Year in review 2019: Point Roberts Park & Recreation District

By Bennett Blaustein

Another eventful year has passed for the park district. Early in the year, Ben Van Buskirk had to sadly leave as our programs and facilities coordinator, but we were lucky in having Meghan Kelly step into the position.

As a park district, we began doing more outreach to the community and we finally have a website located at prparkandrec.org. We also saw our fourth year in a row of increases in local groups using the community center.

The community center has slowly been getting a long-deserved facelift through new paint and flooring in the interior; as well as upcoming kitchen upgrades from a generous grant by the Colton Foundation through PREP.

The biggest change at the community center was the grand opening of the Point Roberts History Center run by the Point Roberts Historical Society. This museum space does an excellent job of telling the story of Point Roberts and has been a must-see stop for people visiting the Point.

Baker Field also had some very nice updates over the past year including the grand opening of the Enchanted Forest Trail in May and the doubling of the trail this past October.

We have seen a large increase in people using the trails to visit our local gnomes, fairies and other creatures.

Our trail system also expanded when we created a new dry cut through the blackberry brambles at the back of Baker Field. Our latest upgrades include directional trail signs and a new trail map created with the generous help of Darrell Cassidy. The map can be found posted at the back of Baker Field and on our website.

Our goal for 2020 is to remain strong stewards for the preservation of our community center and Baker Field while providing increased recreational opportunities to our residents and visitors.

We plan to continue our support for all the organizations and residents of Point Roberts that use our facilities, and we wish everyone a happy new year.