Progress Report – February 3, 2019

We’ve made great progress on this project, but we need your help to complete it!  We want to restore a section of the Cross Kirkland Corridor to original, native plants, so it looks the way it did before all those invasives escaped from our yard - so our kids can see how it must have looked before it was taken over by Enlish ivy, English Laurel, English holly, and Himalayan blackberries!!

Here’s where we are*:

ü  Pavilion Purchase – fundraising completed by The Rotary Club of Kirkland

ü  Pavilion Installation – City of Kirkland will provide

ü  Picnic Tables – grant approved by Rotary District

Ø  Installation of section of original rail track and historic signage

ü  Railroad ties, spikes, connectors obtained

ü  Track has been dug up and is ready to move  (that’s what has been going on near Chainline Brewery)

Ø   4Culture Grant application submitted and pending

Ø  Native Pant garden and fencing

ü  Invasive pants removed by volunteers

Ø  Kirkland Parks Foundation supporting project and Fundraising Site active

This is where we need your help!

-       Help us get the word out!  Tell your neighbors and friends.

-       Better yet, go to https://www.kirklandparksfoundation.org/  click on “CKC Picnic Area Native Vegetation Restoration” near the bottom of the page, and make a donation.

*See below for more detailed timeline.
Winter-Spring 2017 – Project conception, obtain general and specific cost estimates. 
August 18, 2017 – City of Kirkland personnel to gage interest in project. Receive positive response.
 
October 16, 2017 – Formally present project to fund purchase of Pavilion to the Rotary Club of Kirkland.  Club votes to approve Pavilion project and raise the necessary money.

January 16, 2018 – Formally present project to Kirkland City Council.  Receive favorable response; Council directs City Manager Kurt Triplett to meet with David Aubry of Rotary and appropriate City personnel.

January 26, 2018 – Meet with Kari Page, Kathy Brown, Kurt Triplett, obtain formal City of Kirkland approval for project.  City to be responsible for installation of Pavilion.

January 31, 2018 – Retrieve 80 plates, 118 spikes, and assorted other track hardware from rail removal contractor behind old Bellevue Lowes store.

February 1, 2018 – With the Rotary volunteers, John Pruitt, Steve Shinstrom, Joe Getzendammer, pick up 40 very heavy ties in two trips from behind old Bellevue Lowes Store.  (Ties are currently in Aubry carport.)

February-March 2018 – About 320 spikes for project.  Picked up more spikes, plates, rail connectors along CKC.  Believe we now have enough hardware for the project.

February 22, 2018 – Meet at site with Kari Page, Betsy Adams, Shannon of the City of Kirkland to discuss site layout and non-native plant removal.

February 27, 2018 – Meet at site with Karen Story, CKC Steward, to discuss project and non-native plant removal. 

February-April 2018 –  Develop landscape plan for native plant area.

March 21, 2018 – Meeting to discuss obtaining Rotary District Grant for picnic tables for the Pavilion.

March 22, 2018 – Meet with Sally Otten of the Kirkland Parks Foundation to discuss Foundation participation in the project – specifically in raising funds for developing the native plant area. 

April 9, 2018 – Rotary volunteers and Karen Story’s crew finish clearing the majority of the non-native brush and plants from site.

September 2018 –

·         Begin discussions with 4-Culture for future grant application in the ‘Heritage’ category for historic signage and rail installation project. 
·         Investigate feasibility of removing 2-3 sections of rail from a buried siding behind Chainline Brewery on the CKC.   

October 2, 2018 –The Kirkland Parks Foundation Board votes unanimously to approve support for the project.  (This will encompass the removal of the remaining cottonwoods, purchasing native plants, landscape cloth as a weed barrier, split rail fence materials, and identifiers for native plants.  Planting and installation of fence to be accomplished with volunteer labor.)

October 2018-December 2018 – dig up rails and pull spikes behind Home-Grown Trailers/Chainline Brewery. 

January 7, 2019 – Parks Foundation website goes live with the CKC project.