POULSBO — The sight of a detention pond being pumped out at the intersection of State Routes 3 and 305 Saturday and Sunday drew quite a few calls from concerned residents.

However, Washington State Department of Transportation officials quickly provided an answer, even though the pond is not owned by the state.

“Wilcox Construction was doing construction up at the Olhava site and thought some dirty water might have come down during the last rainfall event,” explained Nick Dawson, Olympic Region communications manager for WSDOT.

For that reason, workers from Wilcox took a pro-active approach and pumped water from the pond onto an 83-acre parcel on the Olhava site, Dawson said.

By running the water onto the undeveloped land, the ground will serve as a natural filter for the run-off, he said.

The work was completed before the company began a paving project on the site during the past week.

“Once the paving is complete, there shouldn’t be any more problems,” Dawson said.

Work continues at Olhava as both Wal-Mart and The Home Depot prepare for their January 2006 openings, which are expected to come within weeks of each other. City officials confirmed that the final short plat for Olhava has not yet been completed, but no one would speculate as to when that would happen.

The first residential development in the district took another step forward as a notice of application was issued Dec. 3.

The development dubbed the Parkside Planned Unit Development will feature 185 single-unit family lots on the 41.25-acre parcel bounded by SR 3 to the north, Finn Hill Road to the south and west and Viking Avenue to the east.

It is tentatively set to be reviewed by the Poulsbo Planning Commission Jan. 24, 2006 and city council Feb. 15, 2006.