Section A • Page 8 • tacomaweekly.com • Friday, May 27, 2016
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Park Ranger to oversee Point Defiance and answer park-related questions alongside volunteers with the newly formed Friends of Point Defiance Park. Elsewhere at Point Defiance, work is in the offing to improve the historic Fort Nisqually attraction, to reconstruct the Japanese garden in front of the Pagoda in the traditional style and to replace the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium’s 52-year-old aquarium and aging Rocky Shores exhibit. Scenic viewpoints around the park will also undergo erosion control work. Construction will begin this summer on the zoo’s new, two-story Environmental Learning Center, which is being developed through a partnership with Tacoma Public School’s Science and Math Institute. Across town, the $30 million Eastside Community Center will take shape in early 2017 now that design concepts have been developed and the fundraising effort closes in on its goal. The center comes from a partnership involving Metro Parks, the City of Tacoma, Tacoma Housing Authority, Boys & Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound, and the YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties, Tacoma Schools and a host of other agencies. The much needed facility will serve as a community hub through a pooling of resources that will be a bit of a departure for the district since it will house programs not directly provided by Metro Parks. “We have never done what we are trying to do here,” Parks District Communications Director Hunter George said. The district’s STAR Center, for comparison, is colocated on 75-acres of land in South Tacoma that also has Gray Middle School, the Boys & Girls Club's Topping Hope Center and Metro Parks’ SERA athletic complex, but each facility manages its own programs and buildings. People’s Community Center Pool in downtown is under renovation and set to reopen later this year with new offerings that include an expanded pool at the center, a lazy river and a water play zone. Open space improvements entering their final stages include the purchase of land at Swan Creek Property Acquisition to provide more direct access to the park from Portland Avenue and the extension of the Prairie Line Trail through downtown and along the Thea Foss Waterway.
legend both for his sports acumen and his affable personality that drew people to him throughout the years of his life. Naccarato’s wife, Jeanne, said that her husband’s greatest attribute was kindness toward everyone he met. From CEOs of corporations to average blue collar workers, he would firmly shake your hand, smile warmly and you’d never forget meeting him. “He was the kindest man I ever met,” Jeanne said. “He loved this city and he loved doing things for people. When we’d go to the mall we would walk in and wonder how long it would take before someone said, ‘Hi, Stan.’” Jeanne and Stan Naccarato knew each other for 30 years and would have reached their 24th wedding anniversary this September, having married in 1992. She was her husband’s steadfast caregiver and she was at his bedside when he passed, along with many family members. She laughed fondly when, toward his final days, she recalled how Stan talked of his friend the late Clay Huntington being nearby. “He said Clay is here. I asked if he was wearing a sports coat and he said yes,” Jeanne smiled. “I loved taking care of him. I always told him I will always
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take care of you. I’m thankful he passed in peace and that I was there.” Jeanne spoke in gratitude for all the outpouring of love that started the moment news of Stan’s passing began to spread. When asked how she would like people to remember her husband, she replied, “They’re remembering him right now,” referring to the Seattle Mariners as an example. “They’re going to have a moment of silence at the Mariners Game tonight (May 25) and they’re playing against the A’s and that was his farm club team for many years.” Naccarato was born in Tacoma in 1928 and graduated from Clover Park High School in 1946. His early involvement with youth baseball branched out to nearly every corner of Tacoma athletics. He was a two-time chairman of the Tacoma Athletic Commission and a commissioner and chairman governing boxing and wrestling. He was the master of ceremonies and chairman of the Tacoma Golden Gloves tournaments for several decades. For 20 years, Naccarato was president and general manager of the Tacoma Twins, Yankees, Tugs and Tigers, winning several national awards along the way, including General Manager of the Year, the Charley McPhail Promotional Trophy and the Sporting News General Manager of the Year award, all in 1975 alone. At one point, Naccarato was offered a job
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fall,” Rag Singh said, owner of RJ’s Burgers and Little India Express. “It’s going to be a big impact. There’s no doubt about it.” Barber Pete Lira knows all too well the impacts
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construction outside of his shop will have on his business. He left his shop in Lakewood when the city installed sidewalks along Bridgeport Way some 15 years ago. He moved to downtown Tacoma only to face road closures as the city installed landscaping. And now he faces construction hassles after just two years at Freighthouse. After 51 years in the business, however, he has a client list of some 350 people who come to him by appointment only, no matter where he is. “We’ll fnd each other,” he said. “It’s not like we rely on walk by traffic.” Washington State Department of Transportation selected Freighthouse Square as the new Amtrak
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by New York Yankees’ owner George Steinbrenner and he turned him down because he felt that he couldn’t be paid enough money to ever leave Tacoma. This was his town. Stan was also one of the pivotal figures that worked for years to get the voter approval that ultimately led to the construction of the Tacoma Dome. In 1971, Stan would make what he considered to be his most important contribution to sports in Tacoma. At the time, the Chicago Cubs were the parent organization of Triple-A Tacoma and were planning on moving the club to Wichita in a decision that was put together “in the dead of the night.” Hopes of keeping the ball club in Tacoma were literally down to a handful of hours, instead of days. Within 16 hours, Naccarato was able to gather 19 other investors, ultimately raising the $100,000 needed to keep the club at Cheney Stadium, where the team remains to this very day. “Stan was a wonderful friend and mentor, a leader of not only this organization for decades, but for the entire city,” Tacoma Rainiers team president Aaron Artman said in a release. “He loved Tacoma maybe even more than he loved the Rainiers. We will honor him for the remainder of the 2016 season and remember the impact that he had on this city and this franchise forever.”
station site. The shuffle from the current station to the Freighthouse Square facility is needed so Amtrak trains can shift to tracks inland between Tacoma and the Nisqually Delta rather than the current waterfront tracks. Known as the Point Defiance Bypass Project, passenger trains will use tracks along the west side of Interstate 5 through south Tacoma, Lakewood and DuPont. These are the same tracks Sound Transit’s Sounder trains use through the area. The shift will increase safety and shorten commute times. Construction of the new $10.3 million Amtrak station, which will be located next to Sound Transit’s Sounder train station at the center of Freighthouse, was in jeopardy after the state agency and Freighthouse Square owners couldn’t
arrive at a price. An agreement allows for work to move forward and have the sale price set by a judge under the eminent domain process. Delaying construction with a legal battle could have voided federal grants used to construct the new station, which has a deadline of late 2017. The $149 million in improvements will allow passenger trains to use the inland tracks without being delayed by freight or Sounder trains. After the completion of other capital rail projects, two additional daily round trip passenger trains could be added for a total of seven daily round trip passenger trains through Tacoma, Lakewood, and DuPont. The project is part of some $800 million in federal dollars the state received to improve rail service and safety.