New park pondered for Birch Bay

By Christian Knight

The Birch Bay chamber of commerce will be working with Whatcom County Parks and Recreation through the upcoming year to create a small park along Cedar and Anderson avenues in Birch Bay.

The concept for the park is 70 years old. On February 24, 1932, Halvor Halverson donated a three and-a-half-acre piece of land to Whatcom County with hopes the county would transform it into a park.

The land sat until the chamber of commerce recognized need for more public parks in the area. When it did, the board entered into a cooperative effort with the Whatcom County Parks and Recreation to fulfill the intentions of the Halverson deed of trust, which gave the land to the county.

“The park shall be used for swimming, bathing and park purposes,” the deed says. “No seats, tables, tents, houses or other structures of any kind or nature shall be placed there.”

These stipulations posed a challenge for board members at their December 2 meeting.

“We have to be able to do something with the park to make it a park,” said board member M. Kelly. “It is not a park right now.”

The project is in embryonic form right now. The board neither has a date to initiate the project nor an idea of what it will be doing with the project.
“I don’t want to invite the relatives (Halversons) until we have everything figured out,” said Jana Soloway at the meeting. “I mean we don’t know what we’re doing yet.”

The board did establish parameters for a 10-member committee to oversee the project and decided to conduct a casino night fundraiser April 12 at the Dakota Creek Roadhouse. It also chose to begin the fundraising process by placing donation plates at local businesses on the 71st anniversary of the deed, February 24.”
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