ARLINGTON — The park where folks are expected to gather for the annual Fourth of July fireworks display is set to get a major renovation this year.
The city of Arlington is receiving more than $550,000 in grants to start work on Bill Quake Memorial Park at 18501 59th Ave. NE. The City Council is set to formally accept the money — $250,000 from the state Recreation and Conservation Office and at least $300,000 from Snohomish County — on Tuesday.
The plan is to redo the two ball fields at the park and eventually add two more. The anticipated renovations include putting in artificial turf, upgrading lighting and fencing and paving walkways around the fields and bleachers to make them wheelchair accessible.
The goal is to make the park tournament-ready and add enough field space to serve the roughly 350 Little Leaguers who play there, said Chris Young, Arlington’s director of community and economic development.
The work ties into the Stilly Valley Youth Project, a multi-million dollar effort to expand the crowded Arlington Boys &Girls Club, renovate space for the Arlington Community Resource Center and overhaul Quake fields for the Stilly Valley Little League and other users.
The city plans to start work on the fields in October and finish by spring 2017, in time for next Little League season, Young said.
Meanwhile, the Boys &Girls Club is in the midst of a fundraiser called Stilly 2000, which seeks to raise half a million dollars by getting 2,000 people to donate at least $250 each. Donors get their names on plaques that will go up in the club and at the park. So far, 1,081 people have contributed $272,250, said Bill Tsoukalas, director of the Boys &Girls Club of Snohomish County. The club has about $2.6 million so far, most of it from the state, and the goal is to reach $3 million.
“We’ve outgrown the existing space,” he said. “It’s become a regional facility for not only Arlington but Lakewood, North Marysville and Darrington.”
The Boys &Girls Club plans to add a teen center and a second full-size gym to the building, which is next to Quake park and serves more than 2,000 kids. The first Arlington club was built downtown in the 1970s, when the entire city’s population was about the same as the number of members the club has now, Tsoukalas said. The current club was built in 1992.
The club applied for a building permit in late June. Once that is processed, the goal is to break ground in August, Tsoukalas said. In the fall, work on the building should parallel the city’s work on the fields. After that, the city, club and Little League plan to team up to add two new fields at the park.
City officials plan to use any money left after renovating the fields to pay for a detailed design of the new fields. Tsoukalas expects the Stilly Valley Youth Project will need to hit the $3 million mark, and Young expects the city will need to seek more grants to build the fields.
“Right now, it’s a moving target, so we thought (the renovation) was the best use for the funds we have now,” Young said.
Originally, the Boys &Girls Club also planned to add space for the Arlington Community Resource Center to move in with them. The resource center currently shares space with the Stillaguamish Senior Center. Recently, plans shifted to updating the senior center instead so the resource center can stay close to I-5 and the Smokey Point transit station. Because a portion of the money for the Stilly Valley Youth Project was slated for the resource center, the Boys &Girls Club plans to contribute to renovating the space at the senior center, Tsoukalas said.
“We’re one piece of a large puzzle that’s being put in place,” he said.
Though the resource center overhaul still is in the planning phase, work on the club and fields is moving quickly.
By the time next year’s Fourth of July fireworks light up the sky, spectators may find themselves gathering at a transformed Bill Quake Memorial Park.
Kari Bray: 425-339-3439; kbray@heraldnet.com.
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