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Construction crews recently dug up a portion of the Shelton High School
parking lot in front of the Mini-Dome to repair ongoing problems with
flooding
during heavy rains. Journal photo by Gordon Weeks
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>4»: Centuryliinki
MCRA closed through New Year
Kirk Boxleitner
kbox/eitner@masoncounty. com
The Mason County Recreation
Area (MCRA) Park at 2100 E.
Johns Prairie Road in Shelton
will be out of commission until the
start of the new year to replace its
in-ground irrigation system.
The temporary closure began
Aug. 25 and is set to run until
Jan. 1, to prevent any risk of haz-
ards due to the open“trenches,
large equipment and electrical
work on the park’s seven ball dia-
mond outfields, which will also
need to be reseeded before play
can resume.
No events have been scheduled
at the park for those roughly four-
plus months of construction.
Ross McDowell, manager of
Mason 001111th Parks Depart-
ment, Division of Emergency
Management and Information
Services, spoke to the Shelton-
Mason County Journal about the
MCRA Park project, noting the
original irrigation system was
installed during the early 19705,
and pointing out this isn’t the
park’s first shutdown of the year.
“In 2020, we’ve been plagued
with COVID-19,” McDowell said.
“We had the park open for Phase
for about two weeks, until we
couldn’t control the number of
attendees showing up to use the
fields. Once we went to Phase 3,
we opened the fields for teams
that provided the ‘Return to Play’
plans that were required by the
governor’s guidance.” ‘
During that time, teams were
allowed to have up to 50 people
on each field,:as longas they had
an approved-plan and allthe per- V
'sonal protective equipment and
, services'requiredby‘the guidance.
, “We asked anyone using the
field' to make reservations, free
of charge, to make sure we know
who was using them in case of an
outbreak of COVID-19 among the
stay
.j as staff at snip titres mainten
s is ssstésts‘s“
ties and parks “ .. .
anse
TE
Ross McDowell
Manager of Mason County’s Parks Department
players and coaches,” McDowell
said.
That lasted roughly a month,
until the governor’s guidance
was revised to restrict gatherings
to 10 people or fewer in ‘Phase 3
counties such as Mason County.
“The normal baseball and soft-
ball seasons start in March and
end by Aug. 1,” McDowell said,
“which is why we scheduled the
new irrigation system starting in
mid-August for preliminary work,
and at the end of August for the
actual groundbreaking portion of
the project.”
From August through the end '
of the year, MCRA Park occasion—
ally has a tournament or two, ac-
cording to McDowell.
“Most of the time, it’s fam-
ily members coming out to play
on the fields and enjoy the park
features,” McDowell said. “The
spring and summer baseball and
softball seasons see the park
booked Mondays through Fridays,
after school hours until dark, with
practices and games. The week-
ends are usually booked up for
special league games and tourna-
ments during'that same period.” '
V 'Althoughregular maintenance
is, performed- year-round at MCRA
and the County’s other parks,
McDowell clarified this particu-~
lar project is large enough that
the county has called in contract
workers to perform the installa-
tion.
“Our staff of only three main-
tenance personnel provide ser-
vices to all 23 sites and parks
in the county,” McDowell said.
“They' stay extremely busy with
landscaping activities, the repair
and building of structures in the
parks, trail grooming, general
maintenance, emergency tree-
cutting and downed tree remov-
als, and emergency repairs from
vandalism.”
Parks staff also perform all
the maintenance on their land-
scaping equipment — including
mowers, groomers, tractors and
gators —— as well as on several of
the county-owned boat launches
and docks. . ‘
“Every Monday except holi-
days, the parks staff provide
garbage pickup from all parks in
the county,” McDowell said, “and
during our peak season of April
through August, we usually have
paid summer help to provide more
staffing for weekends, and for ex-
tra garbage services on Mondays.”
Looking past the MCRA proj-
ect, McDowell said he hopes to tap
more state Recreation and ‘Con-
servation Office and Real Estate
Excise Tax 2 funding to develop
more of North _. Mason County in
2021. I ' ‘ ' ‘ ’
For more information, call the
Mason County Parks & Trails Of-
fice at 360-427-9670, ext. 535.