A news item in this week’s papers and TV stated that King County was closing many county parks and ball fields. I cannot understand the thinking of those county officials who made a decision like that.
They say they haven’t the funds to keep them open, yet they continue to spend funds developing this Three Rivers Natural Area. Is building a parking lot more important than a child’s soccer field? I think not.
The aforementioned parking lot will be at the intersection of 428th Avenue Southeast and the Reinig Road. Anyone from the Valley can tell them their lot, on many occasions, is part of the North Fork of the Snoqualmie River!
This natural area has always been a natural area. Building parking lots, foot trails and lavatory facilities will make it an unnatural area. I have talked to no one in the Valley who wants the area developed into a King County park.
Since King County has assumed stewardship of the area, we now have tons and tons of other parts of King County’s garbage in the “natural area.”
With the need to conserve funds, this would be a great time for King County to gracefully pull out of the project, fiscally and physically, and let the Snoqualmie Valley be a neighborhood, not a dumping ground for our urban neighbors.
The “natural area” is not a natural area anymore. The wildlife that once inhabited the confluence area moved out. They couldn’t compete with humans fencing off their game trails and humans having them hauled away because humans left their garbage unscreened.
Where elk, bear and cougar once roamed, we now have litterbugs and llamas. I only hope King County will not run the children off as they have the wildlife.
There must be someone in power at the county level that is a better fiscal manager than the ones that made the “close the parks” decision.
If the natural-area funding is different than parks-and-playground funding, divert it to the parks and playgrounds. No one would care. Well, maybe the project manager of the development of the Three Forks Natural Area, but divert her, too! Give her/him a whistle and have them run a playground.
