Ballinger Park to reopen for public use Saturday

Ballinger Park earlier this summer.
Ballinger Park earlier this summer.

More than 10 months after the Ballinger Lake Golf Course closed, the 42-acre site is being reopened for public use on Saturday, Sept. 14, this time without fairways, tees and greens, replaced instead with simple walking trails and off-limit nature habitation areas.

The opening of Ballinger Park, 23000 Lakeview Drive, coincides with the National Day of Service and Mountlake Terrace officials are hoping local residents turn out, not just for the opening of the park, but for a morning of volunteer cleanup work at the site. The Day of Service encourages residents to volunteer in their local communities during the week of Sept. 11.

The city’s Recreation Park Advisory Commission (RPAC) and Neighborhood Park Improvement Subcommittee (NPIS) is inviting the community to join them for an opening ceremony and park cleanup beginning at 9:00 a.m. Participants are encouraged to come to the park with gardening gloves and tools.

City officials have been preparing the grounds for general passive park use; temporary park rules have been developed, signs are ready, and maintenance issues have been addressed. Three pedestrian access gates will be installed, including one near the Ballinger Lake boat launch, one east of the Ballinger Clubhouse and one along the park’s west boundary.

The city is placing garbage receptacles at each of the three park entrances, but nowhere else on the grounds; park visitors will be expected to dispose of any trash at the entry gates. Recycling containers will be added in the future.

Park trails will simply be grass mowed to a shorter height than the surrounding natural vegetation. Some of the unique areas that are sensitive or possess native vegetation will be considered off-limits to park visitors to provide habitat areas for birds and wildlife.

It is anticipated that the city will develop a master plan for Ballinger Park in 2014.

 

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