Snohomish County - Miner's Corner County Park - Part 1

Snohomish County’s Department of Parks has suggested (much like a tag team of old style car salesmen who've cornered you in their office with the door closed) … that Wellington Hills Park should become something it is not.

You see, Snohomish County was given the opportunity to spend “free” taxpayer money - given to it by King County because King County didn’t want the Brightwater sewage plant in their county – they wanted it in Snohomish County … and so tax money (with the fancy name, “mitigation”) changed hands.

Unfortunately, the residents of both North King County and South Snohomish County, living in the Woodinville Washington area, have become the targets of a massive redevelopment project; better known as the proposed Wellington Hills “Tournament-Level Sports Complex”, the brainchild (?) of the Department of Parks.

BTW, using the word “park” with this plan is an insult to all the small and large parks scattered across this Nation, Canada, Europe and other places – where there are parks for people of all ages to walk, stroll, hike, sit, rest, picnic, toss Frisbees, and enjoy peace, calmness and various forms of greenery.

Anyway, I’m starting a new series.  This time I'm showing two Snohomish County parks and both were built with Brightwater mitigation money.

I hope the photos reveal the skill level and commitment to the general public of the Department of Parks as they landscape and decorate with weeds and stumps, logs and odd and/or less than thrilling play structures.

Here are the first photos of, “Miner’s Corner County Park”, located at 228^th St. SE and 45^th Ave. SE.

Peruse the chart  … for the purposes of this blog, I’m referring only to the two parts of no.3 – the project: “39^th/228^th Park Facility”.

Paying attention? The address of Miner’s Corner is 45 & 228^th. Curious isn’t it?

The next three photo were taken July 2013

This sign was on a temporary office building during the construction of Miner’s Corner Park.  Note who is the “Designer/Landscape Architect/Engineer”.

Looking eastward across the property during construction of the park. Essentially they made a flat, blank piece of ground with the following exceptions:

The upright lollipops say: “Danger Petroleum Pipeline, Olympic Pipe Line Co.” Note the power lines located above the petroleum pipelines.

Photo taken last week. 

I stood approximately in the same location as for the during-construction photo. The petroleum pipelines and the power lines are still there.

Also note - the two warning signs are best seen from 228th Street (note the street curb).

Mustn't forget one of the other major features of Miner's Corner County Park - the power lines.

So, you ask, why worry about Miner's Corner Park?

Because the people who designed Miner's Corner are the ones who want to spend 27 million dollars to replace the current Wellington Hills Park with a "Tournament-Level Sports Complex" ... and, as with the fore-mentioned car salesmen, expensive sizzle is what they're selling.



go to Part 2    Part 3

photos by Bill Stankus