Weather no match for arts

Our views

• Published October 11, 2008

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It takes more than a little rain to drive away Arts Walk enthusiasts. Arts Walk XXXVII, an opportunity for local artists to display their work for public appreciation, drew a big crowd to downtown Olympia a week ago. Perhaps Nina Triffleman of Olympia said it best: "If anything, you have to have art when it's raining. Without it, we'd all crawl into a ball until next April." Parkas and umbrellas and quick dashes between artistic venues proved effective, even as street musicians entertained. Nearly 100 businesses opened their doors, turned over their window display space and created room for artisans to display their work — pottery, photographs, paintings and a multitude of other artistic expressions. Arts Walk, a free, twice-yearly festival, is more than art, however. It's a place where people see friends and neighbors for multiple sidewalk conversations. Margie Schubert and Jim Anest said they have been coming to Arts Walk for longer than they can keep track. "I like that it's a mix of music and visual arts, and I like that most of the art comes from local people, my neighbors," Anest said. Next spring's Arts Walk will coincide with the popular Procession of the Species parade, a celebration of earth and all life.

Once again, state officials want to know why cable barriers in the median of Interstate 5 south of Olympia did not prevent a car from veering into the opposite lane of travel. Tragically, driver Marisa Bauducco, 41, and her husband, Karl F. Heiss, 43, both of Moyie Springs, Idaho, died at the scene after their southbound, brown 1995 Subaru Legacy crashed head-on into a northbound tractor-trailer rig. The sedan, with two children in the back seat, skidded underneath the cable barrier in the center median near milepost 88. It's the worst cross-over collision on the stretch of I-5 between the county line and Maytown since the state Department of Transportation installed cable barriers in 2004 and 2006. The State Patrol and engineers from the Department of Transportation will try to determine why the cable barrier failed to stop the car. While the driving public deserves an answer to that question, it's noteworthy that Transportation officials intend to replace the cable barriers with concrete barriers as part of the project under way to widen the stretch of Interstate 5 from U.S. 12 to Maytown to six from four lanes.