Othello park gets new life

OTHELLO — There are big plans for P.J. Taggares Park: improvements to the combined football-soccer fields, lights at the shop and the playground.

And it’s starting with new grass.

The new grass is a symbol of the way Othello residents, sports teams, businesses, local government and the Adams County Parks and Recreation District 1 are working together to revitalize a community asset.

Parks and Recreation chair Rolando Cerrillo said park maintenance relied on volunteers, and overtime, but volunteers got older and the help dried up. The park suffered as a result.

“We’re just trying to bring it back to life, is what we’re doing,” he said.

The 19-acre facility along West June Street was donated in 1997 by pioneering Othello farmer Pete “P.J.” Taggares and his family. Development was paid for in part through a Washington Interagency Athletic Program grant from the Paul Allen Foundation.

Taggares died in 1999, and the parks and recreation district was formed to take care of the park. Members of the Othello Lions Club spearheaded the development of the park and its upkeep.

But that was more than 20 years ago, and the original board members were getting older, Cerrillo said.

“It was time for somebody else to take over,” Cerrillo said.

Oscar Casados was the president of the Grid Kids football team at the time, and wanted a place for the team to play. But there was also the chance to do something for all kids, the way Taggares had helped out Casados back in the day, sponsoring him when he was playing baseball.

“I wanted to pay something forward for what he did for me,” Casados said.

Cerillo and Casados said the priority is to provide a place for the community’s kids.

“Our number one goal is to make this a family park and a kids park,” Cerrillo said.

The park has basketball courts, a playground and a picnic shelter in addition to the football and baseball fields. The football fields can be used as soccer fields, and a group of local soccer players is working to start a new association for adults, Cerrillo said. There are also tentative plans for a kids soccer league. The Othello Bombers youth baseball team and the Grid Kids are using the park.

In fact, people of all ages are starting to use the park. Casados said he’s met a lot of people walking their dogs. Dogs should be kept on a leash, he added.

While one baseball field has been cleaned up, all of the fields could use some new grass.

“Here’s the amazing thing,” Cerrillo said. “The group that is starting the soccer association, they went and talked to K’ntucky Turf.”

Othello’s K’ntucky Turf is a local sod company, and its owners wanted to contribute to the cause.

“They said they would like to come in here, and they would like to aerate the whole thing, replant it and level it out. What we’re going to do first is we’re going to do the baseball fields and the two soccer fields and get those into shape in the next eight weeks. Just the cost of that alone is an amazing donation,” Cerrillo said.

A lot of work has been done already. Portions of the park were overgrown with weeds, and it hadn’t been watered in a while.

“At the start of last year the park was completely dry,” Cerrillo said.

Volunteers installed a sprinkler system last fall. Volunteers, some from the baseball team, helped work on one of the diamonds, with refurbishment of the second diamond still to come. Fixing up the second baseball field is part of the three-year plan, along with installing lights to allow night games.

The work is already paying off. Cerrillo said he was at the park Easter weekend, and there were baseball games and soccer games, along with people playing pickup basketball and soccer.

“There were more than 150 people in this park,” he said.

There are two open seats on the park board, and people who want to apply for them can contact Cerrillo at 509-760-6995.

The park still has a way to go, and Cerrillo said park commissioners are looking for both donations and volunteers, and they’re also looking for help to find possible grant funds. People who want to donate to or volunteer for the project can contact Cerillo at the phone number listed.

The district also is considering running a maintenance and operations levy, which would be its first. Commissioners haven’t decided whether to ask for $200,000 or $150,000, Cerrillo said.

If the levy is $200,000, the assessment for property owners would be 15 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. For a $150,000 levy, the assessment would be 11 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.