Healdsburg Plaza's new gazebo running behind schedule

A $100,000 gazebo under construction in the Healdsburg Plaza has fallen behind schedule, forcing city officials to consider other ways to stage a popular concert series that begins later this month.

The new gazebo where the musicians were to play was supposed to be completed by May 29, in time for the kickoff of the Tuesdays in the Plaza concerts. But work has fallen two weeks behind.

City officials aren't about to cancel the concerts, but instead may put a temporary stage on the opposite side of the plaza, close to Healdsburg Avenue, until the gazebo is ready.

The gazebo is a community project that involves donations and volunteer labor. Organizers said the construction schedule was simply too optimistic.

"It's not a budget problem. We have the right materials, the right people. It's just a very ambitious building schedule," said Ray Holley, the local newspaper columnist who spearheaded the project.

The hexagonal structure with a copper roof will be more than twice as big and more stylish than the old gazebo, a casualty of dry rot and changing taste.

"It's now a 1,000-square-foot structure. It's not really a gazebo anymore. It's a building," Holley said.

Donations for the project, more than $105,000 to date, came from more than 150 families, individuals and businesses. About 60 workers in the construction trades are donating their time to erect it.

Holley said the gazebo involves complicated engineering, thousands of pounds of steel and busy professionals working around their schedules to offer their services.

"We lost a day here and a day there," he said.

He estimated Friday that the gazebo will be finished by the first or second week of June.

Holley will brief the City Council on Monday on the status of construction. He wants to explore the possibility of using the gazebo by May 29, even if it isn't complete.

"We will ask the city to allow us to make it available to the community once it's structurally safe," he said, adding that decorative details like paint, windows and lighting may not be ready by then.

The gazebo project gained momentum after the city completed a $390,000 refurbishment of the plaza late last year. The upgrades include new turf and irrigation, improved drainage, landscaping, concrete and a new pathway.

The embellishments are tied into the 150th anniversary of the plaza and a celebration of the sesquicentennial scheduled for Aug. 18.

You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at 521-5214 or clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com.