What a great way to enter the new millennium—two big wins to celebrate. Stopping the enlargement of the West Point Sewage Treatment Plant and essentially halting the proposed People’s Lodge.

As I write this we are having a typical Seattle winter –rain. It comes with the territory. Just think about how precious our water is to our survival. It is so easily taken for granted but not by Friends of Discovery Park.

We were insistent a new sewage treatment plant be built in south Snohomish or north King County. Dumping more sewage effluent into Puget Sound at West Point, next to Discovery Park, puts a heavier load of sewer sludge in that area of the Sound. We worried the plant might be expanded beyond our 1991 Metro settlement agreement. A real concern was the transporting of sewage long distances with the potential for leaks, spills, and overflows along the way.

The good news is that after long deliberations the King County Council voted to build a new Northern plant and not build a dreaded Kenmore Interceptor (more likely named “Send it to West Point”). It was good news for the Park. Thanks go to King County Executive Ron Sims, King County Council and President Louise Miller with a special thanks to Councilman Larry Phillips for his efforts and determination to find a solution.

Another happy win for Friends of Discovery Park was the City Hearing Examiner’s decision concerning the proposed People's Lodge. The effect of her decision makes it almost impossible for the UIATF to implement their plans for their oversized development.

The UIATF appealed that decision to the King County Superior Court. A March 6 date was set. But similar to their request that delayed the release of the draft Environmental Impact Statement last May, the UIATF asked for and were granted a three month delay while they work with Mayor Paul Schell to find another location.

It is good news that they are considering another site. The Coalition will take an active interest in this. One of the Coalition's goals is to make sure we do not have to fight this battle again.

As we learn more on what is actually happening we will include it in the next Explorer. For a quicker notice we will l send out electronic bulletins on our web site. You can sign up to receive them, at our web site: www.discoveryparkfriends.org, or call Valerie Cholvin 206-283-8643.

Our attorney, Peter Buck, a local well known land use attorney, will continue to work for us with the Mayor and is prepared to defend the Hearing Examiner's decision for us in the appeal if it continues. City attorney, Judy Barbour, will defend it for the city. We have won but it is important for us to insure our win. Lawyers cost money. Please respond to the "Save Discovery Park’s" solicitation if you have not already responded. Send a tax deductible contribution to -The Heart of America Fund / Tides Foundation or non-tax deductible to - Coalition to Save Discovery Park, P.O. Box 99431, Seattle, WA 98199-0431."

If you are interested in attending the hearing check our web site after we get close to that date: www.discoveryparkfriends.org or call me at 206-283-8643 for the latest information.

We need you. The Friends of Discovery Park Board of Directors works hard as advocates for the park. We can not be effective without you, our members. To see if your dues are due check the Explorer address label date. If that date has gone by, please send in your dues. A renewal form is on the back page of this Explorer.

Enjoy the park. Those spectacular sunny days will come around when everyone is out in the park enjoying the fabulous view of the snow-capped Olympic Mountains across the sparkling Sound. In the meantime we’ll see you in misty Discovery Park.

Valerie Cholvin

HISTORICAL VIGNETTE: DISCOVERY PARK CHOSEN AS ABM MISSILE SITE

It was early in 1968, thirty-two years ago. US troops had been in Vietnam for three years and would stay for seven more. The Korean War had ended 15-years before.

President Kennedy had been assassinated five years earlier. President Johnson ordered the first American combat troops into Vietnam ago.

The Cold War was hot without a sign of cooling down. China’s entry into the Korean War still rankled the military. The Vietnam War dragged on for another five years.

Fort Lawton was a major site for the embarkation of troops to and from Korea and Vietnam. But otherwise it was still asleep. The gates were open. Neighbors had their own park.

Four years earlier, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara had announced the Army would declare 754-acres of the Fort surplus to federal needs.

To fulfill a 48-year old dream of a grand park at Fort Lawton, the voters included $3-million in the successful February 1968 Forward Thrust Bond issue. The funds were to acquire and develop a park on the Fort lands the city hoped to receive.

About the same time in 1968, the Secretary of Defense announced a change of plans. The military now wanted to construct an Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) base at the Fort. . Citizens hoping for a park were shocked. They organized to fight ABM site.

Missiles were not new at Fort Lawton. Magnolia resident, Rob Hitchings remembers as a youngster living at the Fort an earlier Nike system. His father transferred to Fort Lawton in 1957. Fort Lawton was the home to the 10th U.S. Army Corps headquarters that also controlled the Reserves and National Guard units in five Western states.

Hitchings says, "The Fort was also the headquarters for Puget Sound ADC (Air Defense Command). Fort Lawton and its Missile Master complex was command central…for all the Nike and Bomark missiles sites in the Puget Sound region."

The Nike system was named for the mythical Greek goddess of victory. Developed near the end of World War II, it replaced the inadequate anti-aircraft artillery as a surface to air defense.

The first Nike missile, the "Ajax", had a range of about 25 miles. By the mid-60’s Nike missiles had little defensive value against newer technology and were deactivated. (The Fort’s Nike facilities are now used to store City records.)

The ABM missiles were much newer technology. They were to answer the Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) being developed by Russia and also by the U.S.

An ABM base at Fort Lawton would level up to 300-acres of the uplands and effectively put the entire Fort out-of-bounds for civilians.

Nationally 15 to 20 ABM sites were to be operational by the 1970s. Fort Lawton missiles would be only effective against a yet un-built Chinese Inter-continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) and only if it came over the North polar route. The ABM system included the 55-foot Spartan with a range of several hundred miles and a warhead yield in the megaton range. Incoming ICBM’s would be intercepted outside the earth’s atmosphere.

A Missile Site Radar structure guiding the ABMs would be 90-feet high with each side more than 225-feet long.

The 27-foot Sprint’s range was 15 to 25 miles with intercepts seconds before impact.

In mid-1968, representatives of civic and environmental groups were thoroughly aroused and organized the Citizens for Fort Lawton Park.

Heavy citizen opposition to the ABM site brought a response from Sen. Henry M. Jackson (D-WA) who met with the Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford and convinced the Secretary to remove Fort Lawton as a site. Eventually the U.S. built only one ABM complex site far from Discovery Park in Nekoma, North Dakota.

Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. has been appointed as the new manager of Discovery Park.

For the past ten years, Giuliano has specialized in experiential environmental education in Los Angeles. He worked with diverse audiences and all grade levels including adults.

His experience includes the management of the Observatory museum guides in the 4000-acre Griffith Park, one of the largest US parks. Giuliano also worked for NASA managing space exploration project teams.

As manager of Discovery Park he plans to develop an integrated plan for the Park as an important gathering place for Seattle citizens.

His wife, Bonnie, a psychologist, is currently teaching psychology at Antioch University's Los Angeles campus. She is interviewing for a Seattle teaching position.

POTPOURRI

 

• The U.S. Postal Service recently issued a 33?-postage stamp commemorating Frederick Law Olmsted, Landscape Architect.

  Olmsted with Calvert Vaux designed both New York’s Central Park and Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. He is the foremost American Park planner. Dan Kiley, Charlotte Vermont, the most prominent of today’s park planners, based the Discovery Park plan on Olmsted’s work.

  His stepson John Olmsted together with his son, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. laid out the plan for the Seattle Park system at the beginning of the twenty-century.

   

• A new book on Olmsted by Withold Rybczynski (Scribner 1999) was featured on a recent C-Span program. It is titled "A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the Nineteenth Century."

  Reading about Olmsted and his trials and tribulations in defending natural open space parks can strengthen your urges to protect Discovery Park’s plan. Using the new stamp can advertise your feelings about parks.

   

• The Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s “Travel & Outdoors Getaways Section” (11-11-99) carried an article called “The Trail Less Traveled—Instead of traffic and exhaust, trailrunners get streams to jump, logs to hop—a great view.”

  The cover of the section has a full-color picture of a runner coming down the stairs of the North Beach trail.

  A similar story of the trail in the Magnolia News (8-18-99) included pictures of the magnificent Puget Sound beach walk and wildlife lagoon constructed by King County as part of the West Point treatment plant mitigation.

  A seven page article with color photos of this wilderness and beautiful beach walk was featured in the June 1999 issue of the American Society of Landscape Architecture’s, magazine, “Landscape Architecture”.

   

• Long-time Discovery Park supporter Alfred Edwards died October 31^st following a stroke the previous day. He was 77 years old and grew up on Vashon Island.

  He is survived by his wife, Betty and three children. Betty has been an active board member of the Friends for decades. At one time his daughter Rae was a Discovery Park naturalist. We will miss Al.

   

• Mike Mailway, columnist in the P-I, offers this tid-bit by Bill Vaughn: “Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees and then names the streets after them”.

Our citizens created this great park. Rather than allow an over-sized Peoples’ Lodge to be built or a sewage treatment plant expanded again, it is crucial our leaders appreciate the precious open space and natural values of this park. Too many parks were ruined because elected caretakers chose not to defend the people’s property they held in trust. Everyone understands and appreciates Nature’s beauty Nature and enjoys the rejuvenation of the spirit when released from the stress of the city.

“A beautiful scene. Will always be remembered.”

- Hertfordshire, UK

“Absolutely beautiful.”

- Rotterdam, Holland

“Fantastic Park. Beautiful day.”

- Cork, Ireland

“Thank you for opening our eyes, hearts and minds to Nature.”

- Seattle WA

“A haven close to the City.”

- Manchester, England

“A great Discovery.”

- York, England

“Love this green.”

- Albania

“Beautiful gardens—wonderful colours.”

- Perth, Western Australia

“Bluff top view of (Puget) Sound is incomparable.”

- Santa Barbara CA

“Best park in Seattle. Don’t build here.”

- Shoreline WA

“Very pretty. I liked the birds.”

- Carson City NV

“I have always loved this park. The new center is beautiful.”

- Seattle WA

“Beautiful Park, beautiful day.”

- Kent WA

“Wonderful place to spend a day.”

- Seattle WA

“Excellent.”

- Buckingham, England

“We have lived in Seattle for 50-years. This is our first visit—not our last—lovely.”

- Alki, Seattle

“This is a wonderful place.”

- Salt Lake City UT

“Great park.”

- Taiwan

“It’s not raining.”

- Ottawa, Canada

“Nice.”

- China

“Looking for woodpeckers.”

- Los Angeles CA

“Nice Trails.”

- Juneau AK

“Great walk.”

- London England

“I cleaned up the beach.”

- Japan

“Spider tour. Thank you!”

- Seattle

“Great forests.”

- Oakland CA

“Best Place.”

- Clearview, W Orange NJ

“Wonderful.”

- Richmond VA

SUSAN WELCH RECEIVES FRIEND’S AWARD

“Is this town all about ‘give me mine?’ I think there’s a much larger issue and that is the restoration of natural areas.” Charles Royer Former Seattle Mayor

Susan Welch received the 1999 “Achievement Award” from the Friends of Discovery Park at their November Board meeting.

Susan, a very talented artist and designer, has given freely of her time and talent on both Friend’s projects and Discovery Park programs.

She has designed covers for the master plan reprint, T-shirts, Tote Bags, bumper stickers, flyers, park programs, membership blanks, and much more.

Her efforts for the Park and her service as a Friend’s board member are greatly appreciated.