EVERETT — Sen. Henry M. Jackson Park hasn’t changed much in the past 30 years.
The playground equipment is decades old. The baseball fields are too soggy to use most of the year.
People do visit the north Everett park, but the parks director says it could be used far more frequently.
That’s the reason the city is in the middle of planning changes that should inject new life into the aging park.
They’ve held several public meetings to gather opinion and had a consultant put together a few different sketches of what the park could look like.
All options draw from the same list of amenities: versatile athletic fields, an improved and expanded playground, a community garden with vegetable plots, basketball courts, open space, a view terrace, a picnic shelter, walking paths, and off-street parking.
One of the options features a small off-leash dog park; another an arboretum area with space for picnics.
“We want the community to love this park and treasure it,” said Paul Kaftanski, Everett’s Parks and Recreation director.
Jackson Park is about 15 acres. It offers athletic fields, a playground, a picnic shelter and open space. It’s considered a community park, meaning it’s supposed to draw people from both the surrounding neighborhoods and from elsewhere in the city.
Terri West Amburgy lives a few blocks away in the Delta Neighborhood. She sees the potential but says at the moment, “it’s a really sad park.”
“I never take my daughter there because there’s nothing there for her to do,” said Amburgy, who serves on an advisory committee for the park’s renovation.
She said many of her neighbors want to make sure the renovated park isn’t dominated by the sports fields.
“We want it to have a community feel,” she said.
Right now she packs her family up and takes them in the car to Legion Park or Forest Park. Someday, it would be nice if her neighborhood park offered more, she said.
The city bought the land in 1917 from the Everett Improvement Company for $10,000. Until 1992 the park was called Riverdale.
During its first years the park served as a campground. During the Depression, it became a community garden that produced enough veggies to feed 1,800 people.
The park was chosen for a Works Progress Administration project and by 1940 it had a four-acre baseball diamond. For decades, it continued to serve as a community baseball center.
Kaftanski said use of the athletic fields has waned in recent years, as other sports like soccer and lacrosse have gained in popularity.
The proposed athletic fields would probably be synthetic and lighted, so they could be used for multiple sports year round.
Everett Community College and the city are talking about sharing the cost of the fields. The college lost its ball field during a land deal to expand Providence Regional Medical Center. It would like to have its soccer team practice closer to the college, said Patrick Sisneros, an EvCC vice president. Right now the team practices in south Everett.
“We have a strong interest in partnering,” he said. “It makes a whole lot of sense.”
City officials plan to continue gathering comments until the end of July. When plans are completed, they still have to be approved by the City Council.
The city already set aside $200,000 to plan the upgrades and another nearly half a million dollars to design the park and prepare construction documents.
Money to complete the project would come from a combination of city capital funds and grants. If city money continues to be tight, the project could be completed in stages as dollars become available. The earliest the park would be completed is 2013.
Debra Smith: 425-339-3197, dsmith@heraldnet.com.
Have your say
Send comments about the park renovation to Everett Parks and Recreation, 802 E. Mukilteo Blvd., Everett, WA 98203.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
