By Jack Mayne

Kent has long eyed enlarging the large park extending along Mill Creek Canyon Earthworks Park and near both downtown and Kent-Kangley Road, and the Council approved the purchase on an adjacent three acre plot at their Tuesday (March 6) City Council session.

Mill Creek Canyon Earthworks Park is near downtown and stretches along Canyon Park Drive from downtown to the Kent-Kangley Road, and Deputy Kent Parks Director Brian Levenhagen said it is one of the last undeveloped areas in the vicinity.

Levenhagen told of the acquisition of the Ransome three acre property adjacent to Upper Middle Creek Park plot at the south end of Mill Creek Canyon Earthworks Park. Levenhagen said the property is a potential trail head.

“This (property) will eventually link the trails in Mill Creek Canyon all the way to the 277th Trail and down to the Green River Trail,” he said. “It is part of the larger trail vision for the city.”

The Council approved the three acre property acquisition at its appraised value of $890,000.

Levenhagen said the city has submitted a grant application to King County Futures for $445,000, which is half of the value and some other associated costs that are allowed by the grant program and is “optimistic” the grant will be approved.

Councilmember Brenda Fincher moved for the purchase of the property and the Council voted unanimously to buy the land.

Resident slams arming teachers
Kent resident Timothy Brown (pictured above) was the only speaker during the Council’s public comment period.

“We’ve wonderful teachers in Kent and the surrounding area who are caring, take care of our children, encourage them to grow and be all they can in school. We have had a recent fooling idea come from the east coast. Let’s put guns in our teacher’s hands to protect schools,” Brown said. “The personalities that help our students grow are not the personalities that carry a gun. We want to keep our schools gun free. We really don’t need our teachers and more guns in our schools. We need to push for more action to limit more guns available … in the city of Kent.”

Brown said getting a gun “is done easily” by going to any gun show – “do any private transaction, get a gun.” He suggested it might be time for Kent to ban gun sales “without a detailed background check.

“Let’s start making it harder for those who shouldn’t have guns to get them,” Brown told Councilmembers.

One reply on “Council approves purchase of Mill Creek Canyon Earthworks Park expansion”

  1. Thank you, Tim Brown, for being at the council meeting to speak up on the issue of teachers having guns at school! As a retired teacher, I just cannot comprehend the idea of arming teachers and staff. I can picture many bad scenarios with that plan.

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