Arlington celebrates new bike track at Jensen Park
Published 12:05 pm Thursday, July 30, 2026
ARLINGTON — Kids of all ages pushed and pulled their bikes Wednesday on Arlington’s new pump track after the city celebrated its opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
A bicycle pump track is designed so riders can maintain speed by “pumping” their bikes, pushing their body weight down and pulling up over small hills and around banks with little or no pedaling.
The Arlington Rotary Club, particularly club member Bill Kmet, worked with the city for five years to make the project a reality.
The event celebrated two pump tracks, with one designed for younger beginners, at Jensen Park off Jensen Farm Lane, east of Highway 9 and south of East Highland Drive.
The project’s total construction cost was $618,000, according to Arlington spokesperson Mandy Kruger. The Rotary Club raised about $250,000, and Snohomish County, the Stillaguamish Tribe and Amazon each donated more than $100,000.
“I’m just super happy,” Kmet said in an interview after the ceremony. “It’s just a thrill to see little kids, you know, Strider bikes to old guys on mountain bikes, and scooters and skateboards. It’s just a fun place for people to be and a safe place for people to be.”
Kmet first got the idea from Mark Everett, owner of bike shop Arlington Velo Sport. Everett set up a portable pump track in his parking lot and Kmet went to take a look
“I said, ‘This is really cool. We need this,’ and so my wife Robin and I started visiting pump tracks, and the one that really caught my eye was in Leavenworth,” Kmet said. “I’ve been to tracks in Arizona and Bellingham and all over the place.”
This all started before the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
“Then COVID shut everything down, so I had to restart again,” Kmet said. “It didn’t take a lot of convincing, but convinced the Rotary Club we need to be behind this.”
The Arlington Rotary Club utilized its annual Great Stilly Duck Dash event, a rubber duck race down the Stillaguamish River that began in 1987 and has raised more than $3 million for various Arlington community projects, the Rotary Club website says.
At Jensen Park, the new asphalt covers 14,000 square feet with both tracks designed by American Ramp Company. Features of the tracks allow riders to time themselves through the Vorld app to compete with other riders, spokesperson Maddie Ferson said during the ceremony.
Ferson began working with Kmet and the Rotary Club in 2021, she said.
“I will say, you guys are very unique,” Ferson said. “We hear a lot of talk with other cities and communities about wanting to contribute to parks like this, but very rarely does it happen.”
While the track is finished, the city still plans to add bike racks, garbage cans and some signage, said Sarah Lopez, Arlington community engagement director, after the ceremony. Landscapers will seed and water the grass around the edge in the fall, she said.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony had the highest attendance that Arlington Mayor Don Vanney could recall, he said during the ceremony.
“As we’d seen earlier, there was many of the kids up here riding and all I saw was grins from ear to ear,” he said.
The track had been cleared so elected officials, Rotary Club members and city partners could make speeches and take pictures. All the while, bike riders inched their way back toward the top, itching to drop back in.
Once the ceremony was over, the track was so crowded that kids gathered at the entrance to wait their turn.
Taylor Scott Richmond: 425-339-3046; taylor.richmond@heraldnet.com; Bluesky: @btayokay.bsky.social
