cuts will most likely be made next year. The Police Station does add value and pride to the community but that value and pride has to be weighed by the cost benefit to people. Would we be better served with a more modest station that could be expanded as we grow? Is this the wrong time for such a large purchase? I question the City boldly following a course chartered 3-4 years ago before the global financial crisis hit. The Police station is in need of upgrades, This administration has been good to increase pay and make sure they have the tools that they need to do their job. The mission of our Police Force is, and always will be to “ Serve and Protect ” they realize on a daily basis they may make the ultimate sacrifice for our women and children in their line of work. We never thank them enough for living with this emotional pressure. Can we ask the Mayor and Council to reexamine this dire economic question ? Can we ask the police union to sacrifice another few years working in a hell hole of a station in exchange that thousands of Ferndale residents may have a better life? Is there a creative solution that will allow us to have our cake and eat it too?
April 20, 2010:
Greetings pool friends! We will be putting up our swimming pool display at the city meeting tonight at 6:30 at Central elementary for publicity purposes. Tom Dudek and Bob Friedman will be there to help answer questions. The meeting is to brief the citizens on various city projects. This is a departure from our traditional annual community meetings we have held the last 3 years. I am disappointed in the format this year because we (the pool project) has been well supported by Ferndale families and was the top rated request from the citizens of Ferndale 2 of the last 3 years. We will have a visual presence despite not being on the official agenda. I have good news in that the City is supporting the idea of sitting down with the YMCA and seeing if we can develop a" memorandum of understanding" on their potential involvement. Hopefully we will be meeting with them in May. The brief concept ,as I see it, would be that the City would provide the land as they have done for the new Boy's and Girls club. Our group would continue to work as design engineers, cost containment problem solvers, community advocates, promoters and fund raisers. The YMCA would bring a reputable time tested national program in aquatics as well as various other activities promoting health and fitness to our town. The YMCA could be a managing tenant in that they would pay rent and and have a management contract. This was seen as an acceptable option to explore by the Mayor and administration so far. We ,as a city, have no parks and recreation dept. at this time that could manage our new facility. The YMCA has had a long history in our community would bring instant credibility to our effort to build a world class aquatic and community center. We as a group can relax from the day to day responsibility of the management challenges of running such a monster. Tom Dudek and Pam Mannino will continue to refine our design leading to a engineered cost estimate that will accompany the conclusion of our feasibility study hopefully by mid July. Many of you have heard about my visit and tour to the City Bible Church at 9200 Fremont Ave. in Portland Ore. They built a "Double Dome" in 1988 ,It is 65,000 square feet of dome and they built it for the incredibley low price for 15 dollars per square foot. WE ARE ON THE RIGHT TRACK ! We also need to start thinking about organizing for this years Oktoberfest.It will be the 3rd weekend of Sept.. Today we may have crappy weather but just what we need to validate the need for a large warm indoor swimming facility for all of the people of Ferndale. Happy earth Day, Lloyd
April 12, 2010:
Greetings, Tonight is our 2nd Monday of the month Meeting for pool talk. I will be at the Frank-n-Stein pub at 7pm tonight for a short while (20 minutes). I do not have much progress to report on our project at this time. Tom and Pam are working on refining the changes we have been making to the computerized design to include in the feasibility study. I just got back from an 11 day road trip to Oregon and Idaho. I saw an industrial dome used by a cement plant in Lime Oregon. The most impressive part of my trip was when I tracked down and toured the City Bible Church in Portland. The Church includes a school and is a double dome design that was constructed in 1988 atop a hill overlooking the Portland Airport and Columbia River. You can see it from the Interstate 205 Freeway that crosses at the river.It is made up of twin domes much like our plan with 2nd story mezzanines. It has a smaller 160 foot dome that has a basketball court above classrooms and then a larger 230 foot dome that encloses a very impressive sanctuary that seats 3200 people. It is massive. I found out that the dome will expand and contract 1-3 inches due to seasonal temperature changes causing the gap between the inside buildings and the dome.The 2nd story floors sit on a ledge with sliding teflon sheets . The building committee toured 30 large domes before they built theirs. They are very happy. I have all of the contact information. The two domes are connected by a 2 story building with a large plaza and cafe. It is built into the hillside and backfilled with dirt. My guide told me they paid 970,000 for both domes back in 1988, They themselves finished off the inside with various contractors within their church. On our trip,We were thinking about staying a night at the indoor water theme park called Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound Wash.The Lodge is located by Chehalis and Centrailia. I was stunned to find out it would be 454 dollars per night for 4 people. It did include unlimited admission to the aquatic facilities. It was a little steep and we decided for 2 nights at Cannon Beach instead. I asked how much for a day pass? They took no daytime guests as you must stay at the Hotel to enjoy the indoor water park. That is some marketing information for our study on what the demand is. I was hoping for us to to have a pool presence and big showing at the annual city wide meeting April 21st, except the Mayor has gained control of the established format to promote all the city projects, Library, Police Station and Road projects. I will have a display table with some info. I would like some help with this. We may have to have our own citywide meeting to get any recognition. We were voted the number one project last year and the year before that They may have been frightened by thought of 3 years in a row . There is another meeting tonight at 7pm in the Ferndale Library that I want to catch some of. It is the Architects meeting with the Library folks about what they want to have their new library to look like? Later Lloyd
October 29, 2009:
Hey pool people, read over the latest company newsletter from the Monolithic people in Texas. There are some great stories about schools and the affordability of domes. There are some great graphs,especialy the blue one that shows the energy payback. I will try to set details on the Nov. Aquatic Facility Field trip,Nov. 21st to Federal way and South Kitsap County soon. Our Nov. meeting is the 9th.
September 15, 2009:
Much is happening with our final phases of the feasibility study and preliminary engineering designs. Cost estimates and business plans. Come to our 2nd Oktoberfest fundraiser to see the progress and meet the people making it happen. Pioneer Park, Sat. September 26th from 3-10, kids permitted with parents. Admission is 5 dollars and kids are a dollar.
October 9, 2007:
The Ferndale Double Dome group has been nominated to enter the Buckminister Fuller Challenge. The contest has a 100,000 dollar prize and has a entry deadline of Oct. 30th 2007. We will also be getting our proposal into the Governors hands by presenting it to her at the October 8th Town Hall Meeting held at the David Syre Center at Whatcom Community College. Rick Lafave has also been nominated to join the Ferndale Double Dome Board of Directors.
October 4, 2007:
The Oktoberfest community fundraiser for the swimming pool and community center sponsored by the Ferndale Double Dome has changed locations. Due to the potentialy nasty weather this weekend and short notice of publicity on my part, the scaled down version will be held at the Frank-n-Stein. What could be the "Smallest Oktoberfest in America" will be held at the Smallest Brewery in America" at 2030 Main street Ferndale. Local Polish Imigrant Artur Rojcza, has laid down a 500 dollar fund raising challenge. I accept that challenge by pledging 100% of net profits from Saturday October 6th including the tip jar. Big Plans are being made for next year with a much bigger citywide Oktoberfest celebration and fundraiser at Pioneer park. Saturday's Festivities will start at 3pm at the "Stein" Following the Ferndale VolksMarch... Cheers and Geshundheit, Herr Zimmerman
April 30, 2007:
Thursday night May 10th at 7 pm is the annual Community meeting at Eagleridge Elementary and all of the citizen initiated projects will be presented and reviewed. We will have 4-5 minutes to give a status report. That represents about a million dollars a minute for our project. We will also have a display set up to help educate, recruit, and answer questions. We are also thinking about gathering signatures to get it on the ballot due to the political impasse with current city leadership. That would be a good night to start and we would probably get half of the signatures we need. Please plan on attending this very important gathering we need your support.
Jan 8, 2007:
New options for the New Year.
The terrible fire at the Ferndale Boys and Girls club left hundreds of local families with very few options for child care. Before and after school programs are essential to our social network in preventing crime and building strong citizens for the future. The need for a consistent cash flow places working mothers and two income families with the problem of what to do with the children and that gap in time.
For too long ,we have put off preparing for this day. We ask a lot and get a lot from our public school system. Now we may need to ask more from our school facilities while we rebuild and recover from this unfortunate event of fire.
A new local non-profit group called Ferndale Double Dome has been formed in the past year. The group is made up of local parents and professionals and their mission is to help solve the long range problems of Money, location, affordable design, sustainable energy costs for new Community facilities. Coordinating resources, public and private, is a big challenge , bringing together parties with limited budgets, different philosophies, conflicting egos is hard. Educating the public with new ways of solving problems is hard. New ideas are hard to accept , like new shoes that need to be broken in. Nothing ventured nothing gained, but the kids need new shoes.
The door is open with James Willson, the new owner of the 11 acres formerly called the JR Simplot Cannery. In our opinion it is a Golden Opportunity to put into the right place much needed civic facilities at the right price. We need some Gold for this Golden opportunity. Our community library was recently blessed with an anonymous million dollar donation. The Ferndale Double Dome 501-C3 ,non profit group has reached the 1.5 million dollar goal in pledges for labor, materials and sweat equity. If there is or are a person or persons, capable financially matching our efforts, now is the time to maximize your impact of doing great things for thousands of present and future children.
July 7th 2006:
Non-Profit Status
The State of Washington, Secretary of State, Sam Reed Issued a certificate of incorporation as a non-profit 501-C3 to Ferndale Double Dome. With a duration of 50 years
Our purpose is to help the People and City government of Ferndale raise funds, design build and maintain a community center and aquatics center any compatible facility that will support (A) public health and safety. (B) reduce juvenile delinquency and promote education (C) promote local sustainable agriculture (D) promote health and physical fitness through physical fitness and nutrition. (E) promote racial and social harmony through cultural programs. (F) Create jobs for youth. (G) Provide a certified Federal Emergency Facility. H Promote International sports relationships.
Founding Board of Directors
Lloyd Zimmerman - Designer Artist
Dr. Terry Rouse - Chiropractor
Eric Weden - Civil Engineer
Michael Naylor - Professor of Mathamatics
Carl Hanson - Retired Boeing Engineer
Dan Coward - Mechanical Engineer
Scott Wenger - Civil Engineer
Kathy Heiser - Banker-Treasuer
Ken Smith - Retired Minister
