City raises funds in creative ways

Parks & Recreation, August, 2004

How does a rural community in an economically depressed area build a $4.4-million multi-sport athletic complex for $150,000 in city funds and $400,000 in in-kind labor?

Answer: A lot of hard work and a little luck.

The city of Aberdeen, Wash., is located at the confluence of the Wishkah and Chehalis rivers on Grays Harbor. It is a community of 15,000 people, located 100 miles west of Seattle and 20 miles east of the Pacific Ocean. Over the past 30 years, the community has gone through some tough economic times, with changes in the fishing industry and logging industry, which was impacted with the "spotted owl decision." Both communities have decimated the earning capacity of many of the local citizens.

Just because the city has had some tough times, it doesn't mean that people that live there must do without the amenities and joys that come with parks and athletic activities. With this in mind, the city began its long process of building a state-of-the-art recreational complex for the youth of its community.

It started back in the fall of 1994 when the city updated its six-year Comprehensive Parks & Recreation Plan. The plan highlighted the need for a new indoor swimming pool and a new 20-acre, multi-use athletic complex. The pool came to the community though the construction of the new YMCA of Grays Harbor. And now, instead of creating a 20-acre multi-use athletic complex, the city created one with 46 acres of usable space.

Over the next couple of years, several plans were developed for the construction of an athletic complex on one site or another, but the ball really got rolling to develop this site in 1997, when the city of Aberdeen exchanged property with the Port of Grays Harbor to acquire this site. Later in 1998, the city began working with the State Department of Corrections in establishing a conservation easement to help mitigate wetland issues at the new correctional facility at Stafford Creek (located about three miles from the complex). In the year 2000, the city received money from the State Department of Corrections as part of the local impact agreement for the Stafford Creek facility. With that money, they were off and rolling.

Once the hard work paid off, luck took over--Aberdeen was lucky to receive close to $2.5 million in donations from various clubs and foundations in the community.

Through partnerships with the parks department, the street department, the water department, the sewer department, survey department and electrical department, the complex was built without the need to hire a costly design firm. The partnership between the city arm private foundations who were willing to donate was what accomplished the feat of building something that has turned out to be one of the premiere soccer competition sites in the state.