The Bellevue City Council passed the title of a Northtowne park from a sullied historic figure to a former councilmember and neighborhood advocate on Monday.

The council decided in March to change Bovee Park, named for the city’s first mayor, Charles Bovee, after being contacted by Kasia Wilk a month earlier. Wilk claimed to be a victim of Bovee’s, the first mayor forced out of town over allegations of child molestation in 1959.

Georgia Zumdieck served on the city council from 1992 until the time of her death in 1998, and was one of two public figures from Bellevue’s past recommended by the parks board to replace Bovee last week.

Zumdieck was a strong advocate for her Northtowne community, and favored highly in an online survey conducted by the city. Parks board vice president Dallas Evans told the council Monday the board also noted a lack of public spaces named after female figures.

“You won’t find hardly anything with any woman’s name on it of significance,” he said.

“I can’t think of anything in this city named after a woman leader,” Mayor Claudia Balducci later added.

There is already a park bench named after Zumdieck, but councilmembers agreed her contributions to the neighborhood were deserving of greater recognition.

The parks board also recommended historic Northtowne resident Roland “Rody” Burrows, who was born in 1907 and lived in a cabin on what is now 112th Avenue Northeast. His grandfather was a Bellevue pioneer, and donated land to the city for its first school.

The council agreed there were already landmarks in the city recognizing the Burrows family, including Burrows Cabin and Burrows Landing. Councilmember Jennifer Robertson said renaming Bovee Park after Burrows would cause geographical confusion, as Burrows Landing is near Chism Beach.