by Joan Pringle
The Anacortes Parks Foundation is working with the Noon Kiwanis Club to build a play area at Volunteer Park. When completed, the facility will have a basketball court, picnic shelter and children’s play equipment.
A playground area at Volunteer Park is beginning to take shape as the Anacortes Parks Foundation once again joins forces with the Noon Kiwanis Club on a community project.
The combination children’s play area, basketball court and picnic shelter is at the west end of the complex just north of Kiwanis Meadows, a tree-lined play field for youth sports and other activities, also brought about by the two organizations’ efforts.
The Kiwanis Meadows playground has a $100,000 budget and should be completed this year, said Foundation President Doug Colglazier. However, the new asphalt basketball court should be playable in just a couple weeks.
Next week landscaping work will begin, while the picnic structure designed by City Council member and architect Cynthia Richardson is only awaiting a roof. Savage Roofing is donating the labor to install it and its supplier is providing the materials for half the cost, Colglazier said.
The infrastructure for the play area was done this winter, while the 50-car parking lot north of the Meadows was completed last year. Next will come benches and the “new and innovative” playground equipment, Colglazier said.
“We want to do something that is fun and good for kids,” he said. “But just a little bit different.”
Two of the main pieces are an Astro Rotating Climber that spins like a merry-go-round from Dynamo Playgrounds and a Monster Plunge Slide from BCI Burke Company that is selling the equipment to the foundation at a discount. The play area will also include a swing set and a few smaller pieces.
The project is being funded by Kiwanis/Mount Erie dollars, which is money coming from Puget Sound Energy.
In the early 1950s, the Noon Kiwanis Club purchased 40 acres at the top of Mount Erie from a previous landowner in order to gift it to the city for one dollar, Colglazier said. The gift came with the requirement that the land be used for park purposes.
In 1964, the city contracted with PSE, allowing it to build the two communications system towers at the top in exchange for an annual fee, which has increased through the years to $28,000. The city uses the funds for park projects and maintenance.
The Parks Foundation also started getting funds from PSE after the company began contracting with cell phone businesses for additional antennas on the towers in the late 1990s. An agreement was struck between the company and Kiwanis where it would receive 33.3 percent of the contractors’ fees. The club passes on the money to the Parks Foundation to be used for parks and recreation purposes in the Anacortes area. Since the memorandum of understanding was entered in 2000, more than $300,000 Mount Erie dollars have come into the Parks Foundation.
Additional funds flow into the foundation through public and private donations, the most recent include a $10,000 grant from the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community that has been committed to the Ship Harbor Interpretive Reserve and $250,000 from the Marguerite Daniels family for Alton R. Daniels Field renovation.
With those funds and through a board of trustees, the foundation works with the City Parks and Recreation Department and other organizations to manage the planning, financing and construction of parks and facilities. Since its incorporation as a nonprofit in 1994, it has invested nearly $1.3 million into projects and programs on Fidalgo and Guemes islands.
One of the nonprofit’s latest projects was managing the funds for the Our Town Our Park playground at Storvik Park. The list of ventures the foundation has done or lent a hand to includes the Ben Root Skate Park, Ship Harbor Interpretive Preserve, July Fourth fireworks display, and the Bark in the Park and Kids-R-Best festivals — and many others. It’s also assisted the Kiwanis, which gave the foundation a $500 grant to get started, with the Kiwanis Waterfront Park.
Next on the organization’s to-do list includes helping out with Heart Lake amenities that could possibly include a fishing dock, picnic shelters, dinghy dock or swimming area. The city will be conducting a study to see what recreational amenities the community wants and once it decides, the foundation wants to help, Colglazier said.
“We are reflective of the community,” he said.
For more information
For more information about the Anacortes Parks Foundation, which encourages private and public donations of land or money for park and recreation facilities in and around Anacortes, go to http://www.anacortesparksfoundation.org.
