SEQUIM –– It’s a boring name for an interesting place.
The 28-acre Water Reuse Demonstration Site at the edge of Carrie Blake Park at 202 N. Blake Ave. has become a popular spot for recreation.
The park is used for strolls by dog walkers and is even the setting for regattas by a group of remote control boat enthusiasts.
Through millions in grants from the state Department of Ecology, the city has been developing the park since the mid-1990s.
It is irrigated with treated water from the city’s state-funded reclamation plant.
Now, the city is looking to give the place a more glamorous name.
“It’s just a boring, bland name,” Park Board member Roger Fell said.
“We want something people can refer to, rather than just that spot north of Carrie Blake Park,” said Park Board member Patsy Mattingley.
Mattingley said Jeff Edwards, Sequim facilities manager, is asking Ecology for permission to spruce up the park’s name.
“We were thinking we could do something like Ecology Park: a water reuse demonstration site,” Mattingley said.
Since Ecology grants have funded the project, a new name would need the agency’s approval, Mattingley said.
The parks board hopes to hear by its next meeting, April 9.
If they get the go-ahead, Fell said, the city likely will turn to its citizens for guidance on the park’s
new moniker.
“We just thought it would be fun to hold a sort of contest to name the park,” he said.
Currently, crews from Kamin Excavation of Shelton are in the middle of a $273,790 project to use treated wastewater to recharge groundwater.
Kamin is laying pipes underground that will release the reclaimed sewer water, treated to a Class A status, into the soil.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Joe Smillie can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or at jsmillie@peninsuladailynews.com.