County Parks Board Chairman A Steward For Recreational Lands

Dr. Bill Lindquist has a realist’s view of Spokane County’s parks.

As chairman of the parks advisory board, Lindquist knows that giving money to buy new parks is more fun than giving money to maintain those parks.

“If only (the public) could understand the problems we have maintaining what we have,” said Lindquist, a retired orthodontist.

He also realizes, as many Valley residents do not, that the Valley has more parks, proportionally, than the rest of the unincorporated county. That means future efforts to expand the county parks system should, rightfully, focus on other parts of the county.

Conservative though Lindquist is politically, he backs the county’s conservation futures tax. County commissioners recently agreed to keep the tax in effect for another year. Lindquist hopes voters approve continuation of the tax when it is put on the ballot next fall. It’s one means the county has to acquire a few pristine pieces of land.

Otherwise, Lindquist has come to believe that any major parks development will happen only through neighborhood-county partnerships.

As examples, he cites Liberty Lake’s Pavilion Park, efforts to develop Plante’s Ferry Park and, in north Spokane, the Gleneden area’s efforts to acquire park land.

Lindquist’s early retirement and his love of outdoor recreation led him to apply for a seat on the parks board six years ago.

“I wanted to do something for community service,” he said.

And he believes in saving some undeveloped land.

“When I drive down Dishman-Mica,” from his home in Painted Hills, “do I look to the right at all those homes, or to the left at the trees and hills?

“I look to the left. Those undeveloped places are part of our quality of life. They’re part of why we came here.”

Lindquist grew up in a small town in Illinois. There were streams to fish, and the Mississippi River was nearby.

But still, “vacation was something you did once a year. You took two weeks and went to Minnesota.”

The Northwest’s scenery and recreation oportunities captivated Lindquist and his wife, Marie, when he attended orthodontics school at the University of Washington.

Lindquist is a flyfisherman, hunter and handball player. Between recreation, grandchildren and other business interests, he’s busy. Two of the Lindquist’s three children live in the Valley. Marie jokes she has to make an appointment with Bill if she wants to have lunch with him.

Within a few years after coming to the Spokane Valley, they moved to Painted Hills. They’ve been there 30 years, long enough to trade a view of Mount Spokane for shaded privacy from the grown pines.

“I can’t think of anywhere we would have been happier than here,” Lindquist said.

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MEMO: Saturday’s People is a regular Valley Voice feature profiling remarkable individuals in the Valley. If you know someone who would be a good profile subject, please call editor Mike Schmeltzer at 927-2170.