Maiben Park
Burlington, WA- City leaders in Burlington had a meeting tonight to talk to the community about some pretty big changes they are proposing to Maiben Park. There were around 50 people in attendance at the meeting, which included an open forum where community members could ask questions during the presentation. City Leaders hope to make the park more inviting to families and children after a bout of unfavorable activities have plagued the park over the last year.
As many people who live in the area know, Maiben Park was the scene of a homicide in May of 2015 when Bruce Gage was killed in a shooting there. Recently the park has had a problem with homeless people sleeping in the park, reports of drug activity and unfavorable people loitering and causing trouble. Parks maintenance crews also report finding drug paraphernalia in the park when they are providing maintenance to the park. Many community members said they do not feel safe letting their children visit the park, so they don’t allow them there.
Some of the proposed immediate changes pictured below would include adding LED lights throughout the park as well as adding 11 security cameras throughout the the park. Mayor Steve Sexton hoped to have these changes in place before the end of the year with approval from the Burlington City Council.
Maiben Park Proposed Changes for 2015
The cameras would be placed throughout the park in a way that would give police a full 360 degree view of the park, but the city plans on limiting the cameras to only viewing the park and not surrounding homes in the area. When asked, many residents didn’t seem to mind if their home or property was viewed on camera, but the city wanted to limit the homes in the area to being seen on the camera, so they respected the privacy of neighbors in the area.
Some of these proposed cameras would cover the entrances and exits of the park, while others would be placed in and around the Senior Center. The senior center was reported to have been burglarized on several occasions this year and they had to remove potted plants earlier in the year because people were using them as hiding spots for their illegal activities. The city leaders were very open to ideas on the placement of the cameras and LED lighting. They suggested that the proposed locations could change before being put into place if they determine the locations should be updated or changed based on the community input.
One hot topic at the meeting was the wooded area near the Southeast corner of the park. City leaders said they have no plans on thinning or cutting down any of the trees in the wooded area and opted instead to place security cameras and LED lighting throughout the trees.
Mayor Steve Sexton also said they plan on leaving the “bike jumps” in place that are currently used by students and Radio Controlled (RC) car enthusiasts on a regular basis. Many residents in the room were happy to hear the trees were not on the chopping block.
There is however a plan to remove three other trees that were damaged in another area of the park during the last big wind storm. The removal of these trees will also give way to the proposed long term park expansion and changes.
Park employees recently removed the compost pile at the park, due to it being used by the homeless, as a place to sleep. The Burlington Park employees now haul off all compost from the park to the city shop. They also removed the retaining bin area that was used to hold the compost pile.
Park employees also removed the picnic benches in the shelter so they could repair them before the new year. This has taken away a “sitting spot” as the benches were also being used by the homeless to sleep on. These items will be repaired and returned in the spring.
City Leaders and the Burlington Police Chief, stressed those in attendance to please call 9-1-1 if they see any illegal activities or suspicious people in the park. Between January 1st, 2014 and October 1st 2014, there were 100 calls to the block around Maiben Park. 9-1-1 calls for the same area and same time frame in 2015, resulted in 105 calls, which is a 5% increase over last year, but citywide 9-1-1 calls are up 12%, so the increase in calls to the area around Maiben Park is not growing at the same pace as the rest of the city. The Chief Of Police said the only way for Officers to properly monitor and track the illegal activities is if citizens in the area who either live there or who are there using the park, are reporting the crimes as they see them happen.
The Police Chief said his Department has taken a proactive approach to policing the park and they have implemented “Foot Patrols” of the park at all hours of the night and their presence has curbed some of the illegal activities in the last couple months. The Police Department has also recently hired several new Police Officers.
Rough Draft of Proposed Changes
Proposed Long term changes to the park which are roughly shown above, include the new LED Lighting and Cameras as well as new play structures and equipment (yellow areas). It also calls for moving the bathrooms (blue area) to a different area of the park, installing motion activated lighting in the restrooms, and changing the entire building to remove the half walls from in front of the restrooms, giving parents a clear line of sight to watch their children as they enter and exit the restrooms. They are also planing to take out the current play area and moving it. They plan to expand it to a larger area in the park, which would include two play areas. One area would cater to the zero to five year old kids (small yellow area) and the other play area would cater to the five to ten year old kids (large yellow area). The restroom would be situated close to the play areas and out from under the darkness of the trees. The current play area (dark brown area) would be turned into an additional 10-12 parking spots, including some ADA accessible spots.
The large grassy area, which was formerly a baseball field, would be potentially leveled out with secured power boxes added to that area of the park, so large events, such as the Burlington Back To School Fair and the Easter Egg Hunt could still be held in the “open spaces” area of the park.
Those concerned about the Water park were happy to learn that the proposed changes would keep the water park with a future expansion in phase two or phase three of the changes, to include spray guns and water cannons among other fun things for kids.
The basketball and tennis courts would stay and along with the added lighting and cameras there is proposals to resurface them.
Overall the changes to the park were welcomed and appreciated from those in attendance.
Financing for the project would hopefully come from a combined partnership from two local organizations and the city, from their fund for capital projects.
