Renton previews River Days and summer programming; city cites parade permit barriers and $900,000 pool grant

Mary Jane Van Cleave, Renton’s parks and recreation administrator, told the City Council Committee of the Whole on a city-run meeting that the department is preparing an expanded slate of summer events and staffing after absorbing elements of River Days previously run by a nonprofit. “We maintain 33 parks … we serve on average over 3,000 weekly,” Van Cleave said, adding the department will hire about 250 seasonal part‑time employees to run expanded programming.

Why it matters: the changes affect parade participants, vendors, seniors, pool users and downtown businesses as the city centralizes event operations, relocates the farmers market for the season and implements significant repairs to the aquatic center paid for by a King County grant.

Attendance and programming highlights Van Cleave summarized last year’s attendance figures while noting some figures were transposed in the presentation and apologizing for that. She said the drone show downtown had a low recorded number in the presentation, Jean Coulon Park drew about 4,100 visitors for a different event, and Liberty Park attendance fell slightly from just over 10,000 to about 9,800 after a layout change. Van Cleave told council the indoor community‑center bazaar and a free kids activity zone adjacent to Cedar River Park drew strong interest.

Jennifer Spencer, Renton’s Recreation Human Services director, credited moving the activity zone next to the community center for higher indoor traffic and said vendors preferred a climate‑controlled location. “Moving the footprint of the activity zone really helped out, being next to the community center. As nice as it is to have everything outside, it…