By Kathy Lambert, For the Valley Record

Do we have “park-arthritis?” What is that? It is the strain and pain of getting an important asset to our area completed — in this case, the Jim Ellis Memorial Park in Preston right off I-90.

This park needs your help to obtain the necessary county funding to be completed and opened as soon as possible.

This has been a long road and the background is important. Many people who have lived in this area know that Jim Ellis was an attorney who took on major projects to protect our water and land. He was a leader in the Mountain to Sound Greenway too. Hence the park is named after him. He played as a young boy in this park and had many wonderful memories that he wanted future generations to share. He knew this area was also an important part of our logging industry, containing the largest logging structure in the entire area.

Jim and I along with many other community members gathered numerous times to decide what this park should contain. A plan was proposed in 2016, then finalized with the parks department in 2017.

Jim and I met several other times to talk about his vision. I remember one day where he took both of my arms and looked deep into my face and said, “Let’s get this done!” When Jim Ellis spoke, most wise people listened!

Along the way, there were many obstacles. The zoning for this area was industrial and restricted it for logging industry uses, which prohibited its use as a public park. However, this area over the years had been used as a park, so we wanted to rezone it to a park. Permitting required the parks department to rezone the site before they could apply for permits. This added another year to the process.

Once the site was finally rezoned in the summer of 2019, the parks department was able to submit for all the necessary permits for the project. The permitting process was long and complicated and took over two and a half years to complete. The architectural engineering and regulatory package for this project is over 1,000 pages.

With more studies, more costs came into this park, thereby stalling all the work the community had done and initially led by Jim Ellis about a decade ago.

Another issue was that King County required the road water runoff to the park property to be restored to original pre-mill site conditions. This standard is as if it were all forested. This part of the project cost an additional $1 million. Permitting also required a study of the drainage under the road to prove that it did not contain salmon and to channelize the flood plain area. This study took almost three years. The permit was signed about three weeks ago.

It became clear that the site needed protection as another employee wanted to tear down all the buildings on the land. So that put in motion a process to get the property declared of historic significance so it could be saved. The Fall City Historical Society, led by Rick Divers and Cindy Parks, were leaders in using a grant to hire the company to research the history of this site. The Historical Preservation Board voted to declare the Kiln Building of historical value in June 2023.

The original design plan proposed was amazing. It brought the King County Community Center across the street together with the park as one big asset. Parking could be shared, which made use of the community center safer by utilizing the pedestrian tunnel under the highway. It had a bridge over the pond. It replaced the dilapidated saw building with a picnic shed and exhibit of many of the tools used in the original mill, including the huge saw. A gazebo was planned for people to gather and play music. It was intended to have a classic country feel to it as well as to preserve an area Jim referred to as a natural amphitheatre. It would have interpretative signs detailing history, including the ancestral lands of the Snoqualmie Tribe to mill development and usage. A beautiful plan was presented in a binder about six inches thick.

But that was not what came though the permitting process. The bridge was eliminated, the kiln building is now in a new phase 3, the saw building will be in a new phase 2, and the proposed amphitheatre is not included.

The permitting requirements and increased construction costs dramatically increased the cost of the project. So the comprehensive plan was broken into phases.

Phase 1 included the entire site to have new stormwater infrastructure, a new parking lot, and a restroom building with sewage treatment. The pedestrian tunnel is restored and leads to new stairs connecting to the community center. The tunnel displays a piece of the old bridge railing for historical value. The park has all new utilities and has completed site-wide critical area mitigation. Construction of Phase 1 was completed in summer of 2023, and final inspection by permitting was done a few weeks ago in November.

Currently, the temporary construction fencing that is closing off all the park areas should be changed in the next few weeks as parks operations prepares to open.

Phase 2, which is currently not funded, would include the picnic shelter (once called a gazebo) and the replacement of the mill shed building with a new open sided structure to create a saw exhibition area.

Phase 2 has an estimated cost of about $250,000. So your voice will be needed to move this project funding forward in the county budget. When funded, this part could go fairly quickly.

Phase 3 is the plan for restoration and determines the uses of the kiln building. That estimated cost is about $500,000-plus. There will be public meetings on Phase 3 as community needs are evaluated.

Jim Ellis was quite clear that he wanted rainy day areas for families and youth to do activities, which the kiln building would provide.

Then the outstanding King County staff members, including the driving force of the project, project manager T.J. Davis, who has worked for years on this project, can bring it to completion and open the park up to be enjoyed by all.

So you can help by making your voice heard by contacting council@kingcounty.gov and dow.constantine@kingcounty.gov to request that county funding is provided in the budget to complete Preston Mill Park and honor the vision Jim Ellis had for all of us for generations to come.

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Kathy Lambert is a former member of the King County Council who represented the Snoqualmie Valley area.