Comments on: BREAKING: Fred Jarrett Pitches County’s Plan For Puget Sound Park To Burien Council

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:29:45 +0000

Kirk The Raider Triplett said He hoped that local governments would take over these parks. And then under the table, was arranging the sale of these parks. I just hope people remember kirk triplett should he ever get the balls to run for elected office. He is a liar nad a cheat. Probably qualifies him for a port comissioner job.

By: Grover

Grover — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:42:49 +0000

As a citizen of North Highline soon to be a citizen of Burien I think it is a travesty what King County is doing with Puget Sound Park. This is now the 2nd time in less than a year that the county has tried to sell the park. There are some distinct differences in those 2 times. The first time the area was in the Possible Annexation Area and this time it is in the area that has voted to be annexed to Burien.
The first time we were dealing with Ron Sims who wanted to sell the park for low income housing. This time we are dealing with Dow Constantine who wants to sell it to the KC Library System. I think Dow will understand how important Puget Sound Park is to the citizens of Burien. The fact that Mr. Constantine has appointed Fred Jarrett state senator from the 41st district to work with Burien shows that the sale of the park is not a done deal.
I am disappointed with the King County Library board who has not talked to the people of White Center or Boulevard Park and recently announced their plans to build a library at the Puget Sound Park site and close the neighborhood libraries in these communities. I think if the library board would talk to the community they would hear that the people would much rather have their neighborhood libraries remodeled and kept right where they are.
I am shocked to hear that Burien councilmember Lucy Krakowiak is a member of the library board and, I suspect, knew of the offer from the county to buy the park and yet never said anything to the Burien City council. Although Lucy is appointed to the library board, she is elected by the citizens of Burien to represent them and yet she hid the facts. I believe Ms. Krakowiak needs to excuse herself from any vote where the city of Burien is dealing with the library system as this is a blatant conflict of interest.
Not many people know that the library system is going to bring a bond issue to the ballot in February asking the citizens for more money. If they have enough money to buy Puget Sound Park and build another big library just after they built the beautiful library in Burien just 2 miles away, maybe the citizens need to vote no on their bond issue. I am very much in favor of a great library system but in these tough economic times, we cannot afford such grandiose plans.

By: Ian Gunsul

Ian Gunsul — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 08:34:10 +0000

If the Library system wants to replace the White Center and Boulevard Park Libraries with one larger one, wouldn’t the Top Hat area be a better location for the communities that it will service?
There’s more to this story than meets the eye.
The former Executive and the new Executive both had their hands in this in an attempt to balance the County budget. The money from the sale has already been written into the Parks Maintenance budget for next year, without ever consulting Burien as the city moved forward with the annexation of the area.
The citizens of Burien and the to be annexed area of North Highline need to let King County Executive Dow Constantine know he needs to stop the sale of this park and sign it over to the City of Burien and its citizens.
kcexec@kingcounty.gov