Few people know that a city park exists on the corner of White and Columbia.  It is a park with no name.  The property was purchased by the city at the request of a number of neighbors.  The people from this neighborhood were concerned that they might lose the beautiful ancient black walnut tree that occupies most of the park space.  A developer wanted to purchase the lot, and cut the tree.  It was alleged that he planned to sell the lumber from the tree and build a duplex. 
The property is about the same size (about 1/4 of an acre) as that which was purchased this last year from the Mayor and Police Chief.  The cost of this purchase was $25,000.  This is much less than the a quarter of a million dollars that the city paid for the lots that were owned by the Mayor and Police Chief.  A major difference between these properties is that the Oak Tree Park is connected by a street, has city services, does not flood, is flat and can be built upon.  Last years Quarter Million purchase met none of this criteria  Sadly the city does not want to spend any money  to develop or maintain their new parks.  The City of St. Helens has assigned a very low priority to parks, and this year has reduced the number of employees who do park maintenance work.

With the absence of park maintenance workers, The Daybreaker Kiwanis Club is now considering adopting this park.   They would like to do something for the community and for the neighborhood by bringing a park to life.  They are now exploring the possibility of working with City parks to maintain and beautify this piece of land.    Unlike expensive and not yet paid for Dalgren Park, or the costly empty parking lot that is Dalton Park, there is a very good possibility that we may be seeing a real park grow into being.  A park that was purchased at citizen request, and one built and maintained by citizen volunteers.