EDMONDS — Dog Poop Park?
That’s what at least one person thinks Edmonds’ newest — and still unnamed — park should be called.
“Every time you go over there you step in dog poop,” the anonymous person explained. The name was one of 88 submitted to the park naming contest sponsored by the city’s park department.
Other ideas were more cryptic.
Take OIWIWB Park. That stands for Oh, I Wish It Were Bigger Park — a sort of protest entry.
Residents spent years trying to get the city to purchase an 11-acre former school campus for the park. The city bought only half.
That, presumably, is why one person came up with “Half Park.”
The entire 5.5-acre park at the old Woodway Elementary School should open later this month. It is in the 23700 block of 104th Avenue W.
The City Council is set to pick a name later this month at its July 21 meeting.
Despite the jokes, the most popular names suggested were serious.
Almost half of them evoked Robin Hood and his Merry Men. The neighborhood is sometimes called Sherwood Forest, and nearby streets include Friar Tuck Lane, Little John Court, Nottingham Road and Robin Hood Drive.
“The Robin Hood theme is massive in this area,” said Colin Southcote-Want, who wants the park name to evoke the good-hearted bandit.
But there were even more ideas.
One person suggested Barack Obama Park, two people thought of naming the park after local celebrity J.P. Patches, and three people said the park should be named after its dominant feature: a giant, blossoming cherry tree.
While the final choice rests with the City Council, the city’s planning board has weighed in. It recommended this week that the city choose Hickman Park, in honor of nearby resident Robert O. Hickman, who is in his 80s.
Hickman is a doctor who invented an important medical device in the 1970s. Now known as the Hickman line, the device helps deliver medications and fluids to countless patients around the world.
Some Edmonds residents are already pointing out a problem, though.
Hickman doesn’t live in Edmonds. He lives 1.5 miles from the park in Woodway.
That shouldn’t disqualify the doctor, said Cheryl Clarke, whose youngest son uses the Hickman line for regular medical treatments. Hickman himself is a family friend who doesn’t even realize the park might be named after him, she said.
“He’s unaware,” Clarke said. “He’s not the type of person to seek out this type of honor for himself.”
Chris Fyall: 425-339-3447, cfyall@heraldnet.com.
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