OCTOBER 2017
Metro Parks Today
 News and Notes

News and Notes
Our large-scale construction projects – such as the Eastside’s new community center and the peninsula at Point Defiance Park – get lots of attention because of their scale. However, parks all over the city are getting updates. Below are just a few updates on capital projects at parks that don’t have “Point Defiance” in the name. (And remember, you can read about all of Metro Parks’ capital projects on the district website .)
 
Temporary ribbons on Titlow Beach trees
If you have visited Titlow Beach recently, you may have noticed ribbons on some of the park’s trees. Rest assured, they are NOT to mark trees for cutting. Actually, they’re part of a survey that will help Metro Parks update information about trees, utilities, buildings and other features as the district prepares for a public visioning process. The process will focus on the park’s natural areas and shoreline. One outcome will be a “master plan update” for portions of the park.

You should start to see announcements about public meetings early next year. In the meantime, you can read about Titlow Park’s planning history and improvements, and sign up for email updates, at TitlowParkVision.org.

Wapato dock replacement
Replacement of Wapato Park’s docks continues. The new ones should be finished early next year. They’ll have benches and a fish cleaning station for your enjoyment.

Conservatory restrooms
Restrooms + Conservatory = Good! for a lot of visitors. Construction started Aug. 7, and should be finished early next year. Excavation for footings and demolition of an outdoor shed was finished last month, with plumbing and electrical being roughed in afterward. The structure's footings should be poured in the coming weeks.
 
The restrooms are part of a much bigger vision for the W.W. Seymour Botanical Conservatory that began back in 2005. Ten years later, Metro Parks stared a public process to turn the broad vision into schematic design options, which were unveiled in July 2016. Future funding will be required to bring all of the designs into reality, but it was agreed that system and structural upgrades should be made now—along with the construction of public restrooms. You can read more about planned Conservatory improvements at ConservatoryFuture.org .
And in other news …
Congratulations to the Grand Prairie (Texas) Parks, Arts & Recreation Department for winning the National Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Park and Recreation Management. Metro Parks Tacoma was one of three other finalists in our population class (150,001 to 400,000). 
 
As a Gold Medal finalist and with accreditation from the Commission for Accreditation of Park and Recreation Agencies, Metro Parks is recognized as one of the nation’s outstanding park districts. Metro Parks staff are available to speak to organizations about a variety of topics. If you’d like your civic club, school, business or other group to hear more about district capital projects, horticulture, park management or other topics, please contact Chief Public Affairs Officer Hunter George , and he’ll get you set up.
Michael Thompson is
public information manager
of Metro Parks Tacoma. Contact
him at (253) 305-1092 or
Park Board Notes
Metro Parks Tacoma joins in saluting Tacoma Arts Month: Park Board Notes October 2017

October is Tacoma Arts Month, a celebration of our city as a hub of creativity in all its forms.
Whether this is where you’ve discovered your muse or have simply been inspired by others, it’s a good time to recognize how Metro Parks Tacoma nurtures and appreciates the arts.
 
Art adds to our quality of life by creating thought and awareness of life all around us. Over the years, Metro Parks Tacoma has intensified its embrace of the arts as integral to our recreation programs, particularly for youth, by offering opportunities in dance, theater, music and the visual arts.
 
And, in 2014, Metro Parks made a commitment to public art. The One Percent for Art policy ensures that 1 percent of budgeted amounts for capital projects valued at $100,000 or more are designated for public art.
 
Our public art plan, adopted in 2016, commits Metro Parks to use public art to foster active lifestyles, promote appreciation and stewardship of nature and wildlife and build understanding of culture and heritage.
 
We also aim to showcase art outside traditional settings, contribute to the diversity and livelihood of the local art scene, make art accessible and visible throughout the city and create art that delights, intrigues, attracts visitors and broadens the public’s experience.
 
This year, our promise to fund public art is beginning to blossom and will be in full flower by summer 2018, with the opening of the Point Defiance Zoo’s new Pacific Seas Aquarium. The 35,000-square-foot aquarium, funded with the support of a $198 million bond issue approved by voters in 2014, will not only feature state-of-the-art exhibits of marine life, but also display related art works.
 
Each of the four planned pieces is envisioned as integral to the visitor experience. They are:
  • Three giant glass jellyfish, created by Seattle glass artist Kait Rhoads, to hang from the atrium
  • A school of metal fish, by California artist Gordon Huether, suspended from a ceiling
  • A floor installation, also created by Huether, that mimics the shimmer of light on water and guides visitors along a ramp
  • A mural depicting Puget Sound marine life, by Tacoma illustrator Maria Jost, a science teacher at the Science and Math Institute (SAMI).
In a related event, Rhoads will create some of the tubing for the her sculpture’s tentacles and publicly demonstrate her glass-making art from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Oct. 27 at the Museum of Glass, 1801 Dock St.
 
Also in 2018, visitors to Metro Parks’ new 11-acre peninsula park, on the breakwater peninsula that is home to the Tacoma Yacht Club, will have the opportunity to take in Alluvion . The installation by Portland artist Adam Kuby was inspired by the 562-foot ASARCO smokestack that for more than 100 years dominated the nearby skyline. The landmark stack was demolished in 1993 as part of a federal Superfund cleanup, still underway.
 
Alluvion features a 15-foot-tall, 2-foot-wide steel pipe anchored upright to the ground. It’s the apex of a 10,000-square-foot array, about the size of two basketball courts, but triangular in shape. Nine rows of broken pipe fan out from the tall upright stack. The shortest rows, closest to the upright, consist of the largest pieces; the longest rows, farthest out and at the base of the triangle, are made up of the tiniest.
 
In addition, the new Eastside Community Center, opening in 2018, will feature public art projects suggested by Tacoma artists Christopher Paul Jordan and Kenji Stoll. Tentative plans call for:
  • Purchase of art for public display
  • A public-art training program
  • Memorial artworks
  • A mural project involving youth
  • Community history exhibits
  • Outdoor sculpture
Our policy will continue to support public art well into the future. You can learn more about the projects underway at MetroParksTacoma.org/PublicArt .

 
Aaron Pointer is the clerk of the Metro Parks Tacoma Board of Commissioners. He first became a commissioner in April 2001 when he was appointed to fill a vacancy. In 2012, he served as president of the board. Currently, he serves as the board’s liaison to the Metro Parks Arts & Heritage Advisory Council.
Aaron Pointer, Clerk
Metro Parks Tacoma
Board of Commissioners
Capital Improvement Projects
News Around the District
Metronome Coffee leases space in Eastside’s new community center
Metro Parks Tacoma has signed an agreement with Metronome Coffee to operate a café inside the new community center now under construction in East Tacoma.
 
Andrea Smith, president of the Metro Parks Tacoma Board of Commissioners, announced the arrangement Saturday, Sept. 23 during the community center construction celebration on the campus of First Creek Middle School.

Bloodworks Northwest recruits donors through Metro Parks Tacoma
A new community partnership between Metro Parks Tacoma and Bloodworks Northwest is making it more convenient to give blood needed at Tacoma-area hospitals.

Bloodworks Northwest plans periodic bloodmobiles and blood drives at various Metro Parks Tacoma sites and facilities throughout the next year. The nonprofit’s goal: 500 new blood donors.

Its first event, which happened to coincide with the aftermath of the nation’s worst mass shooting, in Las Vegas, was held at Point Defiance Park. So many people turned out that Bloodworks immediately substituted a large van for the smaller bloodmobile they planned to use.

Metro Parks Tacoma seeks volunteer advisors
Do you have a passion for our parks and programs? If you’re inspired by Metro Parks’ commitment to community sustainability by providing opportunities to play, learn and grow, please consider lending your expertise to one of the agency’s citizen Advisory Councils.   
 
Metro Parks is recruiting members for three of the four advisory councils. They are:
  • Active Lifestyles & Community Wellness
  • Business & Responsive Agency
  • Nature & Environment.
 
Members contribute valuable insights on Metro Parks programs, facilities and operations. Each is appointed by the Metro Parks Board of Commissioners to a three-year term and may serve up to two consecutive terms.

The elk rut is in full swing at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park and it's quite a show
It’s a natural show of force: elk are seeking herd dominance with bugling and antler clashing at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park.
 
Bam! Crash! Crack! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
 
Antlers are clashing and Roosevelt elk are emitting an otherworldly sound known as bugling at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park.
 
It’s an exciting time to visit.

SAMI students make a difference in Point Defiance Park
When the Science and Math Institute (SAMI) welcomed its first high school students in 2009, its location in Point Defiance Park was heralded as a boundless laboratory and inspirational setting for student inquiry.
 
Since SAMI opened, all students have taken part in an introductory orientation to the park. Each fall, not long after the first day of school, small groups of students visit key park sites, learn the significance of each, take in a bit of history and hear how their presence is a benefit to the park and our community.
 
This September, for the first time, SAMI students got to do a bit more to solidify their role as park patrons. On Friday, Sept. 22, the entire SAMI student body, about 490 students, participated in SAMI Park Service Day, a two-hour afternoon event.

History buff enlivens Metro Parks Fifty and Better regional tours
Neither Lou Perry nor his boss knew precisely what was to come nearly four years ago when Perry agreed to drive for Metro Parks Tacoma's Fifty and Better program.
 
“I thought I’d be taking older people to and from appointments,” he said recently. He was thrilled when he learned he’d actually escort tour groups to some of the Pacific Northwest’s most iconic attractions.

Public invited to see artist create glass sculpture for Pacific Seas Aquarium at the Museum of Glass
Tacoma is getting a brand-new aquarium with four pieces of public art – and members of the public can watch one of them being created in the Museum of Glass Hot Shop from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Oct. 27.

Seattle artist Kait Rhoads will work with the Hot Shop team and students from Hilltop Artists to create glass tubing that will make up the 10-foot tentacles and 2-foot bells of three giant glass jellyfish.

Visitors who want to watch can receive a special promotional discount to the Downtown Tacoma museum on Oct. 27.

Get half off general admission with food donation   
Help out for half off: Northwest Trek Wildlife Park and Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium team up to help the hungry this holiday season with a special food drive Nov. 3-19.
 
This holiday season, animal-lovers can give back to the community – and get a big discount on wildlife-watching in return.
 
Each visitor who brings two or more items of non-perishable food to Northwest Trek Wildlife Park near Eatonville or Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma will receive half-off general admission from Nov. 3-19.

Upcoming Events & Public Meetings
UPCOMING EVENTS


Friday, October 13
 
Saturday, October 14
 
Sunday, October 15
 
Thursday, October 19
 
Friday, October 20
 
Saturday, October 21
 
Thursday, October 26
 
Friday, October 27
 
Saturday, October 28
 
Tuesday, October 31
 
Saturday, November 4
 
Sunday, November 5
 
Wednesday, November 8
 
Friday, November 10
 
Saturday, November 11
 
Sunday, November 12
 
Thursday, November 16
 
Friday, November 17
 
Saturday, November 18
 
Thursday, November 23
 
Friday, November 24
 
Saturday, November 25
 
Sunday, November 26
 
Monday, November 27
 
Tuesday, November 28
 
Wednesday, November 29
 
Thursday, November 30


PUBLIC MEETINGS

Board of Park Commissioners Meeting 
Monday, Oct. 23
Monday, Nov. 13 & 27
6:00 pm
 
Capital Improvement Committee
Wednesday, Oct. 11 & 25
Wednesday, Nov. 15 & 29
5:00 pm

Committee of the Whole
Monday, Oct. 16 & 30
Monday, Nov. 20
5:30 pm
Metro Parks Tacoma | (253) 305-1030 | metroparkstacoma.org