Business View Magazine | December 2018

318 319 GROWING TOWARD GREATNESS AT A GLANCE COVINGTON, WA WHAT: A young city incorporated in 1997 WHERE: King County, Washington WEBSITE: www.covingtonwa.gov T he area known as Covington,Washington hearkens back over 100 years and was orig- inally called Jenkins Prairie. In the 1880s, the Northern Pacific Railroad commissioned surveyor, Richard Covington, to develop a railroad line be- tween Auburn and Kanasket.Along the way, a stop was named for him and the Covington community was born. But not until August 31, 1997, did the City of Covington become an official municipality in the State of Washington. According to Richard Hart, Covington’s Community Development Director,“Our challenges aren’t the COVINGTON, Washington same as those in long-established communities; we have differ- ent kinds. Being a new city of only 21 years,we don’t have a lot of old historical buildings with structural problems. But prior to its creation as a city, Covington was basically an unincorporated area of King County that lacked development. It was just al- lowed to develop under the County regulations, and lacked a lot of infrastructure, park facilities, and good transportation connec- tions.Once the community was formed,we inherited that geog-