PORT HADLOCK — Peace Park? Lions Club Park? Second Beach? To different people, parts of the two-mile strip of land along the south shore of Indian Island are known by different names.
And many of the hikers and beachcombers who use it don’t even know it’s a county park.
And that’s the problem.
On Wednesday, the Jefferson County Parks and Recreation Advisory Board resolved the problem by voting to officially name the 142 upland acres and tidelands of the Indian Island County Park.
As a result, signs with the park’s official name and its sub-areas will be going up soon, said Matt Tyler, Parks and Recreation manager.
“We’ll also post the day-use rules: dogs on leash, no discharge of firearms, pick up your litter,” he added.
Getting park users to observe the rules is one reason that park volunteer Dennis Burk presented a park naming proposal at the advisory board’s March meeting.
Burk, a retired engineer who lives on Marrowstone Island, has been maintaining the trails on the Indian Island property on a volunteer basis for three years.
During that time, he noticed that there was no way to define locations within the park if an emergency arose.
Rules regarding fires and the discharge of firearms were being ignored, he said, endangering people who hiked the trails.
“There are safety, convenience and recognition issues,” he told the board at the March meeting.
“It’s a no-name park and it’s difficult to describe where you are on the property.”
