The historic gazebo at Clark Park, to be removed by the city to be replaced with a dog park, stands within the fenced-off park Sunday, Dec. 1.
Photo by Michael Whitney.
EVERETT — The city has temporarily fenced off Clark Park at 24th and Lombard to begin deconstructing the park’s historic gazebo and constructing an off-leash dog play area in its place.
City spokeswoman Simone Tarver said it could take until summer, when the 2,700-square-foot dog park is scheduled to be complete, before the fence is taken away.
The park playground will be staying. The tennis courts by the park are unaffected by the closure.
The fence is causing passersby to ask questions. Why did they fence it off? What will happen here? Why are they doing this?
Neighbor James Bye’s face lit up upon hearing it will be a dog park. This will be good for his rescue pitbull Woobie, he said. He lives a couple of blocks away, but to give Woobie somewhere to run he takes him to the Lowell dog park.
Liam Smoody played in the gazebo when he was an eight-year-old neighborhood kid. The city fenced the gazebo off when he was 10 to dissuade vandalism and loiterers. When that went up, “it affirmed what you know about it” having problems, he said.
Smoody described that it feels like the park is divided: One side with the gazebo occupied by people hanging around, and the other side with the playground for kids. The play structure is steps away from the gazebo. Blocking off the gazebo didn’t abate loiterers, he observed. He said they’d just sleep by the fence.
The change coming to Clark Park was revealed about 10 months ago in a social media announcement from Mayor Cassie Franklin that the gazebo will be removed and the dog park is coming.
Historical preservationists were instantly upset. They’d understood the formal plan was to put the dog park next to the gazebo, not replace it. They fought to keep the 103-year-old gazebo planted at Clark Park, where it was constructed in 1921 by architect B.F. Turnbull.
Clark Park, originally named City Park, was established in 1894.
The gazebo was the last vestige of Clark Park’s historic features such as its bandstand and its cannon. The park’s on Everett’s historic registry. It’s not the gazebo’s fault it attracted homeless people and drug users, they said.
Removing the gazebo won’t solve the underlying issue of homelessness, said a homeowner facing Clark Park who declined to give his name. He also said he doesn’t particularly want a dog park near his home. He said police were here constantly, and homelessness social workers were here practically daily.
Bye said the park constantly had problems with “riffraff,” he called it. Needles were being picked up daily, he said.
When city boards weighed the gazebo’s fate this summer, many Bayside Neighborhood neighbors spoke out against the drugs, the homelessness and the crime. They leaned on city officials to not accept the historic preservationists’ call to retain the gazebo in Clark Park and instead hear their pleas that these problems aren’t letting them enjoy their neighborhood park.
In the past 10 years the site went through volunteer attempts to activate the park with programming, as well as inspired a tough-guy “City Guard” group that hassled people viewed as unwanted in the park.
A past plan to secure the gazebo used a complex set of shutters. The city learned this idea cost more than budgeted at an estimated $300,000 to $400,000. Parks department director Bob Leonard told council the department did not want to ask the city for more money to invest money into that.
Parks staff relented from a plan to simply demolish the gazebo as its cheapest option at $20,000. The gazebo is supposed to be dismantled and have its pieces put into storage, from a plan from the parks department which the City Council signed off on. The Clark Park gazebo could be reassembled in another park as a feature, parks director Bob Leonard said.
Tarver didn’t have a date when the gazebo would be dismantled. It was standing as of Dec. 1.
Smoody said he’d prefer a way for the dog park and gazebo to coexist. People with their dogs could sit in the gazebo to watch them, he said.
Leonard said previously the staff think these can’t coexist. The gazebo’s location close to the wall of the tennis courts would create tight spots that can make dogs anxious, he said previously.
The dog park project was due to start by year’s end. The city sought and won a $10,000 county recreation grant to create the dog park. It stipulated to show action by Dec. 31.
All of Clark Park was behind a fence put up Monday, Nov. 25, including the playground slides. The playground will not be removed in the plan, but is currently closed until summer when the dog park is finished and opens.
