The Rotary Club of West Seattle is pleased to announce an agreement through King County Prosecutors with the man responsible for taking the totem pole from Rotary Viewpoint Park November, 2009.
West Seattle Rotary donated the totem pole to the Seattle Parks Department in 1976 as part of a larger park development project, and has worked with Seattle Parks since then to keep the viewpoint and totem pole maintained.
According to the press release sent by the King County Prosecutor's office the man who removed the totem pole has agreed to pay approximately $3200 in restitution to the Parks Department for the cost of recovering the stolen totem pole. He has also made a payment of $17,745 to the Rotary Club of West Seattle Service Foundation. These funds will afford professional restoration to be completed on the pole. This work was needed at the time of it's removal. The Rotary Club has stated that they do not wish to pursue a criminal charge against the man responsible for its disappearance and have communicated this to the Prosecutor's office.

They are working with the Seattle Parks Department on a Stewardship Agreement so the pole can be restored by skilled artisans in a timely manner.

A bid for the restoration went out shortly after the pole was recovered to a firm called Artech in Renton (though no announcement of a bid award has been made as yet) with deep background and skillset for this kind of work. According to Denise Bisio a Senior Account Manager for Artech the resoration process would work like this:

Scope of work includes collecting the totem pole and transporting to Artech’s warehouse in Renton. Complete surficial cleaning and treatment of existing organic growth, surficial solvent and/or detergent wash, removal of existing cap, removal of existing epoxy base. Installation of impel rods and application of a water borne borate surface treatment or penetrating oil treatment option for insecticidal and fungicidal purposes and general preservation of cell structure. Repair of “loss” areas, color matching repairs, new top cap fabricated, misc touch up. Repaint as close to original as possible. Retrofit existing mount to upgrade onsite conditions and EQ mitigation.
Delivery and installation.