Wind storm damage limits Pioneer Park use

A wind-blown tree didn’t just crash onto the covered picnic area at Pioneer Park last week.

It also crashed plans the public might have had to access park facilities for a while.

The Town has closed off much of the park and its hiking trails while hazard and damage assessments are conducted following a severe windstorm that brought gale force gusts to the La Conner area a week ago Monday.

The most obvious point of concern is the status of the park’s log-framed pavilion, which caught the brunt of a fallen tree snapped off during the storm.

“We are assessing the damage,” Mayor Ramon Hayes said on Thursday. “We’re fortunate that this happened when it did, during COVID, and as we’re coming into winter when there wouldn’t be a lot of use of the building.”

Crews from C. Johnson Construction removed the fallen tree sections from atop the building last Wednesday morning. The Oak Harbor firm has been re-armoring the channel bank just below Pioneer Park and had been retained by the Town as an emergency services contractor, Town Administrator Scott Thomas and Public Works Director Brian Lease said.

The tree removal is just the beginning, however.

Assessing damage and repairing the historic picnic shelter, which houses a kitchen area and is a popular rental facility as a meeting area for family gatherings and special events, will likely be time consuming.

“It could be four to six months before the structure itself can be re-opened for public use,” Lease said.

In the meantime, Public Works staff will also comb park trails to determine if the storm also toppled trees or spread debris that could prove hazardous to hikers – a fairly common occurrence after major windstorms here.