Friday, March 29, 2024

Voters approve Proposition One to improve Enchantment Park

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By Ian Dunn

Editor

Voters in the city of Leavenworth have approved Proposition One to provide $500,000 in funding to improve Enchantment Park and the play structure in Waterfront Park. The measure received 70 percent of the vote. 

City Administrator Joel Walinski said he very much appreciates the voters providing the city with some funding for those improvements. What made this measure successful, Walinski believes, is the focus on improving the turf and lighting at Enchantment Park and improving or replacing the play structure in Waterfront Park. 

“I think those were three things we’ve heard from the community that needed to be done. It wasn’t that far of a stretch for people to say, here’s the project and here’s how we’re going to fund it. Are you willing to fund it? Since those were projects that had been identified by the public, that came through in the voting,” Walinski said. 

The next step, he said, is a public process on what those improvements at Enchantment Park look like. The main scope is known, he said, but there’s probably big questions from users of the park, softball, soccer and baseball on how the construction is going to affect their scheduling. 

“The public and the council has to talk about how we go about lighting those fields, in terms of the time limits on that type of use. That is a change, so we definitely want public input on how that affects the neighborhood and the general use of the park,” Walinski said. “On the play structure, that is community asset. What that looks like and what opportunities it presents for the kids and the parents, that is a generic improvement, but it’s nice to get input from the public in terms of what they want to see.”

Walinski is hoping the city council pushes the public process forward fairly quickly, maybe in January or February. He doesn’t want the city to lose a growing season at the park. 

“If we can get everybody engaged in January and February at least on those field improvements, that would be beneficial,” he said. “A construction period for the play structure, that is not as long. That can go fairly quickly. I think the big thing for us...the arm wrestling is going to scheduling those improvements on those three fields at Enchantment.”

Ben Burris, the president of the Bavarian Adult Mixed Softball Association (BAMS), was very pleased to see the voters in the city step up in such a way. Burris has been very proactive is advocating for improvements at the park, where the BAMS plays all their games. 

“I personally wrote a letter to Joel Walinski at the beginning of the season asking him to address the fields. I know Todd McDevitt from Cascade Youth Baseball had been talking to people as well. This has been a concerted effort,” Burris said. 

Burris said the issues at the park have been going on for a long time. 

“The fields are built on an old rock quarry. I don’t think adequate drainage was ever installed when they first put them in. People tell me, the fields were put in on a foot of gravel, which should provide the drainage, but only if it is sloped to go somewhere,” Burris said. 

Every time the fields were watered, the water would stay on the field. There was often inches of water on the field, even during the hottest days of summer. By nighttime, there would be standing water, Burris said. 

Burris hopes the city addresses maintenance of the fields at the same time. He’s been reading up on the work being done on the field at Safeco Field, where the Mariners play. 

“They are stripping out the entire field and starting over because they’ve put over a foot of sand on the field over the past 12 years,” Burris said. “They sprinkle sand across the top every year to allow it to drain. The grass clippings turn into a thatch that really never comes out. It embeds into the surface and only thing to do is mix it with sand. I don’t really think they do that at Enchantment Park.”

Burris hopes the city gets a turf consultant to provide some long term advice on keeping the fields in good condition. In terms of the scheduling issues created by the upcoming field repair, Burris said it will be pretty significant. 

“If they do the lower field first, that means we would only have access to the upper field. It’s going to be a scheduling issue. We’ll probably have to restrict new teams coming into the league this year. We won’t be handle to handle it,” Burris said. “We’ll have to get together with the league managers and discuss how many games we really want to play. We’ll probably have to cut back on the number of games. It will be a constraint.”

Aaron Simon, president of the Leavenworth Soccer Association, said what is really cool about this is that bonds and levies are not always passed in Leavenworth. 

“If you look at the history in Leavenworth, the pool took three votes. The school bond took several votes to pass. The only thing went through on the first try was the fire hall. The festhall uses lodging tax,” Simon said. “This rates up with something as critical as a fire hall. I’m most proud of that, the overwhelming support on the first try.”

Simon believes it resonated with voters because the park is mainly for the children. 

“I think a lot of people move here to the area to raise a family, so I would hope that would be the case. I know there is a mixed demographic of families in town. Hopefully, the folks that did turn out were thinking with kids in mind,” Simon said. 

He’s excited to see the city involve the baseball, soccer and softball to help evaluate and with the site planning. The specific issue for the LSC is the draining. 

“Working with the Cascade School District, I’ve become aware of how different grasses use water as well as different soils really help with the drainage,” Simon said. “I would hope they use a turf management consultant. That would be my interest.”

Certainly, the construction at the park will create some scheduling issues for soccer, but Simon thinks they might be able to work around it. 

“It’s a big project. In order to put in the drainage, whether is be sand or some type of grading, it’s going to even put field space at more of a premium while that work is done. Ideally, if Alpine Lakes Elementary can get those play fields put in by June, which is what they are shooting for, I think it might be perfect time that the work on Enchantment Park would start in June as well,” Simon said. “Baseball and softball will be wrapped up. Maybe they can have it wrapped up before practices begin in mid-August.”

Simon said they have teams practicing at the softball fields in Dryden or the varsity baseball field in Peshastin. Since they still have those fields, he believes he’ll be able to make it work.  

Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.

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