Construction of the first phase of Willis D. Tucker Regional Park should begin later this year.
Snohomish County’s parks department has applied for building permits and will send the project out to bid once they are approved, said Marc Krandel, parks planning supervisor.
The park spans almost 84 acres and sits three miles east of Mill Creek. The park was dedicated to Willis D. Tucker, the county’s first executive, in May 2000, one month before he died of cancer.
The project’s first phase includes building a new parks administration building and community center, two full-size baseball fields, a skateboard park, trails, infrastructure such as sewer and waterlines, and initial work on an amphitheater.
The first phase will cost about $3.5 million. Future phases will include soccer fields, an off-leash dog park, additional parking and restrooms. Total costs are approximately $9.7 million.
"It’s a wonderful project," Krandel said. "We’re going to do something that the community was part of planning. Hopefully they’re going to be very proud of it.
"I’m sure it’s going to get a lot of use. There are no other parks in that neighborhood."
The park will mostly serve residents in the Snohomish Cascade and Silver Firs neighborhoods.
The parks administration building and community center is expected to cost $1.5 million. The parks administration and planning office currently is located south of Lake Stevens on Highway 9 in the former Dujardin Real Estate building, and the county’s $100,000-a-year lease runs through 2004.
Even after the construction bid is awarded to start on the park, much of the work won’t begin until later this year.
"There’s a lot of grading and moving dirt around," Krandel said. "That has to happen when it’s dry — so that means in the summer."
Even if some of the sport fields are finished this year, the turf may not be tough enough for the fields to be used. "We can’t allow play until the grass has taken," he said. "Otherwise it just tears it up and we have to start over again."
Reporter Brian Kelly: 425-339-3422 or kelly@heraldnet.com.
Herald file photo
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