SEQUIM — City Council members ran rings around a public arts squabble Monday before coming around, well, full circle.

At issue were words that will be cast in 4-inch-high letters and cemented as icons into the new Civic Center Community Plaza:

Friendly community. Natural beauty. Bountiful prairie. Innovative strong people. Quiet waters. Magnificent mountains. Sunshine.

Most will be set in straight lines, but “Quiet waters” will be composed in waves, “Magnificent mountains” will be aligned in twin peaks and “Sunshine” will be arranged as a circle.

Although the civic arts committee already had signed off on the project — and the letters had to be ordered by Tuesday — the words’ composition didn’t sit well with council members Ted Miller, Erik Erichsen and Genaveve Starr.

Larger letters

Miller said he thought “Sunshine” and “Friendly community” were so important they should be cast in 6-inch-high letters but was told they would cost too much.

Erichsen said the circular “Sunshine” might be hard to read and cited the “Welcome to Sequim” sign over Washington Street that if read from behind “means Klingon for something.”

And Starr, a calligrapher, said the words shouldn’t be something to walk on but should be set into a wall.

Furthermore, having talked to other graphic artists, she said: “We did not like the idea of ‘Sunshine’ in a circle.”

Photo ops

Even City Attorney Craig Ritchie got into the act.

“I’m just thinking of the photo ops,” he joked. “Stand in the sunshine, cool your feet in the quiet waters, climb the magnificent mountains.”

But Councilman Ken Hays said, “This is the great thing and maybe the bad thing about public art: You’re not going to make everybody happy all the time.”

Later, Erichsen said: “I don’t think that all of the things that are being said necessarily have to be there. I think if we had fewer — ‘friendly community,’ ‘sunshine’ and something about the ocean and the mountain — that would be adequate.

“I think that all these things are overkill.”

That sparked Hays to object: “We’re trying to micromanage art. The French hated the Eiffel Tower when it was built. Sometimes you just have to roll with it.”

Information only

Roll with it they will because the objections came too late to alter what had been introduced to the council as an informational item, not one that needed its approval.

So the plaza will get “Sunshine” in the round. Or, one observer noted, maybe it will say “Nesunshi,” depending on your literal point of view.

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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com