Kirkland city leaders, residents and construction workers packed onto the southwest corner of 97th Ave. N.E. and N.E. Juanita Drive Friday.  It is a corner that has only seen inquisitive passerbys gazing through a chain-link fence at a torn-up park during the past 15 months. The saga led many residents to write letters to the editor, call city officials, brought TV news crews to Kirkland and drew the overall ire of those who frequent one of the best little recreation areas in the city.

And rightly so. The project was to be completed as early as March of this year and as late as the end of June. Kirkland residents who use the park for relaxation and a reason to play during the summer time, lost that part of their lives during the summer of 2010 and half of 2011. The frustration was understandable.

But to the delight of those who were there for the parks reopening, we get two months of summer in the jewel at Juanita Beach. A special thank you should be extended to Marshbank Construction, which turned a disaster of a project back into a beautiful park for the rest of the summer. It is not complete yet, and we understand that. But the beach is open, the new boardwalk is open, the kids’ playground is open and, as one resident sarcastically remarked in a letter to the editor, the parking lot is open, too. We can also see how beautiful the park will be when completed. But Marshbank’s ability to get the park open by the beginning of August was remarkable. Between June 1 and August 5 it seemed like Marshbank had more workers in the park than had been there the previous 13 months combined. And the improvements were astonishing to watch.

But the villain in this all is not the city. Many city employees including city manager Kurt Triplett, Interim Public Works Director Mike Cogle and the city council worked hard to get the park reopened while working with very difficult issues.

We acknowledge that the south side of the park’s renovation is not complete but to Marshbank, we thank them for working hard to give us the last two months of the summer in one of the best parks in Kirkland.