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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Pavilion Park Taking Shape At Liberty Lake

Alison Boggs Staff Writer

It’s not hard to imagine children rolling down the hills of Pavilion Park, though they’re just graded soil now.

In about two weeks the grass should start sprouting up on the 14 acres at the corner of Molter and Country Vista in Liberty Lake, where the county’s newest park is under construction.

In recent weeks, about 70 percent of the work on the park has been completed by Greenstone Corp. workers. There’s a restroom, basketball court, parking lot and concrete walkways that snake throughout the park. Fresh yellow paint measures out parking spaces, including four for the handicapped.

Sapling fir, pine and maple trees are supported by stakes and have been strategically placed. Last Saturday morning, residents had a “planting party,” seeding more shrubs and trees throughout the park.

“It’s really been a grass-roots effort,” said Liberty Lake resident Margaret Barnes, who helped organize the planting. “I think everybody in the whole community has had a little part in this.”

Eighteen metal poles standing straight up in a wide “V” shape seem out of place, but soon they’ll support the backstop of a baseball diamond.

Greenstone Corp. owner Jim Frank is also a Liberty Lake resident and did much of the work at no profit so the community could get more bang for its buck. Because of Frank’s generosity, resident Ross Schneidmiller said, the park has the basketball court, the backstop, walkways and other features.

“Jim Frank made it possible for us to do not only what we set out to do, but for us to do more,” Schneidmiller said.

In the spring, children’s playground equipment is due to arrive, financed by community fund raisers, Frank, the county Parks Department and the East Spokane Rotary Club. Each dollar raised by the community was matched first by Frank, then by the county, Schneidmiller said, until “one dollar made four.”

Liberty Lake residents had been clamoring for a park for about 10 years, said county parks manager Wyn Birkenthal, but the Parks Department had no money to buy property.

When Ross Schneidmiller’s father, Elmer, donated the 14 acres last year, Pavilion Park started coming to life. The bulk of the money for the park came from the state, through a grant that matched the $300,000 value of the donated land.

The only building completed at the park, the restroom, features an architectual style reminiscent of the lakeside community’s old park, dating back to 1908. That park’s dance pavilion gives the new park its name. Residents hope one day to construct a pavilion at the new park as well.

, DataTimes