Following a meeting between officials from Sammamish, Issaquah, King County and the Klahanie Homeowners Association last week, a Memorandum of Understanding has been drafted to transfer the ownership and maintenance of Klahanie Park to the City of Sammamish.

King County, which currently owns the park in the unincorporated neighborhood of Klahanie, announced last year it could not afford to continue to operate the facility, and would be forced to close it.

Though Klahanie is in the City of Issaquah’s Potential Annexation Area (PAA), they too have said they don’t have the money to maintain the park.

The City of Sammamish, eager to secure more park space for its growing population, stepped forward late last year with an offer to maintain the park. But this offer was not well received by many Klahanie residents, fearful that Sammamish had plans to develop its simple green space.

At a joint meeting of the Issaquah and Sammamish city councils on Tuesday night, councilors had their first close look at the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which was drafted by King County some months ago, and states “the parties acknowledge that the City of Sammamish has the resources and infrastructure to maintain this facility at the current or higher level of service… and agree that it is in the best interest of the general public for King County to transfer Klahanie park to Sammamish.”

However, at this stage, the MOU is just a suggestion, and has not yet been ratified by either city. And, given Tuesday night’s discussion, such an agreement may be a long way off.

Some Sammamish councilors are beginning to cool to the idea of taking over the financial and operational responsibility of keeping the park open, their sense of benevolence somewhat worn away by the hostile response of Klahanie residents. In recent months, a large group of Klahanie residents started a “Save Klahanie Park” campaign, opposing any involvement of Sammamish.

“I think it should be noted that it was Sammamish who stepped forward with a solution when one was needed,” Issaquah Councilmember Fred Butler said. “And, as they are finding out, ‘no good deed goes unpunished.'”

Sammamish Councilmember Mark Cross summed up the mood of his council best when he said “I want to help keep the park open, for those residents, but I don’t want to get a black eye doing it.”

“I am hesitant to vote for it, against the wishes of the majority of the residents.”

Intertwined with the issue of who will look after the park is the bigger issue of whether Klahanie will be annexed to Issaquah or Sammamish in the future, remain as a neighborhood of unincorporated King County, or incorporate itself to become the City of Klahanie.

The City of Issaquah appears to be in no hurry to make any decision on what it wants with Klahanie in the near future, and on Tuesday night, the Issaquah council, minus the absent Tola Marts and Eileen Barber, heard the clear message that this lack of direction was making it difficult for Sammamish to consider whether it would take over operation of the park.

“In terms of the annexation issue, it’s really up to Issaquah to tell us what they’re going to do,” said Sammamish councilmember Nancy Whitten, adding that it was impossible to consider options for park in isolation to the broader future of Klahanie.

Issaquah Councilmember Joshua Schaer agreed that the operation of the park converged with ownership of the neighborhood itself. He said the idea that the Klahanie Park could be owned by a city in which the Klahanie residents had no representation, was one that bothered those residents.

He also said that Sammamish residents could be troubled by their city spending money on a facility that was outside their city limits.

Sammamish Councilmember John James said that, at the moment, he was neither for nor against adding Klahanie to Sammamish’s PAA.

“As long as it sits in Issaquah’s court, we’re taking a hands off view,” he said. “I would agree that the park and the annexation go together.”

A major concern of Sammamish is the possibility that, after several years of paying about $100,000 a year to maintain the park, the neighborhood could then be annexed to Issaquah.

It was Tom Odell who first raised the idea of a reimbursement clause.

“The idea of putting a minimum of $80,000 a year into the park, to then just say goodbye… that doesn’t sit very well with this councilmember,” he said. Several of his colleagues shared this view.

Issaquah councilmembers Butler and Maureen McCarry both acknowledged their city was making no move as yet to either annex Klahanie or consider a way to move it out of the Issaquah PAA – a source of frustration for Sammamish.

“We don’t have a sense of urgency to go forward with this, right now,” Butler said, later adding that he was not seeing any firm direction from Sammamish either. “Although we’ve heard informally that Sammamish would be interested in annexing Klahanie, your council has yet to form any decision on that.”

Mayor Don Gerend recognized that the concept of borders and city limits was, in many ways, irrelevant in this case. He said that he, and many Sammamish residents often use Klahanie Park, which connects with Southeast 32nd Street. “And many Klahanie residents use Beaver Lake Park,” he said.

Councilmember John Curley threw the partnership into further confusion when he said it was his understanding that King County was legally not permitted to just give up operation of the park to another entity.

“As much as King County wants to become the ‘deadbeat dad’ on that particular section of land, they just can’t do it,” he said.

King County Councilmember Kathy Lambert, who was in the audience at the meeting, told The Reporter this was being checked by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s office.

“However, in preliminary discussions, since this park is in an annexation area it is not considered a rural park which is the only parks that the county needs to keep,” she wrote in an email. “We have transferred a number of parks to cities in the past as the budget cuts have required the county to focus on mandated service provision.”

The City of Issaquah has incorporated the MOU into an Agenda Bill, which will be studied by the council and its Services and Safety Committee over the next few months. But the eagerness of the county and the City of Sammamish to have the issue resolved is indicating that Issaquah will have to make a call on the Klahanie question sooner rather than later.