SNOHOMISH — The Park and Recreation Board has decided on names for five city parks and will soon send the preferred options to the City Council for consideration.
Whistle Stop Park is the proposed name for the future park at 1119 Maple Ave. next to the Centennial Trail. The term evokes memories for resident Morgan Davis who suggested the name.
“In 1948 at age 6, I watched President Harry S. Truman give a speech from the back of a Northern Pacific passenger train in Snohomish. Snohomish then was considered a whistle-stop. Mayor Payson Peterson presented him with a bushel of corn before the President’s short campaign speech,” Davis wrote in his nomination.
A park at 2000 Ludwig Road would be known as The Family Farm. The plot includes a farmhouse, barn, chicken coop, well and orchard.
The city plans to keep existing historic structures and provide interpretive information about small scale farming and sustainability.
The city block that includes the Boys & Girls Club, Tillicum Kiwanis Park and the skate park would officially become Averill Field after baseball Hall of Famer Earl Averill who played in the major leagues from 1929 to 1941. The site used to have a baseball diamond named after him.
The unnamed 20-acre property along the right bank of the Snohomish River, which includes the boat launch, will honor Native American history. Julia Park or Park Julia will memorialize a Native American basketweaver and merchant said to have “witnessed the signing of the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott” and later died of smallpox.
The city has obtained $290,500 in grants “to restore a riparian and wetland buffer” at the site according to city project manager Denise Johns. Design and permitting will begin this year, Johns said in an email.
Meanwhile, a 10-acre property on Lake Avenue would be formally named Harrymans Farm Park in agreement with the Harryman family which sold the land to the city two decades ago.
During the naming process, the city solicited 52 name suggestions through an online poll, Johns said. The naming process began in 2017.
In other parks news, the Parks Board is also seeking applicants for an opening. Members serve 3-year terms. The board has decided to meet every other month instead of monthly in 2019. Board chair Lya Badgley said the new schedule was partly decided out of consideration for the time of city staffers required to attend board meetings.
Applications for the board seat are due Jan. 4 by 4 p.m. Apply online at www.snohomishwa.gov/409/Miscellaneous-City-Forms or at City Hall at 116 Union Ave.
