Once a week, when I pick my son up from preschool, I spend the next half hour with him doing something special.
This is a little one-on-one time we can have during my lunch break before taking him to join his baby sister at daycare.
Hunter’s favorite place to go in Sedro-Woolley is Memorial Park, probably because that’s the one he visits after many of our trips to the library.
Check out books, keep our voices as low as possible and we’ll go to the park as a reward. It’s a good system and he loves it.
Sometimes we skip the library and go straight for the playground — this is what we did last week. I packed our ham-and-cheese sandwiches, chips, apples and a cookie for dessert.
Since we’re usually not dining at the park, I hadn’t noticed the city had permanently removed the single bench that used to be found in the park. We found a clean area of plank around the edge of the play area and started to eat our lunch before we hit the slide, merry-go-round and other outdated equipment in the graveled playground.
Of course, like most 4-year-olds, Hunter needed to find a bathroom right as we finished eating.
Behind us was the bathroom, but it was padlocked shut.
Next to it was a green portable potty. Not our first choice, but desperate times called for speedy decisions.
We opened the door and the filth that greeted us was ridiculous. Beer cans littered the floor and the container itself, along with other miscellaneous items of garbage.
The word gross does not even begin to cover how bad it was.
After the bathroom incident was over (and we used the hand sanitizer I keep in my purse), we skipped eating more of our lunch to spend the rest of our time in the park.
When Hunter’s shoe became slightly wedged in the tire of one of the kiddie toys, I said out loud that I should tell the mayor about this mess.
Hunter, being 4, said we should go right then and tell the mayor.
“Where’s the mayor’s house?” Hunter asked.
I explained that the mayor’s “house” was downtown where the firemen and policemen work.
“We need to go there and tell him that the bathroom is old and the toys are too,” he tells me.
Seeing as how not all mommies have the time to mention this problem to the mayor, I told Hunter he was right.
Five minutes later, we were at City Hall talking with “Mayor Mike.”
Hunter told him that the bathroom was old (I added the real description) and the toys were too.
The mayor apologized for the problems and explained the city was trying to find a solution to keep the park from being vandalized.
He said the bench had been permanently removed because a group of students from State Street High School kept dragging it from its place near the playground to the entry way of the community center.
Police have talked with many of these teenagers, but the mayor said it seems like they just thumb their noses at authorities who want to keep the public park looking nice.
We asked Mayor Mike why the playground equipment was so old — he suggested we visit Riverfront or Bingham parks.
While this is good in theory, why should I have to visit the library and then reload my children and drive out of my way when there is supposed to be a lovely little park right there?
For me and all the other moms in town who would like to be able to kill two birds with one stone, I have a suggestion for the school district and city.
Students at State Street High School need to take some responsibility for the upkeep of the park. If they want to go there and hang out, they need to realize the playground is used by many others.
I would suggest having the school adopt the park. Yes, it’s extra work, but most students could use a little extra volunteer time and after the initial cleaning of the graffiti, weeding of the graveled play area and fresh painting of the bathroom and its walls, it would be just a matter of minutes for a group of students to do a quick run through each week.
Perhaps this would give the students an incentive to add a little pressure to their peers who don’t remember what it was like to be 4. Maybe they could see the writing on the playground equipment through a parent’s eye and realize it’s not appropriate.
The city can’t be let off the hook either. The playground equipment at this park is ridiculously old. There should be a priority to replace the equipment and make this park an asset to the community instead of a liability.
The people who really need to take responsibility are those who think it’s funny to ruin an area that should be for small children.
These folks need to grow up and realize there are other places to loiter in town and their behavior isn’t acceptable.
This park is surrounded by the Sedro-Woolley Senior Center, Sedro-Woolley Community Center and Sedro-Woolley Public Library. These are three commodities that enhance the area — now the city and school district need to work together and make Memorial Park one more place to be proud of.
Richardson is the editor of the Courier-Times. She can be reached at 360-855-1641 or via e-mail at .
