DOT engineer finds art outlet with ‘Burl’

YAKIMA – Eric Snider has always been a doodler. Now he gets paid for it.

While taking notes in high school, he invariably filled the borders with sketches. When he began studying engineering at Yakima Valley Community College, “I was even worse,” he said.

“I was always drawing all the time, constantly,” said Snider, 31. “Teachers would be saying, ‘Eric, you’ve got to get going on your work,’ and I’d be like, ‘Yeah, but I’m almost done with this drawing.’ “

His gift for sketching melded well with his engineering degree when he was hired to do computer-aided drafting by the state Department of Transportation. When he was promoted into the DOT’s Interstate 90 project office two years ago, his drawing talent paid off.

I-90 project director Brian White was looking for a user-friendly way to explain safety improvements planned for the interstate east of Snoqualmie Pass, between Hyak and Easton. Between 2010 and 2015, DOT plans a $545 million project to eliminate that stretch’s sharp curves, expand protective measures against avalanches and rockfalls, and build wildlife-crossing corridors over and under the freeway.

White and his staff had already kicked around a “Burl the Squirrel” character to use in its community relations. But the concept had gone nowhere until Snider joined the I-90 project team.

“I knew he was a doodler,” said White. “I said, ‘If you’ve got some spare time, maybe we could do a coloring book or something, maybe bring Burl to life.’ An hour later he’s in my office with some drawings saying, ‘OK, what do you think of this?’ “

“Burl the Squirrel,” the smiling, informative DOT “spokes-squirrel,” has shown up on DOT publications, at DOT information booths at county fairs, in the “Burl the Squirrel Activity Book” and in comic-strip panels sent monthly to people requesting project updates.

The Burl campaign has earned kudos, including the Transportation Research Board’s “Communicating with John and Jane Public Award” and the Ad Club of Yakima’s Chinook Gold Award.

“Occasionally you’ll meet people who say, ‘It’s great you have this cartoon character, but shouldn’t you be spending your time designing?’ ” White said. “But it’s just a way to talk to folks about the project. A lot of times we tell people we have this engineering project, and it’ll be ‘Oh, engineering …’ and they shy away.”

Not from Burl, though. When kids grab the activity book at county fairs or other outreach locations and show it to their parents, White said, that’s another way for the DOT to get its point across.

In the first Burl the Squirrel panel, Burl explains to an audience of animals that construction on the I-90 improvements will begin in 2010.

“So until then,” he tells his listeners – a rabbit, deer, elk, beaver, turtle and a bear lugging around a salmon in a bucket – “we have to … RUN!!!” The wide-eyed animals race to escape oncoming traffic.

As for Eric Snider, he’s still drawing as part of his job as a transportation planning specialist, creating brochures and doing artistic renditions of various projects.

“If we’re in a meeting,” he said, “I’ll write a short note about what we’re talking about and I’ll throw in an illustration about what we’re doing. … I’ve trained myself to use it as a sort of shorthand for notetaking.”