SEQUIM – This town received a green gift Monday night.
Rosa and Anton Gerhardt, immigrants who moved from Europe to New York City and finally to Sequim some 35 years ago, gave their seven-acre property to the city so long as it is as a park in perpetuity.
The land, where the Gerhardts once raised sheep, is near the intersection of Third Avenue and Reservoir Road, so it will become the only public park in south central Sequim.
“Bell Creek runs right through it, and it’s where a walking trail will be put in,” said City Public Works Director James Bay.
The Gerhardts phoned Bay late last year to tell him they wanted to donate the land so that it would remain open space after their deaths.
Bay suggested they turn it over to the city sooner rather than later.
“We want to sit down and have them design what they want to see . . . I’m sure they have a dream for the park, and we want to capture that,” he said.
The land belongs to Sequim residents now, Bay added, but it won’t be open for public use until the city finishes its site planning and installs facilities.
“I’m overprotective,” of the Gerhardts, Bay added.
“They’re very elderly,” yet they live independently in their home on the park property.
Their white house will be preserved as part of the park, according to Bay.
Anton was born in Yugoslavia; Rosa comes from Austria.
The couple married in 1975, and both worked all of their adult lives, before and after moving to Sequim, Bay said.
They have no children.
Anton recently had surgery and Rosa was hospitalized after a fall.
But the couple came to the City Council meeting Monday to see their attorney, Alan Millet, present the park deed to the city.
“We will treasure it,” said Mayor Walt Schubert.
“They’re just awesome people,” added Bay.
“I can’t say enough about people who would make a gift like that to the city where they live.”
