Sixteen people to serve on new city of Kent Parks commission

Jorge Ramos didn’t hesitate to say why he wanted to serve on the city of Kent’s first Parks and Recreation Commission.

“Plain and simple, I love this city, I grew up here and played in the Kent parks,” Ramos said. “And I just had my first daughter, so I’m doing it for my daughter as well.”

Ramos, an attorney with Hanis Irvine Prothero in Kent who played soccer and baseball in the Kent parks program, is one of 16 people who will help oversee planning for city parks.

The group, appointed by Mayor Suzette Cooke, will serve as an advisory group for the mayor, City Council and parks department staff. More than 60 people applied for the 16 spots. The commission’s first meeting will be in January.

“The greatness of this commission is going to be having community engagement with such a diverse group of leaders on some strategic planning and systemwide planning,” Parks Director Jeff Watling said after Cooke introduced the commissioners at the Nov. 18 council meeting.

“What a talented, passionate, involved, diverse and fabulous group of people,” said Councilwoman Deborah Ranniger, who chairs the Parks and Recreation Commission. “I’m so excited to have you all on board and we have a tremendous amount of work to do. Your voice is going to be extremely important.”

Commissioners will help update the city’s open space plan as well as provide guidance on parks and trails planning; priorities for land/facilities acquisitions; development, design and operation of parks programming and facilities; capital improvements planning; regulations and restrictions governing park use; concessions; and recommend contracts and inter-local agreements.

The appointees each were allowed to make a comment at the council meeting about their new volunteer duty.

“I’m quite honored to be selected to be a part of this groundbreaking commission,” Annette Bailes said. “And because I love the outdoors so much and because I don’t have enough things I volunteer for already, I just thought this was a great idea.”

Bailes lives near Lake Meridian and is an office and facility manager for the Washington Insurance Examining Bureau. She enjoys group trail walking.

The board includes two high school members. They are Jaleen Roberts, a Kent-Meridian sophomore and three-sport athlete; and Brayden Seims, a Kentwood junior who plays soccer, golf and basketball.

“I’m just excited to be a part of this commission so I can give back to the community,” Seims said. “I was raised on Kent Parks, played soccer and basketball and eventually found my passion for golf through that.”

The commissioners are:

Kendrick Glover, Wayne Jensen, Randy Furukawa, Jorge Ramos, Annie Saurwein, Dan Barrett, Kari Hedrick, Tye Whitfield, Richard Johnson, Zandria Michaud, Megan Stevens, Tanda Topps, Annette Bailes, Yuriy Zaremba, Jaleen Roberts and Brayden Seims.