Community

2025 will be a big year for local parks

Posted on January 3rd, 2025 By:

Gig Harbor should have a lot more places to play before the end of 2025.

Work should wrap up on several years-long parks projects this year, providing locals more places to kick a ball around, hike or (of course) play pickleball. We expect those projects to be among our top stories in 2025.

As usual, though, we won’t lack for stories to cover. Road projects that caused traffic headaches in 2024 will wrap up, to be replaced by new road projects that will cause traffic headaches in 2025. An important review of harassment and bullying policies in Peninsula School District is due soon. And in the fall, a surprisingly high-profile election will be on the horizon.

Here are some of the things we expect to be covering this year.

Parks projects

Community Recreation Center 

Phase 2 of PenMet Parks’ Community Recreation Center should open in the early months of the new year. The highlight of the rec center will be a 58,000-square-foot building with various sports facilities, multipurpose community rooms, an art corridor and more. 

About a year ago, we told you this building would open in 2024.  But supply chain issues, primarily with steel, delayed opening until early this year. PenMet hasn’t set a firm date for opening the facility at 2524 14th Ave. NW. 

Sketch of how the recreation center will look when finished.

Sketch of how the recreation center will look when finished.

Sports Complex

Across town, Phase 1B of the city of Gig Harbor’s Sports Complex could open as soon as next month. Phase 1B includes an event lawn, playground, courts for pickleball and bocce ball, a performance stage and more.  

The Tom Taylor Family YMCA is close to completing fundraising for Phase 1A of the Sports Complex. Phase 1A includes two lighted, synthetic-turf fields suitable for soccer, lacrosse, football, softball and other sports. Construction could begin in 2025, depending on fundraising. 

The Sports Compex is located adjacent to the YMCA on Harbor Hill Drive. 

Phase 1B of the Gig Harbor Sports Complex will open in 2025.

Kopachuck State Park

Kopachuck closed June 3, 2024, as construction began on a long-awaited renovation. Washington State Parks originally expected construction to take about a year. Its website for the project now says the park should re-open in “mid-summer” of 2025. 

After it reopens, visitors should be able to enjoy a new playground, amphitheater and welcome center, among other improvements. 

Washington State Parks completed a master plan for the renovation in 2014, but took a decade to acquire funding and permits. 

Transportation

Fox Island Bridge

Pierce County expects to finish a type, size and location study on replacing the Fox Island Bridge before the end of 2025. Replacing the bridge will cost an estimated $250 million, Pierce County said during an open house in August 2024. The county will figure out how to pay for it after completing the study. 

The Fox Island Bridge

The existing bridge is 70 years old and was rated “poor” following a routine 2023 inspection. A preliminary study completed in 2016 determined replacing the bridge would be more cost-effective than renovating it. 

In an email newsletter sent on New Year’s Eve, Pierce County Councilmember Robyn Denson wrote that “we are making progress” on the bridge project. “There will be lots of news about this in 2025.” 

City road work

The city of Gig Harbor expects to wrap up work on the Wollochet-Wagner intersection in March. That same month should see completion of Burnham Drive improvements. Those two projects have caused traffic backups at opposite ends of town since July 2024. 

Road projects the city expects to start in 2025 include a controversial revamp of the intersection of 56th Street and 38th Avenue; and adding turn lanes to the Wollochet Way-Highway 16 intersection. Read the city’s current six-year transportation plan here.  

Other infrastructure projects

Work could finally begin on the city of Gig Harbor’s long-awaited Commercial Fishing Homeport in 2025. That may depend on whether the city receives capital funding from the state to proceed with the project.  City officials have expressed optimism that the state will fund the project. 

The homeport would provide berths for 17 boats from the local commercial fishing fleet.  It’s been part of the city’s plan for Ancich Park since 2013, but the city prioritized completing the Paddlers Dock before the homeport. More recently, the project has been stuck in the permitting process. 

Gig Harbor Fire and Medic One expects demolition of Station 51 on Kimball Drive to begin this spring. When it does, firefighters normally stationed there will move to the district’s revamped Fox Island station. 

Voters approved the work when they OK’d an $80 million bond request in August 2022. Work began in October on the biggest project being paid for by that bond — Gig Harbor Fire’s new training center. The training center on the district’s Bujacich Road campus won’t open until 2026. 

Finally, Pierce County expects to open a new solar array at the former Purdy landfill by June. The county announced the project, paid for by a state Department of Commerce grant through the Climate Commitment Act, in June 2024. 

Education

The Peninsula School District is finishing a review of its policies on harassment, intimidation and bullying. The district previously said work on the review will wrap up this winter. 

Superintendent Krestin Bahr initiated the review in 2024 amid a barrage of reports of harassment of students and community members who are members of racial minorities or the LGBTQ+ community. 

In September, the district warned of an increase in cyberbullying. Since then, a teacher who moonlights as a drag performer resigned after becoming a target of online bullying; and the district acknowledged that a student in the stands used racist language during a basketball game at Lincoln High in December.  

In the fall, Peninsula School District will open a new Aviation Academy in partnership with the Museum of Flight at Tacoma Narrows Airport. The academy will be physically located at Henderson Bay High School but open to juniors and seniors throughout the district. 

Also in the fall, new football coaches will take the field for both Peninsula and Gig Harbor high schools. Ross Filkins resigned in December after 30 years leading the Seahawks. That was about a month after the Tides’ Darrin Reeves stepped aside after three seasons. 

2025 elections

Odd-year elections are usually quieter than their even-year counterparts. That may not be the case here. Gig Harbor and the rest of the 26th Legislative District will host a very high-profile state Senate race in 2025.  

The 26th District needs to elect a state senator after Democrat Emily Randall won election to Congress in 2024. Randall, of Bremerton, replaced U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer of Gig Harbor representing Washington’s Sixth Congressional District. 

Pierce County Council members and Kitsap County commissioners appointed Democrat Deb Krishnadasan to replace Randall for the 2025 session. Krishnadasan, a former Peninsula School Board member, will have to run again this fall to keep the seat. State Rep. Michelle Caldier, R-Gig Harbor, has already announced that she plans to run this fall. 

The race in the 26th, one of Washington’s few swing districts, will be one of the most-watched in the state. Expect lots of road signs and campaign ads. 

It will be a busy election season in the city of Gig Harbor, too. Mayor Mary Barber, appointed in December following the resignation of Tracie Markley, will have to run in November if she wants to keep the job. 

Also before city voters will be City Council positions 1, 2, 3 and 7. Position 1 incumbent Jeni Woock has announced she will not run again. The other positions are held by Roger Henderson (position 2), Brenda Lykins (position 3) and Seth Storset (position 7).