City hold groundbreaking for new Tree Farm Sports Complex

Published 1:38 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

SNOQUALMIE – Ground was broken on the city’s newest park last week, and even as the rain poured down, those who attended the ceremony couldn’t help but think of clear blue skies and the sound of a ball striking a bat.

Snoqualmie officials and volunteers used gold-painted shovels to turn over the first clumps of dirt Wednesday, April 10, at the Tree Farm Sports Complex next to Snoqualmie Elementary School. The 15-acre site, formerly the Candy Cane Tree Farm, was bought by the city in 1999, which has worked since then to design the sports complex.

Construction will begin this year on the park’s three softball/Little League fields and a combination football/soccer field. It will also have a children’s play area, a picnic shelter and trails that encircle it.

Building the Tree Farm Sports Complex will cost $1.63 million, paid for with mitigation money from Weyerhaeuser Real Estate Co. for the Snoqualmie Ridge development. Paul Brothers Inc. of Portland will oversee construction.

At the groundbreaking ceremony, Mayor Fuzzy Fletcher said it took a team effort to create the park.

“It’s taken a lot of planning by a lot of people,” he said, adding that the city and its residents should see the fruit of their labors soon.

“Our goal is to have this open in a year,” he said.

That’s good news to Rachel McNaul, a junior at Mount Si High School and member of the softball team. When the team starts its season next year, she would like for the games to be played in the new park.

“I really want it to be ready by next year, because that will be my senior year and it will be really cool to play here,” she said.

Snoqualmie Parks and Recreation Manager Jeff Mumma said the city is currently working on a joint-use agreement with the Snoqualmie Valley School District that would allow the district to play on the ballfields.

The addition of the Tree Farm Sports Complex will bring much-needed ballfields to a growing area. Fletcher said the project should stand out among other parks on the Eastside.

“We do believe it’s going to be the highest quality Little League fields in the whole area,” he said.

Nonda Sim, a Snoqualmie resident who sits on the city’s Parks Board, said the location on Park Street, next to Snoqualmie Elementary, was ideal.

“This spot is a good, wide-open spot. It won’t bother the neighborhood,” she said.

Sim added that the Tree Farm Sports Complex should be popular with those living outside the city as well.

“A community park is used by not just the people within the city, but all over,” she said.

The neighborhood surrounding the park will be busy with construction this year. As the city builds the Tree Farm Sports Complex, it will at the same time be making improvements to Park Street, widening the street, rebuilding the road bed and placing a sidewalk along the street.

Mumma said those improvements to Park Street are needed.

“One of the most important things is getting the kids there safely,” he said. “Having the sidewalks out there will be a really nice addition to the park.”

For the Tree Farm Sport Complex’s 137-space parking lot, the city is considering something unique. It wants to follow low-impact development ideals and build a grass parking lot instead of a paved lot. That would decrease the lot’s impervious surface, allowing more water to be absorbed into the ground.

An October 2000 study by the Environmental Protection Agency said such a parking lot could be built using reinforced grass, grass and gravel, or grass and concrete blocks, although those designs typically cost more to construct than traditional parking lots.

City Administrator Gary Armstrong said if Snoqualmie wants developers to take steps to protect the environment, the city should set the example.

“If we’re going to talk the talk, we’d better walk it, too,” he said.

As the rains began to let up and those attending the groundbreaking ceremony left for home, Bruce Dees of Bruce Dees and Associates, the Tacoma firm that designed the Tree Farm Sports Complex, gestured toward Mount Si, which was wrapped in gray clouds. He said of all the park’s attributes, its natural setting is the real attraction.

“The best part of all, I think, is that fabulous backdrop,” he said.