Snohomish County earns a bird ie

Tomorrow, September 30, 2012, Snohomish County is closing forever the Wellington Hills Golf Course.

While I am not a golfer, I tip my cap to the generations of golfers who sweetly drove, occasionally hacked and putted for par ...

I know you have good memories and more than a few golf tales of when you golfed the Wellington Hills Golf Course.

The Fundraiser - in the building

I spent much of the day tagging along with golfers as they played Golf Scramble ... however, I did get a few pics inside the club house before walking 36 holes of golf.

kinda neat!

Oil painting by Ted Pankowski

beautiful quilt by Nancy Martin 

I wish I'd bid on this!

Autographed guitar, the Wilson sisters, aka, Heart

by the time she was through setting-up, the table was overflowing with pies and cookies

Teri Derr begins the auction

One other thing: IT WAS A TERRIFIC EVENT and "Thank You" to everyone who came, donated, ate, laughed, told stories and are standing up for our community!

NSWP Fundraiser - Photos of the Golf Scramble

Photos during the Golf Scramble part of the NSWP Fundraiser!

(and I had a terrific time tagging along with the golfers!)

Brief message about the Golf Scramble-Fundraiser

I just got home from the NSWP Fundraiser. Wow!

First, I want to say, "Thank you" to all those that came to the bake sale, the golf scramble, the lunch and the auction ... It was a totally terrific and successful day!

Those who worked at making today happen all agreed, it was wonderful meeting everyone who came and offered their support and we certainly appreciate your donations.  As one person said to me, "It's terrible we have to fight our own government to protect our community but if we must, we must."

We were heartened by today because we know we're doing the right thing and as our message gains momentum we firmly believe we can protect our community from the County's bad development plans.

Bill Stankus


ps: I will be posting photos of today just as fast as I can.

Proposed changes to 240th Ave. SE at Route 9, across from Costco

Back in May 2012 when the proposed sports complex was first announced to the neighborhood (that's just four months ago) we were told they, the County, had a master plan for their commercial "park" and, "it was a done deal" and "we would like it".

However, at that time, they were only going to build their "park". The surrounding roads sort of didn't exist in their plans and would be dealt with later, after the "park" was in place.

While their master plan hasn't radically changed ('tho they continue to move the basic elements around much like in a board game), at least there's now a conceptual drawing what 240th St. SE could become.

The first picture is a copy of their official drawing. The second picture is an enlargement of the 240th and Route 9 redesign.

Letter to Woodinville Weekly

REGIONAL SPORTS PARK AT WELLINGTON from the Woodinville Weekly

For those of  you who wonder why the neighbors of the Wellington Hills area are opposed to the building of a park at the Wellington Hills golf course site by the Snohomish County Park Department, you have to consider the intent of these feelings.

A regional sports park is best suited in industrial or business park areas where traffic, noise and lighting are not a problem.

The proposed development would bring all of these to our area.

Traffic is one of the biggest problems as 240th St S.E. is already a traffic problem area.  Before Costco was built, the traffic count was 400 cars per day and it has now risen to 2,800 per day.  The parking lot for the proposed development is the same size of that of the Costco lot.

The parks department is proposing as many as nine ball fields, four lighted artificial fields, three natural grass and two more if needed.  The fields will be primarily used for soccer with as many as four or more major tournaments a year.

This could bring in an extra 2,800 or more cars per day during tournament play.

Snohomish County currently has no other such type of park, which is in the close proximity to a residential area as this park will be.

The main use of this park will be organized sports, which of course will have to pay to use the facility.

If the Marymoor Park is any indication, the people parking in this park will also have to pay to park.
Funding for this park comes from mitigation funding from King County when the Brightwater plant was built.

The implication is that the Brightwater plant negatively affected the people living in this area.

The ONLY negative impact it had is in the loss of property taxes on the site due to the fact it is now owned by King County.

It does not create noise, traffic or lighting problems, which is exactly what it will create for those of us living adjacent to this site, which is why we are in opposition to the proposed development.
Larry S. Nelson, Woodinville

Latest Master Plan of Proposed Wellington Hills County Park

For the County's latest Master Plan proposed for the Wellington Golf Course, go to their link here.

Otherwise, here's the drawing.

(I've also included a closer look at the plan.)