By Maryfrances Lignana
We call Mirrormont Park “our park.” In fact, the park is a King County Park—akin to Cougar Mountain, Marymoor, and Duthie Hill Parks. While one of the smallest King County’s parks, “our” park gets LOTS of love and use. Sometimes though, we forget its King County status and we forget the rules around using a King County Park. Rules around motorized vehicles (not al-lowed), dog walking (on leash), removing plants or digging dirt (nope), bicycles (on trails and share-the-road). In 2018, we’ll update and add signage in the park to freshen our awareness of park use good behavior.
Maintenance and changes to the park are a collaborative effort and we’re fortunate that our neighbors who established the park also created a great working relationship with the County. Through the years, this relationship has continued to be strong. The County does the heavy-lifting—taking down dead trees, removing fallen trees, mowing the meadow, and maintaining the gravel walkway. And the County is willing to work with us on new projects. Our part of the deal is fulfilled by your neighbor volunteers.
Ever since a core of residents met in 1999 to explore the pos-sibility of creating a park, and the MCA obtained funding and held a Ground-breaking Ceremony in 2005, the park has continued to be a major project of the MCA. It took several years to obtain permits, clear, grade, and seed the meadow, then add trails and benches. It may be hard to believe, but 2018 marks only the 10th anniversary of the Grand Opening Picnic in the Park.
For more on how Mirrormont Park came to be, see mirrormont.org/park-history/. In 2018, we’ll continue the Volunteer Work Crew Park TLC Days. Many thanks go to the 2017 crews—young, old, and in between, who came out for the park. The trails have been kept well maintained with fresh supplies of chips—and not just last year but every year. And in our never-ending “War of the Weeds,” volunteer efforts have tamed English ivy and made a huge dent in Himalayan blackberries and yellow archangel. We think we can manage them going forward. The next focus involves eliminating creeping yellow buttercup and bindweed (aka morning glory), which is an even harder job.
2018 will also be a year for launching some new projects. There’s been continued interest in having play structures in the park. The County is willing to support this addition and we are seeking volunteers to form a sub-committee to start investigating options, issues, and desirability. The same approach will be used for adding a picnic shelter—another idea that has popped up over the years. For both, the County has plans and examples of structures that withstand loved-a-lot heavy use.
Watch for MCA emails and Nextdoor posts that invite you to Park Committee meetings. Or, even better, join the Park Committee (email park@mirrormont.org!) Also, be sure to attend the MCA Annual Meeting on January 23rd. First and foremost, get out and enjoy our park!
Travel photographer Yvette Cardozo joins families in Mirrormont Park watching the solar eclipse with invert-ed binoculars, cereal box pinhole projectors, and eclipse glasses.