King County unveiled a brand-new sailboat-themed playground last week to islanders, enjoyed most of all by the gaggle of kids who breathlessly began breaking the equipment in.

The new playground at Dockton Park and Marina includes climbing ropes, slides, a carousel, all kinds of climbing spaces, benches, music stations, and more. Only missing are the swings, which were delayed due to a manufacturing warranty issue, said Josh Tasler, project manager with King County Parks.

They should be in place early next year, he said.

The park is a long time coming for islanders and especially Dockton residents, who have so eagerly awaited the return of the park that Tasler said kids, especially locally homeschooled children, were calling him to ask for updates and lob design ideas his way.

“We love this park,” said Jemma Langland, a Dockton resident with three kids. “We’re really excited for it to be open.”

The playground first closed down for re-surfacing at the end of summer 2019, after a regular audit from the Parks Department found the rubber surfacing at the former playground failed a drop-test — meaning it was no longer safe.

The surfacing around the swings was fine, but the rest of the playground was temporarily closed so the surfacing could be replaced with bark.

These types of playgrounds typically last 15 to 20 years, Tasler said, and the Dockton Park playground wasn’t scheduled to be redone until next year. But the surfacing problem prompted the county to push that schedule a few years early, Tasler said.

What followed was two years of permitting and more time spent landing on a design that served the community aesthetically, ecologically, and in terms of fun and safety.

“Parents and kids would say ‘Hey, this is our only way to get outdoors and play with other kids,’ ” Tasler said. “So it’s really important that it gets done and in an all-inclusive way. … We’ve had a lot of people stopping by, and a lot of that care from parents, really wanting the right thing for their kid out here.”

Along the way, King County received many requests — including a strong desire from adults in the area to keep the swings facing the water, Tasler said.

Originally, they planned to use rubber surfacing again, Tasler said. But the new playground uses turf and an infill product called Enviorfil Green, a combination that lets kids play year-round, Tasler said — compared to woodchips, which can become cold and hard in the winter.

Envirofil is a different material than crumb rubber —a common fill made from scrapped tires — that has been found by some studies to pose a risk to aquatic organisms.

“We examined and selected this infill [Envirofill] considering the proximity to the shoreline and the nearshore environment,” King County Parks Department spokesperson Andrea Godinez said in an email. ” If the materials hold up well, we will consider using them in future playground projects.”

Further work at the site revealed that the playground sat right by a wetland just uphill, meaning the entire playground area had to be moved five feet to accommodate the natural area.

Construction of the brand-new playground began in September and concluded last week at the Dec. 16 opening. It was expedited by county parks specialist Chad Fooks, who is certified to install playgrounds like the new one at Dockton Park. That saved time and money which would otherwise be spent finding a contractor, Tasler said.

The playground uses primarily green and brown, matching the natural colors of the flora around the park. That fulfills a desire expressed through a community survey to use a forest theme for the park, Tasler said.

Despite budgeting issues due to COVID and spiking material costs over the last few years, “We were able to get this awesome new playground in here,” Tasler said. “So I’m really excited it turned out as well as it did.”

The playground’s proximity to the water and the wetland required mitigation work, which meant putting in native plants on the hillside above the playground. The playground’s location is unusual — were the entire area redesigned, the playground would probably be moved further away from the shoreline, King County staff said.

“When you redo a playground, or this big of an area, … (with) concrete and drainage, you have to plant so many plants and mitigate an area that needed to be more natural,” Tasler said. “The reason we’re doing all that is because we found out this is a wetland. … Before this road system was here, this was a delta, a wetland area here. Then … they pushed all this downhill and made this park.”

The new plants in the wetland area include (but are not limited to) shore pine, black twinberry, red twig dogwood, sword fern and evergreen huckleberry, all from King County Nursery, said landscape architect and county capital project manager Tom Early.

Kids and adults helped county staff get many of the plants in the dirt, expediting part of that work.

“I think the community on Vashon-Maury Island is more used to doing it themselves,” Early said.

The Dockton Marina is also undergoing a project, with the first phase finished in 2022, Godinez said.

The work finished so far has replaced various piles and finger piers internally on the dock. Other improvements include a new swim dock, fire suppression system, sewage pump out station, hardware replacements, nonskid coating, and fixed pier cross bracing replacement (under the bathroom), Godinez said.

The permitting process for Phase 2 is underway and the county estimates summer or fall of 2024 for the remainder of the work if the timing lines up.

That will include the removal and replacement of toxic, creosote-soaked piles with non-toxic piles, the replacement of the breakwater section of the floating dock, and the replacement of the boat ramp dock.

For more information on that project, visit tinyurl.com/docktonproject.

A youngster ably climbs on the new Dockton Park Playground the morning of Dec. 16. Photo by Alex Bruell

Violette Godinez, 6, and her mom, King County Parks Department spokesperson Andre Godinez, work together to dig room for a new plant uphill from the new Dockton Park Playground. Alex Bruell photo

Alex Bruell photo A little one helps with planting at the new Dockton Park Playground.

Gus Angusdixonbray, 10, works with landscape architect and county capital project manager Tom Early to prepare some plants at the new Dockton Park Playground. Alex Bruell photo