“When a half-dozen South Whidbey AmeriCorps team members began burning Scotch broom and nailing together about a half-mile of split rail fencing on 30 acres of county property two weeks ago, they started a park construction project that has sat on a dusty back shelf at the Island County Parks and Recreation Department for more than a decade.Lee McFarland, director of the Parks Department, said AmeriCorps’ work is the first step in converting the Lone Lake Road forest into a county park, complete with a woodland trail system, parking, and an interpretive center.The county is paying about $7,000 between labor and materials to get the project moving and open the land to the public.Donated to the county by the late Grace Hurt in 1989, the land has sat undisturbed for nearly 12 years as McFarland tried to find money to develop it into a park. If work continues at the current pace, McFarland said, county residents could be walking on maintained park trails within a few months.Hopefully by the end of the summer, we can have something for the public, he said.A long list of county park projects has slowed McFarland’s department during the past decade. Even as AmeriCorps and county employees work on the Hurt property, McFarland said he needs to draw up a parking plan for more than 100 acres of Department of Natural Resources land down the road. The DNR is expected to turn the land over to Island County this summer. McFarland said he hopes to link the trail systems on the two properties.McFarland said the public should stay off the Hurt property for the time being because it has no developed trails or other facilities. The donated park is expected to expand again because Glady Hurt’s daughter, Jean Hurt, has promised to donate at least 10 more adjacent acres when she dies. “