North Ogden boosters renew push to develop Barker Park with private funds
-
- Grant Protzman is photographed in Barker Park in North Ogden on Tuesday, July 5, 2022. He’s helping lead efforts to seek donations to help develop the park.
-
- An open area of Barker Park in North Ogden is pictured Tuesday, July 5, 2022. The park is the focus of renewed efforts to raise funds to help further develop the expanse.
-
- An old, unused aqueduct along one of the trails in the wooded area inside Barker Park in North Ogden, photographed Tuesday, July 5, 2022. Efforts are afoot to seek out donations to help develop the park.
-
- Grant Protzman is photographed in Barker Park on Tuesday, July 5, 2022. He’s helping lead efforts to seek donations to help develop the park.
-
- A “spider hut” along one of the trails in the wooded area inside Barker Park in North Ogden, photographed Tuesday, July 5, 2022. Efforts are afoot to seek out donations to help develop the park.
NORTH OGDEN — North Ogden’s Barker Park, the city-owned expanse that last received a major upgrade with the addition of an amphitheater in 2018, could be in line for additional change.
This time, though, the proposed change, costing perhaps $3 million, is aimed more at underscoring local history and enhancing the natural attributes of the sprawling land, much of it still undeveloped and used for farming. “Everything is thematic to the indigenous people (of the area), the pioneers,” said Grant Protzman, a North Ogden resident involved in the efforts.
Notably, the proposal Protzman and others involved are pursuing — dubbed the Preserve at Barker Park, for short — calls for upgrades to the rough paths cutting through the wooded portions of the park area, called The Hollows. They also seek creation of picnic areas and the addition of a play area featuring equipment that harkens back to the kids’ games of pioneers and the indigenous population.
“We want to leave it as wild as we can, where we can. But the paths have to be safe,” Protzman said.
Blake Cevering, a member of the North Ogden City Council who’s also involved in the efforts, envisions incorporating the city’s history into the park, perhaps via placement of historic structures on the land. He sees it as a place for reflection, while Protzman emphasizes the aim of preserving the raw nature of the area.
“It’s a gem. We want to develop it so more people can access it, but we don’t want to lose the gem aspect of it,” Protzman said.
The amphitheater, focus of intense controversy when it was built, sits on the more developed, southerly portion of the Barker Park property. The focus of the new efforts is on the wooded areas abutting the creeks, now dry, that bisect the property north and east of the amphitheater and on an island of land enveloped by the creek beds and 1050 East. The largest expanse to the north, leased by the city for farming, wouldn’t yet be touched.
Cevering, one of the key forces involved in the plans, publicly unveiled the park proposal in the fall of 2020, aiming to collect private funding to turn the dream into reality. Development by the city would likely take years given the money needed and potentially require bonding, not necessarily a popular prospect in North Ogden. Beyond that, both Cevering and Protzman sense it’s the sort of project North Ogden residents could rally around.
North Ogden citizens, Protzman said, have a tradition of stepping in and helping with municipal projects, not waiting for the government to always take the lead. “Our goal is to build this with as little public, North Ogden city funding as possible,” he said.
The COVID-19 pandemic slowed the initial efforts, but they’re now gaining new steam. Parks, police and fire officials in North Ogden have indicated they’re on board with the plans, which would also entail more parking areas. Protzman said boosters’ next step will be seeking support from the North Ogden City Council since the land belongs to the city, probably at the body’s July 12 meeting.
Presuming the City Council is on board with the initiative, those involved would more aggressively seek out donations, both to develop the park and to create a trust fund to maintain it. Already, Protzman has helped organize volunteer efforts to clear some of the overgrown brush in the park, most recently on June 18, with more, he hopes, before the year ends.
A website has been created, buildbarkerpark.org, to aid with fundraising.
‘AN URBAN SECRET’
In all, the area earmarked to be turned into a park measures 42 acres. The city bought the property in two transactions in 2000, the more southerly portion from Ray and Fern Barker and the expanse north of the hollow that bisects the land from Carl and Lorna Barker. Ray and Carl Barker, who have since died, were brothers.
Development of the amphitheater drew fire from some who didn’t think a performance venue fit the adjacent residential neighborhood. That heated controversy has died down and the new plans, as Protzman describes it, have largely gotten backing from the public.
Peggy Barker, part of the extended Barker family still living in the North Ogden area, is pleased with the progress. She’s also involved with the efforts. “There are some dreams and some good plans happening, and maybe with community involvement we may actually see some of this come to fruition as a park,” she said.
At the same time, Cathy Paakanen thinks enhancement of the trails is a good idea. She was walking along the rough path through The Hollows area on Tuesday.
“I love it in here. This is kind of an urban secret here,” she said. “This is just like a gem of an area. Not too many people come and I’m OK with it.”
Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to reflect that the city bought the land where Barker Park is taking place from members of the Barker family.
