A former resident returned to the city of Washington Wednesday to see how the land where her family’s home previously sat has been transformed.

Washington Mayor Jaron Rosien, Parks Superintendent Nick Pacha and other city officials unveiled the expanded Madison Park located at the corner of East Jefferson Street and South 2nd Avenue to Sandra Jones Baird, who returned to her native state from California to reunite her mother Violet Jones’ ashes with her deceased husband Triv. While Violet passed away a year ago at 101 years old, her house was unoccupied on that block for several years until Baird decided to donate the land to the city on her parents’ behalf around four years ago. While Baird has lived for several decades in California, she still has many friends around Washington, who she had lunch with earlier that day at the Frontier Restaurant. She complimented the city on the expansion of the pocket park, noting that her father would have been especially proud, “I love this town, I grew up here, I was born here and I think it’s a good thing for the city to have it.”

Work began in earnest on expanding the park last year, which involved closing the alley that dissected the block between East Jefferson and Madison streets, with an extension of the walking path and installation of a picnic shelter, flag pole, streetlamp, and a bench with a placard thanking Baird and the Jones family. Rosien comments on the completion of this project, “It’s fantastic to have Sandy visit and to say thank you in person for this donation she gave on behalf of her family four years ago. I mentioned my story, I remember helping her mother with her printer when I was 15 years old at the high school adjacent. It’s neat to see these things come to fruition over time. It’s also been a lesson of patience. When I was, my first year as mayor, I wrote about this exciting project and it took until now to see this exciting project be completed.”

Egli Landscaping, Washington Tree Committee, Engineered Building Design, L.C., and Washington Lumber & Home Center all helped make the park expansion possible.