LAKE STEVENS — A park near the crest of the hill overlooking the Ebey Island flats might stay a work in progress for a long time, but it’s opening to the public anyway.
As of today, dogs have free run of a fenced-in area at Cavalero Hill Community Park. People can stroll through trails on the 40-acre property.
“The site’s open, at least on a limited basis,” Snohomish County parks director Tom Teigen said. “It’s going to be a number of years before we start doing the large-scale development.”
The park is on 20th Street SE near Cavalero Hill Road, an unincorporated area expected to be annexed by Lake Stevens. An opening ceremony is scheduled at 4 p.m. today.
The county is opening new parks at a time when other governments are considering closing them down or giving them away.
Over the summer, the county took over Wenberg State Park, one of more than a dozen parks Washington wanted to hand off to local governments. King County leaders, meanwhile, are considering the closure of 39 parks as a way to deal with a budget shortfall.
In contrast, Snohomish County has opened several parks this year, with plans for more in 2010.
A $5 gate fee is helping the county operate Wenberg, while inmate labor has kept the cost of preparing the Cavalero Hill Park to about $20,000, Teigen said.
Perhaps the biggest factor in keeping the county’s parks open, however, has been volunteer work from horse riders, bikers, hikers and other user groups.
Fundraising and volunteering by the Sky River Soccer Club allowed the county to open the Fairfield County Park soccer complex near Monroe this year.
Dog-owners group Sno-DOG has taken the lead in maintaining off-leash areas at Willis Tucker Community Park near the Silver Firs neighborhood. Sno-DOG is a major reason the number of dog parks in the county has grown from three in 2007 to more than nine now, Teigen said.
“These dog groups, all they want is a few acres of field,” he said. “They do a good job of patrolling and self-correcting.”
Mountlake Terrace, Monroe and Marysville all have opened municipal dog parks. A private dog park on Ebey Island has been open about two years, said Chris Newman, who oversees the property.
An anemic economy means parks departments need volunteers to pitch in more than ever, said Gabrielle Flanagan, Sno-DOG’s secretary and treasurer.
“The county has been really, really supportive but going forward, we’re going to need some community support,” she said.
The county bought most of the future Cavalero Hill Park in 2001. The purchase defused a fight between the previous landowner, who was trying to bring a large retail store to the site, and neighbors.
Kay McDonald lives nearby on property that’s been in her family for generations. She can remember the present-day park as farmland when growing up in the 1940s and 1950s.
“It’s wonderful,” McDonald said. “Everyone’s very happy that it’s parkland now.”
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465, nhaglund@heraldnet.com.
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