Food bank proposed for Erickson Park

To The Eagle:

I attended an interesting meeting Tuesday, May 22 where various food bank people supported by Cathlamet officials, described their desire to build a 2,000 square foot Food Bank in Erickson Park, perhaps between the tennis courts and the parking lot.

Most of the meeting dealt with the need for a food bank in the community on which there was little dissent. There did arise some disagreement over whether Erickson Park was a proper site for a food bank. Some disagreement arose over whether parks were primarily green spaces with recreational facilities such as tennis and basketball courts or whether parks were evolving to become more like multi-use facilities. Astoria and Longview were held up as examples of evolving park concepts. In fact, a visit to their websites suggests that they go to some lengths to separate non-traditional facilities from their parks. It was also not clear why the Town of Cathlamet was chosen as a partner to the food banks as compared to the county, port district, school district, or any other party.

The discussion meeting ended with an undertaking to describe other sites and their benefits/disadvantages. For myself, the first question should be how does a food bank enhance the purposes of Erickson Park. At this point, I fear this could develop into a win-lose situation with the park as the loser. But there might be some developments that mitigate this risk. Stay tuned. I'm sure there will be more meetings.

James Reed

Cathlamet