Science Center Confusion Fate Of Riverfront Park Rides Has Some Voters Wary Of Project

Every weekend this summer, 18-month-old Cassandra Howard stumbles with glee through the Riverfront Park petting zoo, then sleeps like the baby she is.

For $22 - the cost of Cassandra’s season park pass - her father, Dave Howard, has bought a respite of peace and quiet.

“By they time we go home, she goes right to bed,” said Dave Howard. “That can be real nice.”

It’s also the reason Howard says he will vote against a proposal to lease park space to the Pacific Science Center. The proposal will be on the Sept. 19 ballot.

Howard, like many, is concerned that the science center may displace the amusement rides and petting zoo beneath the Pavilion.

No decision will be made on the rides’ future until after this month’s vote, said Judy Quinlivin, interim co-director of the Parks Department.

That uncertainty has left many residents confused about the science center’s impact on Riverfront Park. Howard said he would vote for the plan if rides are not removed, but he thinks they will lose out to the science center.

Others are more enthusiastic about the new center. Olivia Villa, 25, spent five hours at Seattle’s Pacific Science Center a week ago and is excited about a duplicate in Spokane.

She says there is little to do for young people in the city. The science center, she said, would draw all ages, unlike the carnival rides.

“It would be at least something else to do here,” Villa said.

While the public considers the merits of the plan, the park has never been busier, said Hal McGlathery, who has managed the park since 1982.

Park revenues should top $2.6 million by year’s end, $100,000 more than last year. Revenues have nearly doubled since 1989 when the park took in $1.3 million.

This year’s city subsidy to park operations should run below $700,000, compared to a $1 million subsidy last year. City coffers have supported the park since it opened, with annual subsidies ranging from $600,000 to $1 million.

“We had record season pass sales of 11,000 and we sold 25,000 daily passes,” McGlathery said. “If we’re going out, we felt like we’re going out in style, regardless of the uncertainty.”

Public funding for the center is opposed by some Spokane residents. In March, the city council agreed to a five-year services contract requiring the city and Spokane Park Board to pay the center $400,000 annually for years.

Each year thereafter, public subsidies would decrease, under the assumption that the center would be increasingly self-supporting.

Edward Zachow, a Spokane resident for over 50 years, said he doubts that assumption.

“Some way or another, we’ll end up paying for it,” said Zachow, 54. “You don’t get something good for free.”

The public vote comes after the City Council voted in March to lease the Pavilion to the Seattle-based center - a hands-on science museum - for the next 20 years for a $1 a year.

Minutes after the council’s approval of the lease, a group of citizens opposed to the plan began a referendum campaign to put the measure to a public vote.

They gathered more than 12,000 signatures - forcing the issue to the Sept. 19 ballot.

If voters approve, construction of the science center could begin as early as spring 1996.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: On the ballot Voters will be asked Sept. 19 whether the Pacific Science Center should displace amusement rides at Riverfront Park. If you have questions about the proposal, we’d like to answer them in next Sunday’s edition. Call Cityline, 458-8800, on a Touch-Tone phone, press 9865 and ask your question. Cityline is a free service, but normal long-distance tolls to Spokane apply.