Sammamish Park and Recreation Department crews took extra care, using a dry ice blasting method, when refinishing the Beaver Lake Pavilion recently.

Crews are wrapping up their work and readying to open the pavilion this weekend for a wedding. It took crews two weeks to remove the old stain, and another two to restain the pavilion, located in Beaver Lake Park off of 244th Avenue Southeast.

“It’s a lengthy process, we found out,” parks maintenance and operations worker Scott Frame said. “I never realized how many beams were in here.”

Similar to sandblasting, the dry ice method cleans surfaces by shooting solid carbon dioxide particles that vaporize upon impacting an object. The rapid expansion from solid to gas causes a “micro-explosion” at the point of impact, and the carbon dioxide evaporates leaving behind no secondary waste, according to Cold Jet, the global company in the dry ice technology business since 1986.

“It’s a lot more environmentally friendly,” Frame said.

Frame said the department wanted to take their time with this project, since pressure washing could cause runoff, polluting the nearby Beaver Lake.

Crews didn’t have to worry about causing harm to the environment, since the carbon dioxide vaporizes into the air.

Instead, they were left with residue from the  previous stain, which left “dust on the ground” that crews vacuumed up, Frame said.

Beaver Lake Park, which spans 83 acres, was transferred to the city of Sammamish in 2003.

“I want to live right here,” Klahanie resident Linda Miller said Tuesday.

Miller, who sat on a bench overlooking the lake while crews finished the pavilion in the background, was taken aback by the park’s beauty.

She’s a fan of the work Sammamish crews have been doing to improve the area.

Workers were also on site this week finishing a trail near the pavilion. It winds southwest from the pavilion through the park.

Throughout the last couple of weeks, workers trenched about a quarter mile of the trail, removed the old top soil, filled it and covered it with 5/8th crushed rock.

For more information on Beaver Lake Park or renting the pavilion for special events, call 425-295-0730 or email rentals@sammamish.us.