Plans moving forward for Front Street Park upgrades

The Leavenworth City Council has approved a contract with J.A. Brennan for the creation of a Front Street Park masterplan. City Administrator Joel Walinski said, in working with the Downtown Steering Committee, one of the things they’ve been looking at the past couple years is quite a bit of deferred maintenance in Front Street Park.
“In Front Street Park, we have curbs, sidewalks, lighting. There has always been the possibility of a walking plaza and what that looks like. We’ve also talked about Front Street Park in terms of the chamber of commerce and people that use the park for their various events, added electricity is needed,” Walinski said at the April 10 city council meeting.
Walinski said some of the Birch trees downtown are quite old and need to be replaced. The sound system also needs to be improved. Also, the Front Street restrooms are overloaded and need to be expanded.
There are also some concerns about the sledding hill, which not only degrades the grassy hill downtown each winter, but is also dangerous when the conditions are icy.
“The sledding hill, the grassy area there is something that has been talked about in terms of the best use for that. It is a fun activity. People enjoy that activity. But in the same breath, they say, should that be going on there? We need to talk about that,” Walinski said.
The scope of work in the masterplan would have a plan for phasing that, he said, and also a cost estimate so those improvements could be made, not necessarily all in one year, but maybe over the course of two or three years.
J.A. Brennan has been used by the city before.
“They’ve actually done a lot of work in eastern Washington. One of the things I like about them, they do a lot of work for smaller cities. A lot of their work goes about how you fund things, because that is always a question,” Walinski said. “You can have the nicest plan in the world, but if you don’t have a plan to pay for it, then it usually doesn’t get built. That is one of the reasons we like them.”
The J.A. Brennan company also knows the downtown masterplan, Walinski pointed out.
“They know the type of landscape design we appreciate. That knowledge moves us to a point where they can put together this masterplan for the downtown Front Street Park at a cost not to exceed $35,000,” Walinski said. “We had set aside some design money and money for the Front Street restrooms. The downtown steering committee felt it was a better use of those funds to use for the overall masterplan for Front Street Park rather than just expanding the restrooms.”
Mayor Cheri Kelley Farivar asked how the data would be collected on the sledding hill. Interviewing people? Walinski said he didn’t think they would do that.
“The Downtown Steering Committee has had a number of conversations with a lot of various people. I don’t think you make determination on that. I think what they saw, you have a drop in elevation, even though not huge, it does get icy and slippery,” Walinski said. “How do you go about addressing those? One of the ways is to lower that elevation and make it more people friendly. I don’t think it will disappear. What will happen is they’ll manage it differently so it is not as big a potential liability.”
Farivar said she wants to be interviewed about the sledding hill.
“That is where this is going. I want somebody to hear what I think about that sledding hill for those very reasons. I will find a way to give my opinion,” Farivar said, partly in jest.
Councilman Elmer Larsen said they tried to address the sledding hill back in 1990.
“They came with the idea of long walk traversing that slope to encourage kids to rolls down it. Maybe sit and watch activities,” Larsen said. “One alternative might be to terrace portions of it. You might reduce some of the impacts of sledding or restrict sledding to certain areas.”
Councilwoman Margaret Neighbors suggested doing some sort of memorial for Bob Rogers and Ted Price in Front Street Park, particularly since nothing has been done on the proposed plaza downtown for the two men credited with creating the Bavarian theme in Leavenworth.
The families of Price and Rogers have donated money toward that proposed plaza.
“I don’t when we’ll find the money to do the plaza. Maybe we do the memorial in Front Street Park, rather than in that corner. I think this is something we need to do because those families donated that money quite a few years ago,” Neighbors said. “I’m feeling guilty about that, because they don’t have some tangible thing they can see.”
City Finance Director Chantell Steiner said that has been entered into the 2017-18 budget. Neighbors asked if there was the possibility of getting something done sooner.
“It also might be appropriate when the Mr. Hartwig’s building in the park is complete. Maybe there could at least be an acknowledgement,” Walinski said.
Councilwoman Carolyn Wilson agreed.
“That’s a good idea because they gave a chunk of money. We could do something and move it later,” Wilson said.
Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.