Support Trails and Culture at the Bonney Lake Parks Summit

As advertised in Patch yesterday, Bonney Lake Parks Summit will be held on Monday, May 7 at 6:00 pm in the Justice Center located at 9002 Main Street in Bonney Lake.

It appears that the focus of the Parks Summit is to hear from as many of us as possible regarding what we’d like to have in the way of parks in Bonney Lake. My guess is that the survey done by the Bonney Lake Park Board in 2010, with 75 percent of the respondents voting for trails, is no longer acceptable and the City is looking to support justification for building Sports Fields and/or a Sports Complex.

Being a former coach in the Sumner Soccer Club (SSC) I’m certainly in favor of the addition of sports fields in/around Bonney Lake, where needed. At current count SSC is using about 13 fields here on the plateau, and baseball is using 20, some of which are the same fields so teams may have to compete with each other for use. If we are going to build new fields I want them built in areas where they will not adversely impact the environment, especially Fennel Creek.   

That said, as a former Bonney Lake Park Board member I strongly support the 75 percent vote for trails and would like to know why Bonney Lake after 7 years of talking about the Fennel Creek Trail still has no trail built? When are we going to start moving this project forward? After five years the Safe Streets project creating an ADA compliant trail from Fennel Creek up the steep slope toward Victor Falls School may begin soon. While this is nice and will benefit the students attending Victor Falls Elementary, it will do very little to promote the trail along Fennel Creek. As stated above the Fennel Creek Trail project has been languishing for 7 years.  A trail can initially be nothing more than cleared areas that provide a path through a forest, like the trails in Mid-town Park. I use the Mid-town Park trails only as an example because they do not have a long life time ahead of them. When Quadrant decides to develop this forest, it will be clear cut and all current trails will for the most part be eliminated, which is why, we need to get to work on the Fennel Creek Trail plan that was approved in 2005 without further delay.

Thanks for your time. I hope to see you at the Justice Center on May 7th helping us to support development of the Fennel Creek Trail and addition of an Arts and Cultural Heritage Center in Bonney Lake.