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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Hamilton: Need Cash, Not Park

Chairman Tom Hamilton of the Coeur d'Alene School Board:

The fact that the mayor elected to not involve the council is certainly no fault of the Board. The Board also did not “lecture the city”…the Board and the Administration simply said “we need the cash more than the property and we hope the city will find a way to keep this as green space”. The city has always said they wanted to purchase the park when the district no longer could keep it…so find a way to make that happen Mike. The city, not the district, should be in the park business don’t you think? The city was offered an opportunity not an ultimatum. The School District’s facility use policy was out dated and meant that most of the time facilities were being rented at a loss. That’s not good practice, so the fee schedule was modernized. That’s not “punishing” anyone, that’s good fiscal responsibility.

DFO: The School Board must do everything it can to work with the city of Coeur d'Alene to preserve Person Field as a green space. Should this under-utilized park in the middle of an old part of town be lost to development this current School Board will shoulder the blame for decades for rushing the process in order to meet some bottom-line goal. Green space is too valuable and important to sacrifice in the name of someone's business model -- or to save a few dollars. My 2 cents.

Thoughts?



D.F. Oliveria
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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