People with backpacks and one with a cart of clothing in a beige shopping cart hang around the Clark Park gazebo the afternoon of Friday, Feb. 2.
Photo by Michael Whitney.
EVERETT — The city plans to disassemble and store the Clark Park gazebo, and is thinking of relocating it to Harborview Park off of W. Mukilteo Boulevard, for the sake of its project to place a large dog park at Clark Park.
Placing the gazebo at Harborview Park overlooking the water “could make for a great location for a wedding venue,” parks director Bob Leonard told the City Council last week.
If there are obstacles, they might work with the Everett Museum of History to find a place for it, he said.
“Staff feels strongly leaving the gazebo in the dog park is not the right option,” Leonard said, because it could create tight spots that can make dogs anxious. The gazebo is incompatible with the dog park, he said.
The City Council essentially will decide the fate of the gazebo at its June 5 meeting, because it will be voting on a funding package to go ahead with the Clark Park dog park plan that removes the gazebo.
Historians have howled against its removal for months.
The Clark Park gazebo has stood since 1921.
Chris Moore, the executive director of the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation, said removing the gazebo won’t solve illicit activity at the park.
“It’s a primary contributing element of Clark Park,” and he said essentially if anything the city should design the dog park around the gazebo since it was there first.
Neighborhood leadership within the Bayside Neighborhood, who have Clark Park in its neighborhood, has sought its removal and demolition. They began advocating for its removal as late as last fall. The gazebo is a crime center that “prevents law-abiding citizens from using it,” neighborhood association vice president John Phillips said last week, but a dog park will promote positivity for the city.
Historians say that dogs using the dog park will dissuade crime.
However, Bayside chair Henry Cotter said, “an occupied gazebo will lead to an unused dog park, just as an occupied gazebo today leads to an unused Clark Park.”
Each City Council member has a pocketbook of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars to spread in the city, and a few said they’d be willing to allocate money toward the gazebo relocation.
