The Olympia Capitol Park Foundation

The Olympia Capitol Park Foundation has just started gathering signatures on an Initiative Petition that it hopes will eventually lead to the creation of a new park on the isthmus between Capitol Lake and Budd Inlet. A successful petition drive would require the city “to investigate the acquisition and development" as a park of the blocks across from Bayview, reaching from the old KFC building by the bridge through the buildings by the fountain.

 

This initiative to the City Council is a historic first for Olympia. "So many people see this public access and vista from the dome to the inlet as the hallmark of our state's capital city," says Jerry Reilly, Chair of the group, which organized formally last week. The initiative will require the City Council to study the feasibility of acquiring the land and developing it as a park, working with the state and other public and private partners. "We see it as a joint effort to preserve an irreplaceable legacy for the city, the state, and the people. It's a positive vision of the best use of the 'isthmus' for the future," says Reilly.

Volunteers will be gathering signatures throughout Olympia; to get printed petitions or more information about helping by sitting at tables or doorbelling, please email  jerryreilly@msn.com or waterfrontoly@aol.com

 

Help gather signatures!

Download the petition and copy these notes about how to gather signatures.

Download InitiativePetition.doc or Download InitiativePetition.pdf

 

 Be sure you print both sides on one piece of paper, front and back...

(Use Adobe Reader to print the PDF version, if your web browser doesn't print the second page lengthwise on the paper.)

 

Ask other people to gather signatures too - give them the form and the notes right below, together...

 

YouTube video - past governors and Secretary of State speaking out about the views

 

 

Notes on Signature Gathering for the Olympia Capitol Park Foundation Initiative

1. Only people who are registered to vote in the city of Olympia can sign it. (If they will be registered by September 16th, they can sign it too.)

2. If you download the petition, you have to print the two pages, back to back, on the same piece of paper. You need to print the first page and then turn the paper over, put it back in the printer, and print the second page on the back side. In the Word version, the front and the back side are two pages in one document; they should print properly without your needing to shift from portrait orientation for the first page to horizontal landscape orientation for the second page. You may need to open the PDF in Adobe Reader (rather than just using your web browser) in order to get the signature side to print lengthwise on the paper.

3. They MUST include their signature, address (with zip code), and date. The phone number and emails are optional. (Please look at email addresses to see if you can read them, and ask about them and write the address in more clearly if you can't.)

4. This is a completely different petition than the one Friends of the Waterfront has been asking people to sign. Signing both of them is fine. The Friends of the Waterfront petition basically says "I don't want the isthmus rezoned for high-rise buildings." This petition basically says "We want the city to really study how we might create a park on the isthmus."

5. We need about 4,000 signatures to get the city to investigate creating a park or put the issue to a vote. We're working on a crash basis. Please send all the signatures you have gathered once a week, every week, to Gerald Reilly, 1017 Cardigan Loop NW, Olympia WA 98502. Send  them in even if you only have one or two new signatures that week. That will help a lot in making sure that all the signatures you get actually count, instead of getting left in a drawer.

6. If you have an electronic version, please send it and this instruction sheet on to all the people in your email list that you think might be willing to sign it, and please ask them to do the same. Personal contacts of this kind are the most effective way that we have to get the petition distributed and signed.

7. If you have any questions, or want to help more with this campaign, please contact Gerald Reilly at jerryreilly@msn.com.