Mill Creek demands runner scrub off club's paint trail immediately
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MILL CREEK - If only avid running enthusiast Victor Bast could lace up his Brooks Beasts and sprint away from this problem.
But the city of Mill Creek is not about to let him off that easy.
Ten days have passed since the Eastside Runners hit Mill Creek for their weekly Saturday-morning run. But they left behind a neon-bright trail that could take weeks or - as the city fears - months to erase completely.
Dozens of vivid orange and blue arrows mark the two routes Bast plotted through his community, including a wooded 1.5-mile stretch of the private Mill Creek Nature Preserve along Penny Creek.
Bast, president of his running club, sprayed the arrows on sidewalks, trails and streets using an aerosol chalk product he discovered on the Internet. While the marks are supposed to wash away with rains and the passage of time, Mill Creek has ordered him to scrub them off immediately.
"The instructions on the can very clearly say it's temporary and removable," said Bast, a chemical engineer. "I am 100 percent confident it would come off eventually."
However, he's dealing with Mill Creek, a golf-course community known for its rarefied aesthetics and strict community covenants. The brilliantly hued arrows clash with the community's tasteful, written-in-code color schemes. And Bast neglected to ask permission from the Mill Creek Community Association before using its private preserve trail.
"We're trying to keep this area as pristine as possible, and then they go and do that," said one irritated 19-year resident, who declined to give his name. "They ought to make (Bast) go out there with a scrub brush."
That could happen. Bast says he probably first will rent a pressure washer and see if that will do the trick. If the chalk is stubborn, he may resort to scrubbing on hands and knees.
If soap or detergent is required, the running club will have to mop up all the water before it flows into the watershed, which supports salmon.
Not everyone was offended by the chalk arrows, which directed runners on a 4.3-mile route around the Mill Creek Country Club and a 5.8-mile loop around the city's eastern end.
Edie Wiklof, who lives just outside the city, said she assumed the orange arrows near her house were painted by utility workers.
"People complained? Unreal! It isn't like you sprayed it on their house," she hooted. "We didn't want to become part of Mill Creek for this very kind of uproar."
Until the city and community association squawked, Bast thought his chalk work was brilliant. The 23 runners who participated in the June 16 club event loved the arrows.
"We got the best reviews this time, because it was marked so everyone knew where to go," said club member Debra Venhaus, who also lives in Mill Creek. "We didn't think it would be a big issue because of chalk's temporary nature. I'm disappointed, it's not as though we're graffiti-ing up the place."
Ah, but they were, said Jill Marilley, the city's public-works director. "It comes under the definition of graffiti," she said. "It would be no different than if students from Jackson (High School) did 'artwork' on the streets."
Marilley said the chalk spray is the same substance used by construction crews and road workers to paint "temporary" marks on roads. When that product seeps into cracks and crevices, it never completely fades away, she said.
Officials at Aervo-Pacific, which manufactures the chalk spray, say Marilley must be thinking about another substance. The chalk spray is sugar-based, said Mark Williams, general manager of the Reno company.
Issaquah's Salmon Days festival uses the chalk spray every year to lay out its craft booths and race course, said Steve Page, general manager of an Aervo division. If it doesn't rain enough to wash away quickly, he said, the product turns to powder within 20 days.
Diane Brooks can be reached at 206-464-2567 or dbrooks@seattletimes.com.