By Pepper Fisher
SEQUIM — As we reported last week, the citizens of Sequim have a new 16.5 acre future park space bordering the Olympic Discovery Trail and within walking distance of schools.
It’s a land acquisition that almost didn’t happen, and then only because of the initiative of Sequim Parks and Events Manager Hannah Merrill. Merrill came to work for the city in 2021, and saw on the city’s Master Plan that finding more park space was a high priority for its citizens. She noticed a large tract of land in the northwest part of town, and decided to look into who owned it.
“So I literally, like, Googled the name Ruth McCord, who was the owner named on that document around the assessor map, and called a number that came up as associated with her, and ended up speaking to one of the family members to only find out, very sadly, that months previous Ruth had passed away, but that the family members felt like this was something that they would like to discuss and for me to pursue sending emails and calling the rest of the family members.”
At the time, the heirs of Ruth McCord were fielding offers from land developers. But city officials were persistent over the next two years in working to convince the family to find a way to turn it into a park in their mother’s name.
Sequim Finance Director Sue Hagener says those two years gave her time to get creative in finding the money to be able to make the final offer of $2.4 million to the family.
“We knew that we needed to get funds from a variety of different sources so, I won’t say we… I will say, we were kind of couch cushion diving, if you will, because we knew it was so important.”
With a unanimous vote of the Sequim City Council, the City used funds from the Rainy Day Fund, Real Estate Taxes, Park Impact Fees, and General Fund Reserve monies to capitalize on what may have been the last opportunity to acquire sizable acreage within the City limits for a park.
With the sale being final, the conversation shifts to what the citizens of Sequim would like to see in their new 16.5 acre blank canvas. Merrill says you have time to think about that.
“It’s really important to get community input. You need to get funding to do a master plan for your park to show, you know, given what people feel like would be the best ways to serve our community, take all the information and develop it, is a process it takes some time. And so, in the immediate time, this will be a parcel that’ll be under lease. So it’s not technically open to the public at this time, while we spend time…there’s every-other-year grant cycles with the Recreation and Conservation Office. And so, it’ll be two years from now that we can actually apply. But that gives us time to do planning in the meantime, and then there will be fundraising and getting our grants and funding in a row to help develop it.”
The City is planning a dedication and naming ceremony in the near future.
(Satellite photo shows location of new park with Hendrickson Road along the bottom.)