As summer nears its end, many residents in Bucoda are looking toward the future with hope as they seek to improve their small South Thurston County community amid the appointment of a new mayor and two new town councilors.
One of those new councilors, Laura Wilson, is also the new president of the Bucoda Improvement Club (BIC).
On the town council, she is joined by new Bucoda Mayor Callie Carpenter and councilor Miriam Gordon, the wife of former mayor Rob Gordon, who died of cancer earlier this year.
Gordon died at the age of 42. He was also the town’s assistant fire chief.
Initially, former Bucoda Town Councilor Kiersten Presley stepped up to assume the mayor’s position, but she resigned after announcing she was moving to Texas. So when Carpenter stepped up to become the mayor, it left two open councilor positions.
Miriam Gordon was selected for Carpenter’s old position, while Wilson was selected to fill the empty councilor position left vacant by Presley.
Originally from Olympia, Wilson has now lived in Bucoda for two years.
“My family and I bought a house here two years ago this week actually,” Wilson said. “I have two little boys, 6 and 3, and my husband.”
Additionally, Wilson also helps foster multiple cats for Red Rose Animal Rescue in Rochester.
As for how she ended up as both a town councilor and BIC president, she said it happened all at once as Presley was also the former BIC president before moving to Texas.
“I had gotten to be friends with her, and it just kind of happened that I stepped into all her roles,” Wilson said. “I like to joke that I’m kind of the downgrade. She was so amazing and I was inspired by her and everything she was doing.”
Wilson added she has always aspired to serve in a local government role. When the opportunity presented itself, she applied.
“I threw my name out there, and I got it,” she said.
As for her goals as a councilor, she is in lock-step with her fellow councilors who want to continue pursuing many of the projects Rob Gordon was working on during his time as mayor.
Those include securing funding to purchase a new fire engine for the Bucoda Fire Department, repairing sidewalks around town and getting the baseball field at Bucoda Volunteer Park usable for local Little League Baseball teams.
Another issue she hopes to address is Bucoda’s feral cat population, as she routinely has to foster multiple litters of kittens. Wilson hopes to get a low-cost spay and neuter service in the area to help out their community.
Improvements at Bucoda Volunteer Park also make up many of the current goals the BIC has, Wilson added. A local nonprofit, Wilson said she believed the club was founded around a century ago.
“It was originally just a community coalition that wanted to help families afflicted by fires, because the town was hit by fires at that time,” Wilson said.
Over the COVID-19 pandemic, the club technically disbanded, but Presley helped revive it. Wilson added Bucoda is currently seeing an influx of younger families moving in, herself included, which is driving BIC membership up.
“When there’s moms and dads with kids, they start looking at the community, and this is a perfect community to get involved in. There’s a lot of interest from people wanting to do things,” Wilson said.
Now, the goal is to help bring back the sense of community in Bucoda lost during the pandemic through small improvement projects around the town, such as revamping the community garden next to Bucoda Town Hall. Wilson said the project will be funded through a Thurston County Conservation District grant.
The major project, though, is Bucoda Volunteer Park.
“Everyone saw how much it meant to Rob. The baseball field was one of his big projects,” Wilson said. “He really wanted to bring it back because it needs to be used. It’s just sitting there. It needs to be used, and he was starting to get to work on that. We all want to see that through for him. It’s a beautiful space.”
The field, named Stan Ozbolt Field after former Bucoda Mayor “Ozzie” Stanley Joseph Ozbolt, needs a lot of work, including new stands and dugouts, but it isn’t the only thing the BIC and Bucoda Town Council hope to improve at the park.
Wilson added the club recently repainted several shelters at the park along with repairing picnic tables. They are also seeking grant funding for new playground equipment, as currently the park only has a swing set for children to play on.
The park sits on the banks of the Skookumchuck River and also serves as a launching point for many tubers who ride down the river during the summer, Wilson added.
One other major issue that may be much tougher to tackle is improving access to the park. Despite the park’s entrance being less than 1,000 feet away from Bucoda’s residential area, just on the other side of the Skookumchuck River on Tono Road Southeast, there is no sidewalk or shoulder on the bridge giving Bucoda’s children walking access.
Options are being considered to try to construct a pedestrian bridge nearby.
Bucoda Volunteer Park also features rentable RV and trailer spaces complete with electricity and water hookups for those camping, which can be reserved through the city itself.
The BIC is working to bring back the sense of community in the town by organizing local events, including a barbecue at Bucoda Volunteer Park earlier this month and another one planned this October during the town’s annual “Boo-coda Spooktacular” celebration.
For more information about Bucoda including how to rent an RV space at Bucoda Volunteer Park, visit https://www.bucoda.us/.
To learn more about the BIC, including information about upcoming events, follow the club on Facebook at https://bit.ly/3MJDCZL.
