Parks board marks 28 years of work

This weekend, the South Kitsap Parks and Recreation District will celebrate the close of 28 years of stewardship over the South Kitsap Community Park.

From noon until 4 p.m. on Saturday, the board will host a picnic celebration showing appreciation for the volunteers and board members that have worked for the park over the years.

The event will have food, music and speakers to share appreciations for the years of work on the park. Children can enjoy train rides at the park’s model rail and other activities.

Past park members and local dignitaries, including Port Orchard Mayor Kim Abel, have been invited to the event.

“Please join us all in celebrating this beautiful park and all the people who care and have cared for it,” a press release stated.

Organizers of the event are asking for pictures and memories to include at the event.

For more information, contact Margie Rees at 871-6590 or 871-1182 or Mary Colborn at 674-2166 or webelievewecan@aol.com

“It’s a chance for us to express our appreciation,” the boards newest member Mary Colborn said.

The event follows an active pair of weeks for the park and its stewards. Last week the parks board signed a quit release form, officially handing over ownership of the park to Kitsap county.

The board also set official dissolution into motion, an action that takes 30 days to complete.

Kitsap County employees, parks board members and community volunteers dove into the park several times in the last two weeks for some major cleanups. The Jackson Avenue entrance received a lot of brush cutting, opening up visibility to the outside of the park.

Volunteers repaired gazebo roofs, painted picnic tables and cleared park trails throughout the park.

Among the workers were volunteers from United Way, the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints and the Seabees.

Employees from Kitsap County will continue to work on cleaning up portions of the park.

In July, Brian Hauschel said crews would begin work on the baseball fields.

“This is a great infrastructure for us to get started on,” Hauschel said during the Day of Caring.

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