You voted for it, you got it: Renovated Delridge Playfield dedicated

| Delridge | West Seattle news | WS & Sports

Two and a half years ago, City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen – then the chair of the council’s Parks Committee – stood next to then-dusty Delridge Playfield, holding a sign campaigning for the Parks and Green Spaces Levy that has now paid for the field’s all-new turf. (Here’s the story we published that day.) Less than an hour ago, he joined acting Parks Superintendent Christopher Williams in dedicating the $3 million-plus levy-funded project – Williams threw out a ceremonial disc, while Rasmussen tossed out a ceremonial ball. The field has been happily welcomed by local athletic organizations involved with sports including disc, softball, baseball, lacrosse, and of course, soccer:

That’s West Seattle Soccer Club president Bill Fry (center) with Jack Chilcott and dad Howard Chilcott – WSSC co-sponsored today’s dedication celebration along with DiscNW. (added) Local organizations were there with info tables – North Delridge Neighborhood Council (whose next meeting is at 6:30 Monday night in the Delridge Library) and Southwest Youth and Family Services, whose headquarters is next to the field:

Student musicians from the acclaimed Chief Sealth International High School drum line played (video to come), but of course the star of the show was the field itself:

Before the year’s out, another dedication is likely nearby – groundbreaking is expected later this month for Delridge Skatepark, just a block north.

ADDED SATURDAY NIGHT: Click ahead for two video clips from the Saturday dedication:

The Chief Sealth drummers:

And the speeches!

foy boy March 12, 2011 (3:59 pm)

Well heres another new park the city can’t mantain. But it looks good now but give it a couple of years. An now the city is going to build another new park it cannot afford to take care of. Oh but wait maybe the city will charge to park at these new parks.

Michael March 12, 2011 (5:31 pm)

foy boy, read more. This is an existing park. The old, hard-to-maintain grass field was replaced with a turf field. LESS maintenance.
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On that note, do the baseball/softball fields have dirt cutouts? Because if that’s turf immediately around the bases, those diamonds will be unusable for any league play and highly dangerous for pick-up games.

MB March 12, 2011 (7:43 pm)

Just to correct Michael, the field wasn’t grass before, it was some weird, reddish colored, gravel stuff (not a clue what its called). As a kid that grew up on Delridge and played at this park endlessly, I am soooo happy to see improvements made…finally!

Karrie Kohlhaas March 13, 2011 (3:43 pm)

The new fields are a great contribution to the community. Seeing all the kids and adults playing on the fields yesterday was great. The skate park will break ground in 2 weeks and when the weather warms up the wading pool will reopen. I am so happy there are activity spaces for kids of different ages and of different interests in Delridge.

Big kudos to all involved in bringing this to Delridge, including the tax payers who voted for it!