It's been cold, there's a bit of snow on the ground along with patches of road ice - Now's a perfect moment to look-back at a past November

Wellington Hills Park and 240th St. during a typical "Convergent Zone" snow. 

photos taken November 27, 2006 by Bill Stankus

71st Dr. SE, walking towards 240th St.

                                                       

Golf Course, south side of 240th

                                                    

240th St. and view to the west

                                                         

Looking downhill, first curve 240th St.

Stuck cars seen from first curve 240th St.

Walking past cars, view of last 240th curve before Rt.9

240th St. curve uphill of Primus Bldg./asphalt recycling co.

Drivers attempted going up or down 240th St. - same results

Powerful vehicles - stuck in ditch

Waiting for a tow

Sanding trucks could only go so far uphill from Rt. 9

Obviously the "Road Closed" sign was effective

Down on Rt 9. plowing & sanding helped - once the snow stopped falling

One after another, ditch parking on Rt 9 from 240th St. south to 195th St.

Happy & safe holiday driving - Remember, keep faith in yourself and the drivers near you - real winter is about to begin.

Thanksgiving weekend, 2014

First snow of the season

Happy Holidays to all ...





... even to the Scrooge McGrinches of Snohomish County.



photo by Bill Stankus
November 29, 2014

Turf crumbs, artificial turf, synthetic turf & ignorance is not bliss

Snohomish County currently has one artificial turf field - Tambark Creek Park - built with mitigation funds given to Snohomish County by King County so that King County could build the Brightwater sewage plant in Snohomish County.

With more of that mitigation pot-o-gold, Snohomish County wants to tear-up Wellington Hills Park and then build six artificial turf fields with stadium lights in Wellington Hills Park.

Their stated purpose: Make Wellington Hills Park a cash cow.

Turf crumbs on the surrounding concrete, near picnic tables at Tambark Creek Park, Snohomish County Washington.

For more info on the controversial use of artificial turf fields:

NBC News - How safe?

Safe Healthy Playing Fields Coalition

Lots of info at Syn Turf

This is just one of many Youtubes on the health hazards for children and the dangers of artificial turf fields.

Wellington Hills Park - Snohomish County, Washington State

240^th Street SE runs east-west through Wellington Hills Park. 

The following photos were taken approximately mid-way on 240^th – The first one is from the north side of the street, looking westward. The second is of the south side of 240^th.

If Snohomish County's Department of Parks gets their way, Wellington Hills Park  - what you see in the panoramas - would be nuked out of existence and replaced … not with the park people have said they want … but with a real pork barrel project - a tournament-level sports complex.




Play any Orwellian word game you want - their plan is NOT a community park - it is commercial development meant for the benefit of for-profit sports businesses.

  

If you search this blog's archives, you'll find lots of scenic views of Wellington Hills Park. What I can't show are the many hundreds of hours spent by average workaday people delving into the mysteries of the County's bureaucracy in order to counter the County’s sports complex plan.

Yet we persist because we want to save a natural landmark from inappropriate development and we don't want our community mugged by excessive and unnecessary “pollutions” – traffic congestion on the single road this area depends upon, evening and weekend crowds and noise, stadium lights and the constant churn produced by parking lots for over 750 cars.

  

Fundamentally we believe:  Neighborhoods should have a voice in what happens to their community.  Special interest groups may have lobbyists and easy access to bureaucracy, but that doesn't necessarily equate with "doing the right thing".

 

We are not opposed to sports or sports fields - that has never been our issue.  What we object to is the inappropriate development of Wellington Hills Park and the slick way our community has been treated.   

Sports fields have specific requirements, none that occur in Wellington Hills Park. Those basic needs are: open space, quick access via decent roads, large parking lots, sewer lines, etc.. Sports fields should also not disrupt or negatively impact their surroundings - which the Dept. of Parks' plan will do in bucket fulls.

 

In many ways, the proposed “tournament level sports complex” is no different than when a big box store elbows its way into a quiet rural town … and disrupts and impacts the quality of life and the daily life of established neighborhoods.

I close with these questions:

• Should taxpayer money (in this case, $27 million) be used to build an expensive sports complex to benefit for-profit sports businesses?

• Is this situation any different than when professional sport teams owners expect taxpayers to pay for expensive stadiums, arenas and ballparks?

 

Beyond Wellington Hills Park: Why Preservation of the Park is Critical - Part 5

Part 1   Part 2   Part 3   Park 4

Returning to the basic question  - Should there be a green buffer, a true Northwest park   ...  located between family homes and a full-blown industrial area?

Looking past the row of skinny trees, located on the edge of the cliff at the western boundary of Wellington Hills Park, is a lower valley filled with industrial businesses, garbage trucks, storage rentals, and mounds of stuff.

Here's the edge of the hodge-podge commercial 'district' that's beyond the skinny trees  ... just west of Highway 9 and Route 522. Razor wire, fences ... and mounds of stuff on the ground.

Beyond the dust (?) cloud and the tree line are homes and Wellington Hills Park.

This reminds me of TV commercials showing the "before" of a super fund clean-up.

I didn't see armed patrols of SMIRSH or KAOS, but a guy in a pick-up truck kinda glared at me.

I think this is landscaping mulch or maybe it's pothole repair stuff.

Another pile?
What's this, you ask? 
It's a huge mound of worn out roofing shingles.

I mean, can you ever have too many old, used, extra large tires?

Nothing says Happy-Joy-Joy like a Smiley Face and bulging eyeballs.

 

The last pic is of the asphalt & concrete recycling business (the piles of stuff located in top third of the photo).


So, returning to the question of what should happen to Wellington Hills Park: 

Having a buffer between the businesses in the Route 9 valley and the residential area of Wellington Hills Park is not a luxury, it's an absolute necessity.


photos by Bill Stankus

The awesomeness of concrete that isn't a Federal penitentiary, Normandy bunker or Soviet era missle silo

When you're stuck in Route 9 traffic near Costco (in Woodinville), cast your eyes eastward and marvel at the awesomeness of the pre-post minimalist-modernistic architectural wonder that's holding back a gazillion tons of dirt (and a future retention pond).

photos taken on a Sunday's late afternoon ... answering the question why there are no tourists taking selfies at this new landmark.




photos by Bill Stankus
August 2014

Can't wait to see what happens when a few thousand more cars jam the road with the frustrating hope of getting to Snohomish County's Tournament-Level Sports Complex

I lied.  I can wait forever. Indeed, I hope the Department of Parks Sports Complex is never built - and it's soon consigned to that awkward looking, almost filled building in Everett ... the one with the spray painted sign: "Locked In This Building Are All Of Our Really Bad Ideas".

Time of photos
4:30PM
Friday
September 5, 2014 

Location
240th Street SE & Route 9
Woodinville, Washington
Snohomish County

This is the intersection the tunnel-vision bureaucrats and their coven of "stakeholders" have decided, in their infinitely myopic and self-serving manner, should be the gateway to the "Tournament-Level Sports Complex" at Wellington Hills Park.

BTW - At the same time as these photos, the intersection at 195th & Route 9 was equally terrible.
 

photos by Bill Stankus
Sept. 5, 2014

Beyond Wellington Hills Park: Why Preservation of the Park is Critical - Part 4

links to Part 1... Part 2 ... Part 3 ... Part 5

I was standing at that row of skinny trees located on the cliff (western boundary of Wellington Hills Park) for this set of photos.

 
Looking down on the roofs of Wellington Business Park.

  
As seen from the cliff's edge of Wellington Hills Park.
• Workers standing on the roof of one of the Wellington Business Park buildings.
• The scrap metal business, west of Route 9, is visible.

 

Businesses seen from the cliff's edge of Wellington Hills Park. 
• The blue striped building is a wholesale restaurant supply business.

 

From the cliff’s edge, looking beyond the roofs of Wellington Business Park.
• The building with three open doors is a scrap metal business.
• Parking lot full of Waste Management garbage trucks.



Miscellaneous businesses as seen from the cliff's edge of Wellington Hills Park. 
 

That's State Highway 522 at the bottom of the photo. 

Note the swath of trees which blocks the view of the nearby businesses from the highway ... in that narrow strip of trees is an important salmon stream - Bear Creek.


photos by Bill Stankus