North First Street park improvements possible

Town leaders caught a glimpse of the future last Wednesday morning.

Designer Curt Miller shared drawings at a Town Parks Commission meeting for improving the Jordan Street pocket park on North First Street across from Swinomish Yacht Club. This would develop a waterfront lot next to the Kirsch property.

Miller’s drawings include, among other featured options, detailed landscaping, an angled walkway to the shoreline, a vined trellis, picnic tables, and benches.

“This is a beautiful design,” Mayor Ramon Hayes told Miller. “I like the angled walkway. It helps create separation from the Kirsch property and the next-door neighbor.”

The trellis would provide privacy for both park users and the Nystrom property to the north, Miller said.

The Town hopes to partner with The Port of Skagit County on the project, which advocates say would serve visiting boaters and local residents alike, creating a serene, quiet place with waterfront views.

“It’s a 100 per cent win-win for both of us,” said Parks Commissioner Ollie Iversen.

Hayes and Town staff were attempting to meet with and present Miller’s plans to Port officials as soon as this week.

They are also looking forward to renewing acquaintances with recently retired Town Administrator John Doyle. Doyle, the Grand Marshal of last Saturday’s “Not-So-Impromptu” Kiwanis Tulip Parade, has offered to make repairs to the popular salmon slide at Conner Waterfront Park.

The slide is now closed.

“The exterior of the slide is failing,” explained Hayes. “This is the second occurrence of that.”

The unique slide is the key landmark of the park, located beneath Rainbow Bridge. It was launched by matching grants from the Osberg Family Trust totaling $75,000.

There is $8,000 budgeted for work on the slide and the Town will proceed cautiously in developing a course of action, Hayes said.

The process will require extensive mapping of the slide to determine what materials are needed for repairs.

“We want to take our time and come up with a plan,” said Hayes. “We don’t want to do something and then have to come back and do it again. A temporary fix is not going to be an option.”

In the meantime, patience will be a virtue of necessity, if not choice.

It likely won’t be easy.

“A kid came up to me,” Iversen noted, “and asked ‘when can I use my slide? It brought a tear to my eye.”