City may upgrade Jackson Park
Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, February 2, 2005
EVERETT – Sen. Henry M. Jackson Park may soon get a face lift.
The city parks department is proposing to build a picnic shelter at the north Everett park this summer and making other major improvements in 2006.
A plan to spend $618,000 in city money and $94,000 in federal funding on the renovations went before the City Council Wednesday. A vote is set for Feb. 16.
Dolores De Monbrun, co-chairwoman of the Delta Neighborhood Association, predicted that many residents would use a shelter. Her church, Delta Community Baptist Church, holds its picnics miles away at Forest Park, but members would rather have events in the neighborhood, she said.
The parks department plans a design workshop in the next several months to get residents’ thoughts on other improvements at the park, said Hal Gausman, assistant parks director.
Ideas include a new drainage system, a walking path around the park and a new, expanded playground, Gausman said. The playground would probably include more equipment for toddlers, he said.
Tami Crosby, 43, welcomed the proposal to add items for younger children. She said she took her 1 1/2-year-old granddaughter to the park Tuesday, but there was nothing for the toddler to play on.
James and Pam Wiersum enjoy walking through the park, but they said it needs a new drainage system because parts of it often are muddy.
“It’s really squishy down there,” James Wiersum, 55, said as he pointed to the north end of the park during an afternoon walk.
“It’s like walking through muck,” Pam Wiersum said.
Tim Dean, co-chairman of the Delta Neighborhood Association, said he hopes the parks department installs more benches, spruces up the ball fields and renovates the restrooms.
“We want to turn the park into a more inviting area for families,” he said. “The park has a lot of potential for wonderful things.”
The renovation is part of a parks department push to improve all of the city’s 39 parks in the next several years, Gausman said. In December, the City Council approved a $2.4 million plan to renovate nearby Garfield Park.
