PenMet meets with Fox Island leader about termination of park hosts. Here’s how it went

PenMet Parks officials met with a Fox Island representative recently in an effort to lower the temperature of a dispute with island residents over the sudden termination of the district’s park host program.

Nothing was settled, but both sides described the meeting as “positive.”

“We had a very nice meeting and talked turkey,” said Jim Braden, a longtime island resident who is active in the Fox Island Community Recreation Association. “Both of us now know what our interests are, to some degree.”

Braden said he met with Board President Amanda Babich and Executive Director Ally Bujacich for about an hour on Oct. 1.

At the Oct. 5 meeting of the Peninsula Metropolitan Park Board, Babich said: “it was a very positive meeting and we look forward to a continuing relationship” with FICRA.

The meeting followed a Sept. 7 directive by Board President Amanda Babich asking district staff to “conduct further research” and consult with the Fox Island Community and Recreation Association about whether the program could be renewed.

She directed staff to research other park host programs and see how they manage liability and other issues, and to identify PenMet parks that could benefit from a renewed host program.

Island residents upset

Residents of Fox Island have been upset about PenMet’s decision in July to evict the longtime resident hosts at the Fox Island Fishing Pier Park and the Demolay Sandspit Nature Preserve. People who live close to the parks say they are worried that nighttime drinking parties and bonfires will resume now that the hosts are gone.

The meeting with Braden was the first dialogue PenMet has had with the community. Until now, the board members have listened at PenMet meetings without replying as they have been lambasted by irate Fox Islanders.

In an email to FICRA members, Braden said, “PenMet is anxious to meet with us to come to some resolution on the management of the parks and the hosting issue.” He said further meetings are being planned.

“PenMet does understand the importance of buffering park activity from private residences in proximity to their parks,” he said.

Park hosts received no pay, but got RV parking space and paid utilities in return for watching over the parks at night, opening and closing the gates and doing some minor maintenance.

Reasons for cutoff

In a Frequently Asked Questions posting in July, the district gave several reasons for “sunsetting” the 17-year-old program, ranging from costs to maintenance problems, but has declined to go into specifics, or to discuss the program’s actual costs. Those questions from The Gateway have not been answered.

That continues to frustrate some Fox Island residents, including several who have been repeat visitors to PenMet meetings.

“In the past three months, PenMet has been all over the place,” complained park neighbor Glenn Hansen at the Oct. 5 board meeting. “First, it’s to make all the parks conform to the same standards. No, wait, it’s a contract issue. No, wait, it’s a maintenance issue. No it’s a security issue. No, it’s a liability issue.”

PenMet, Hansen argued, is “just throwing things at the wall to see what will stick.”

Babich told The Gateway: “PenMet has been clear that there were several reasons for termination of the park host program and those reasons accumulated to a decision made in July and effective on Oct 1. The reasons have been given in the letters to the former park hosts, the posted FAQ’s, and my statement during a recent board meeting.”

In their meeting with Braden, the PenMet officials stressed liability. Babich and Bujacich maintained that park hosts were not intended to police the parks, Braden said in his email. They said hosts should not be “making contact directly with individuals or parties,” and that “avoiding putting hosts in harms way is a priority.”

Calling the sheriff

Fox Island resident Peggy Power took issue with that.

“These are mature people whom you have screened,” she told the board Oct. 5. “Do you honestly think they cannot assess a threat, know when to disengage and appeal to law enforcement when necessary?”

In the absence of park hosts, she asked, “Do you really want the sheriff or 911 to be phoned every time a dog is unleashed, when there is an open fire, when someone brings seaweed up from the beach?”

During the Oct. 1 meeting with PenMet officials, Braden said, he was told that during times of high volume at the DeMolay Sandspit, the district has been hiring “an eight hour per day person who is there to keep an eye on protecting the Sandspit ecosystem.”

In an email Oct. 6, Babich said PenMet hired private security for the sandspit this summer.

Braden said he hopes to set up another meeting at which other Fox Island residents can speak.

“So, the next step is to set up a meeting, with a professional protocol to it, to fully explain our experience with, and fears of public impact on neighbors. Our intent is to proceed with the objective of getting the hosting program, hopefully, back into service.”

This story was originally published October 10, 2021 at 5:00 AM.