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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPark 2017-10-11 COMPLETE AGENDA PACKETCity of Tukwila Parks & Recreation Department - Rick Still, Director PARK COMMISSION Chair: Vacant Vice Chair: Don Scanlon AGENDA Wednesday, October 11, 2017 5:30pm Tukwila Community Center Allan Ekberg, Mayor 1. Call to Order 2. Approval of Minutes a. Approval of Minutes (September 2017) pg. 1 3. Special Presentations 4. Citizen Comment 5. Business a. Green Tukwila Update (10mins) n/a b. Park Commission Budget (20mins) n/a c. New Park Naming (10mis) n/a d. FGL Bridge Naming (10mis) pg. 3 6. Other 7. Adjournment Next Meeting: November 8, 2017 @ 5:30pm Tukwila City Hall • 6200 Southcenter Boulevard • Tukwila, WA 98188 • 206-433-1800 • Website: TukwilaWA.gov TUKWII.A PARKS & RECREATION GOOD E: A PARK COMMISSION MINUTES September 13, 2017 5:30pm Tukwila Community Center Call to Order: Vice Chairperson Don Scanlon called the meeting to order at 5:33pm. Attendance: Commissioners — Don Scanlon, Matt Mega, Sean Albert, Heidi Watters Staff— Robert Eaton, Linda Guinasso Approval of Minutes: Sean Albert moved to approve the minutes of the September 13, 2017 meeting. Matt Mega seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Special Presentations: Berk Consulting was not able to make the meeting. They sent a presentation packet with a handout to Robert Eaton who presented it to the commission under Business. Citizen Comment: none Business Items A. Wildlife Explorers Program Request —Scott Kruize moved to approve the $700 expenditure request for the Wilderness Explorers program from the Park Commission Budget. Heidi Watters seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. 8. Green Tukwila Update — Robert Eaton provided an update on the implementation progress of the Green Tukwila Program and the upcoming first annual Green Tukwila Day on Saturday, October 14. 2017 @ Tukwila Park from 9-12:00pm. Conversation ensued and the commission asked some questions opportunities to provide funding support of the program. Staff shared of one known need, the plant order for Green Tukwila Day was currently not budgeted for, approximately $500. Heidi Watters moved to approve a not to exceed amount of $500 from the Park Commission budget to pay for the plant order for Green Tukwila Day on 10/14/17. The motion was seconded by Scott Kruize. The motion passed unanimously C. Parks & Recreation CIP Update — Robert Eaton provided a handout to the commission of the dog park plans at Crestview Park. Robert noted the plan is for install by the end of the year and then will look to changing the upper little ball field at Joseph Foster Memorial Park to a dog park next year as well. D. See You in the Park Evaluation — Robert Eaton shared that staff would be receiving the information from the Community Connectors survey that was conducted at the See You in the Park events this summer. He also asked the commissioners if they had any feedback from attending the event in August last month. It was noted: 1) Do not run out of food, 2) the sprinkler was a hit, 3) music was great, 4) consideration should be given to gluten free options for future food. Other: A. Sean Albert mentioned continued interest in partnering with Puget Sound Clean Air for the possibility of promoting tree education and plantings in the Allentown/Duwamish neighborhoods similar to a Tree Program that the commission has talked about before. Adjournment: At 6:36pm Matt Mega moved to close the meeting. Scott Kruize seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. 1 2 August 22, 2017 Rick Still Director of Parks and Recreation City of Tukwila Dear Mr. Still, The Foster Golf Links Men's Club and the Foster Golf Links Women's Club would like the City of Tukwila to officially name the bridge that spans the Duwamish River between the 10th and 11th greens the "Joe and Hazel Aliment Memorial Bridge". Joe Aliment started working at Foster Golf Links in 1924 and continued working there until 1951. In that year, Joe and his wife Hazel purchased the course and owned it until 1978. They then sold it to the city instead of to developers with the idea that it would continue to be a place where Tukwila residents could congregate and enjoy the game of golf. Joe and Hazel were generous and especially supportive of youth. To give you an idea of the type of people they were, kids in the community would go to the golf course at 5 o'clock in the morning and sweep the parking lot. Then Joe would hand out golf clubs and the kids could play golf all day. Joe and Hazel were very involved with the community and one of their sons even became a Tukwila city council member. As a tribute to the contributions Joe and Hazel Aliment made to the Tukwila community, we are asking you to name this bridge for them. Carol Zuvela Randall Haupt President, Foster Golf Links Women's Club Attachment: President, Foster Golf Links Men's Club Seattle Times article, "From Duffer to Pro In the Links Business" Joe Aliment got by many hazards with a golf course near Tukwila THE task of mowing, watering and 11 maintaining 80 acres of lawn, trees and shrubs might seem monumental to most home owners. But it is the way of life for the Aliment family, Joe, Hazel and their two sons, Ben and Bill, who own a tidy -sized piece of recreational real-estate known as Foster Golf Links. January 1, 195], marked the day when the Aliments called this land their own. But Joe, slightly stocky and easy going, remembers 43 years ago, when employed by George Eddy, a golf professional, he helped pioneer Foster, one of the first privately owned, publicly played, links west of the Mississippi. Joseph Foster, a government scout and packer, in 1853 homesteaded the land, on the outskirts of Seattle, near Tukwila. A maple tree, planted by him less than a decade after the Civil War, remains on the property and on its huge trunk is fastened a -bronze memorial plaque inscribed with. historical data. Eddy purchased the land from the Fos- ter heir, and young Toe Aliment, at 18, caddied for Washington's Gov. Louis F. Hart, who was first on the tee February 13, 1925, the opening day for the nine -hole golf course. Reliving high-school graduation day the same year, Aliment says: "I had gone directly from school to work. As I stepped off the interurban, Ed- dy wheeled a mower in front of me, and then and there promoted me from bag toter to greenkeeper." The sinewy teen-ager spent hours lug- ging a hose and wheeling a gas -powered pump to each fairway bordered by the Du- wamish River. He further recalled that this job brought him out in the "wee hours." Revealing his droll humor, he said: • a "The only company I had at 3 and 4 o'clock in the morning was the third -rail interurban that passed Foster on its run from Renton to Tacoma."' in those days, some folk considered a golf course a risky business. However, it ___was under the eyes of_I'doubting Thom- ases" that Eddy's venture grew and, with the acquisition in 1927 of more land across the Duwamish River, the course was ex- tended to 13 holes. At this time, the old Scottish word "links" became the fit and proper descrip- tion of Foster,- as the term in the ancient language meant "the winding of a stream; also the ground adjacent." Few changes have been made in the layout of the playing area since that time and, although Foster's 5,549 yards is not - rated championship length, what it lacks in distance is compensated by the hazards imposed by the twisting waterway. Both Joe and Hazel remember Eddy affectionately. "Mr. Eddy gave us the house near the river, by the 17th tee, for a token mart - From Duffer to Pro In the Links business By MARY A . MIZE gage of 51." .Toe says. "It was while living in this home, in 10:13, that Foster suffered a devastating blow. it rained the entire month of December that year, and by Christmas Eve, the flood- ing Duwamish River had belched unbe- Iievabie quantities of debris on the course. Fairways, tees and greens along its path were strewn with logs, pitted with holes and saturated with water and muck. The bridge that connected five holes of the course with the rest of civilization was threatened with destruction. Mrs. Aliment, small -framed and- fastidi- ously groomed, makes "no bones" about her fright when she reminisced about the harrowing night Joe went to work on the bridge. "I pleaded with Joe," she recalls, "that if the bridge is going to go, let it go. But no, he needed to try to help prevent the bridge from being smashed." "I kept track. of his flashlight beam, but was terrified when it disappeared abruptly. I screamed and shrieked, but no sound could be heard above the rage of the river. I was drenched and scared. There was nothing I could do, but go back to the house and wait. I tried not to think he was dead." Joe, explained his fears, saying: "I spent most of the night reaching out to hack branches and snags from logs as they swept by to keep then from collaps- ing the bridge. I grabbed sleep, when 1 could, on the roof of a shack on the far side of the river. 1 knew my wife would be frantic, bilk: -the bridge held up all right. However,by the time we felt that it was safe, 'the[river,was threatening our house. Hazel and Benny had to be rowed to safety." The Duwamish devoured unknown acres of land that winter. Shoveling silt, filling holes, replacing tees and replanting greens consumed weeks. Slowly the course took shape again; nevertheless, Foster was not reopened for business until the following spring, and then, for only nine holes of play. During the summer of 1934, the ex -caddy recalls that the repair work continued and Eddy had truck loads of old auto bodies hauled in and spread along the mangled river banks, The metal wrecks were the cheapest answer to end further erosion. "IE -only cost him $2 a load, and that ... price included the driver's wages," Joe says. Valley residents, for years plagued by ravaging.rivers, received permanent bene- fits from the Howard A..Hanson flood - control dam, completed in 1961. During World War II years, Toe under- took a 10 -hour day job at a foundry, con- tinued as greenkeeper and began learn Joe Aliment today. ing links management from within the clubhouse: "People continued to play during the war," he said. "Because the war imposed gas rationing, it was not uncommon for a car to arrive loaded down with half a dozen undaunted golfers." Ben Aliment, now the links pro, remem- bers: "In postwar years, the golf business lagged. Things really picked up when Mr. Eisenhower was elected President. Folks that never had played before were im- pressed by his interest in the game. Tele- vision, too, helped golf. The machinery needed to maintain to- day's golf course dwarfs the rigs with which the senior Aliment was provided in his greens -keeping days. "We have four fairway -mowing units, three greens - mowers, three heavy-duty tractors and two machines known as the 'leaf blower' and the 'leaf picker'," Ben says. "One year, we lost about 75 flags in a period of four months. Most of them were stolen, but some were broken. We've dis- covered kids using them for fishing spears." In addition to some 50,000 -golfers that annual trek over Foster, it is not unusual to see steeihead fishermen angling in the Duwamish and teen-agers retrieving golf balls from the water hazards. Other non-paying guests have included ducks, rabbits, squirrels, cows, horses, deer and, as recently as late 1966, a seal, which now resides at the Woodland Park Zoo. Jovial Bill Aliment, also a Foster pro and an ex -councilman of Tukwila, remem- bers when he joined a woman in chasing a steer on the course. "The steer wheeled and ran me into the river," Bill recalled. In the clubhouse, the congeniality of all the Aliments blends with the pro and duf- fer. There golf stories mingle with tales of pars, birdies, eagles and bogies. In this atmosphere, and not withstanding the score, everyone feels like a golfer. Mary A. Mize is a Seaffle free-lance writer.