Here’s your chance to comment on a proposal to rename Olympia’s Priest Point Park
The Olympia Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee will conduct a virtual public hearing this week on a proposal to rename Priest Point Park to honor the history of the land and the people who have inhabited it.
The park, located at 2600 East Bay Drive NE, is set to be renamed Squaxin Park, after the Squaxin Island Tribe and the Steh-Chass people who lived in the area well before it was established as the city’s first waterfront park in 1905.
A virtual public hearing is set to take place at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 17. Residents can sign up on the city’s website to attend the event and comment on the proposal.
In a press release, Sylvana Niehuser, the city’s director of parks planning and maintenance, said renaming the park aligns with the city’s commitment to honor the Squaxin Island Tribe, which inhabited what is now Olympia for thousands of years, as well as the accord the city signed with the tribal council in October.
That accord states how both governments will continue to honor the Treaty of Medicine Creek, work together on climate change and salmon recovery efforts. It also included a land acknowledgment provision.
“The renaming to Squaxin Park will recognize the area as a place of importance to the past, present and future of the Tribe,” the city’s news release reads.
The 314-acre park includes picnic shelters, nature trails, a large playground, basketball courts and public restrooms, as well as a mile of saltwater shoreline along Budd Inlet. There also is a rose garden.
This story was originally published March 14, 2022 at 11:40 AM.
.jpg)