Our Choices by Gerald Elfendahl
(Note: Bainbridge Shoreline Homeowners doesn’t take a position on this issue, but we feel it is important for everyone to know about the planning process so they can participate as they see fit.)
February 24, 2009, a joint special meeting of City Council, Mayor and Park Directors allowed only brief comment on Strawberry Plant Park’s plan before it was presented. Once it was seen, no public comment was allowed! Why?
The meeting purpose was not advertised. The agenda was full. Some went home frustrated unable to share their thoughts, especially after a vote gave a “go-ahead” to excavate the historic site and landscape without public discussion or a committee to assess needs and ways to meet them. One voted against the plan. Three were absent. Meeting minutes can be viewed here.
Everyone agrees: The site has historical significance both for community, Depression-era, strawberry industry and longtime maritime uses. Some question the site’s historic integrity. Greeks, Egyptians and some Fort Wardians know the value of ruins. Do the rest of us?
Cultural tourists and families who know our history will value park visits. Reading interpretive history beneath a cannery replica shelter while standing on the warehouse’s last remnant is different than reading a marker elsewhere. It can also find educational and recreational uses.
Elevations of the west beach and areas inland (north) of the existing building have been the least altered, though partially paved in concrete and asphalt north of the existing building. This seems a perfect area for a small boat center.
Park reviews
The plan voted on only included the site’s shoreline and moved it many feet inland — over 100′ in some places! How do Parks plan a waterfront park without a shoreline? Some Park Directors said “No, Thank you!” to an inland plan proposed by the City. Park District’s design phase will begin soon. Will you attend? Will the park allow public water access?
Unless we want folks sloshing in primordial ooze, mud and for folks to call the special place “Park Run-a-Muck”, then a pier and float is essential. Launching small boats the approved “preferred way” up the creek will require a long haul over mud at all but highest tides.
Where better for a centrally located, pedestrian and public transit accessible small boat center? What options have we for programs possible here? Maybe other groups — Sea Scouts, Indian Guides, you name it with kayaks, canoes, sailing dinghies, historic boats, and more traditional row boats for kids “expeditions” and elders “golden ponds” could join the private rowing club in Waterfront Park’s tennis courts? Or do we continue to put Park programs on Coast Guard licensed rafts anchored off shore?
Habitat restoration
No one opposes habitat restoration. It and historic preservation are not “either or”. Who were the fisheries specialists who created the approved plan? When did they meet with interested park designers? Humans are a part of Nature. Can’t we save significant elements of history, recreational opportunities and restore marine habitat? How do we measure “restored habitat” anyway – by lineal feet of shoreline, beach slope, area or volume of intertidal water?
What next?
When Strawberry Plant Park’s history is excavated, the Elliott Bay Trustees’ (EBT) dollars will next be used to entice us to destroy Port Blakely Mill’s history — power plant ruin, sandstone mill pond dam gate walls, and mill pond lagoon — their next two published priorities! EBT’s agent insists they only approve funding. The plan is our City’s and our Park’s — ours!
How can we destroy historic resources that help share the two of the most important chapters in local history — Blakely Mill and Winslow Berry Growers — and the story of our National Park Service’s Nikkei Memorial? If we destroy the historic and archaeological “context” of these stories, what is left? And why? Do these elements in any way affect fisheries? Who suggested the mill pond should drain? Fletcher Bay’s threshold is no different. Should that be excavated, too?
How will a proposed National Maritime Heritage Area designation help projects here? There are State funds to support public water access.
Thanks for your consideration of kids, history and habitat restoration — with you a part of it!
More information
See model in Library during month of March.
Call Friends of Park for exhhibit or films, 206-842-4164.
See: www.ci.bainbridge-isl.wa.us/strawberry_plant.aspx
Ways to comment
Public can comment on the plan (approved for engineering Feb. 24) “in April, May or June — no date set yet” during City mandated hearings.
State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) hearing and City Shoreline hearing.
Park District planning may welcome public input as they soon address park non-shoreline design.
US Historic Preservation Act hearing, mandated by use of some federal funds, will be by “conference call” to “contributing parties.” Want to listen in? Call 206-842-4164.
The Elliott Bay Trustees who choose how $3 million penalty assessed for environmental damages against the Wyckoff (Creosote) Co. will be spent, will also have hearings though “they don’t have to do so.” They want to hear from you and will have hearings “every time they release a Supplemental Environmental Assessment” on habitat restoration plans.
In addition, you can write to your City Council, Park Directors, and City Historic Preservation Commission.
Or contact Friends of Strawberry Plant Park at 206-842-4164
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