ARLINGTON – The state Legislature passed a $4.1 billion capital budget that will make a splash for projects in Arlington, with none bigger than plans to build a spray park at Haller Park.
This is the news that city officials have been waiting for.
“We’re super excited to build this project,” Recreation Manager Sarah Lopez said. “The community has been patient, but it will be worth the wait when it is finished.”
The project will go to bid in early March, with construction to start in May, and a hoped-for grand opening in August.
Splash pad construction will include installation of a 3,300-square-foot spray deck with additional seating areas, Lopez said. The surface is river-themed with colored concrete representing a river, and themed equipment, including river otters, salmon, cattails and ducks.
The project includes interactive water features, sidewalk connections from the restrooms and playground areas to the splash pad, and a building to house the park’s circulation and filtration system, Lopez said.
The $500,000 state grant is in addition to the $500,000 donated by the Stillaguamish Tribe and $150,000 contributed by Arlington Rotary through their Friends of the Splash Pad fundraising efforts, Lopez said.
The state ranked the project high on the funding list due to the tribe and community’s contributions.
Two other Arlington projects also will receive funding:
• $46,000 to help build a pocket park, Howell Memorial Park at Olympic Avenue and 4th Street.
• $99,000 to the Arlington Boys and Girls Club’s for the new gym.
For the pocket park, the city is seeking $267,000 in the state’s 2018 capital budget to renovate a 1940s service station in downtown Arlington that would double as a public park area for pedestrians and bicyclists from the nearby Centennial Trail, and an innovation center and business incubator inside the building.
The city signed a purchase and sale agreement in November to buy the “old Shell station.”
Passage in both chambers in the legislature came on Jan. 18 after lawmakers agreed on a water use policy bill to address new domestic wells drilled by rural property owners. A dispute over the issue related to the state Supreme Court’s 2016 decision in the Hirst case stalled the construction spending plan during the 2017 legislative session.
The Senate bill included $1 billion to build new public schools, necessary to comply with the Supreme Court’s McCleary decision that public education be fully funded, along with $800 million in projects for the state’s colleges.
The capital budget supplies funds to buy, build and repair infrastructure projects such as schools, parks, water treatment system, expand capacity at hospitals and clinics, housing and more.
