Parks, Like Cars, Require Upkeep

Imagine Idaho Gov. Phil Batt buying a new Cadillac and then neglecting ever to check the tires for air, change the oil or tune it up. It wouldn’t be long before the tires were bald and mechanical problems surfaced.

Of course, Idaho’s most famous penny pincher, who incidentally drives a Cadillac, wouldn’t do that.

Yet, Idaho has handed Kootenai County residents a Cadillac in the form of the $1 million-plus parkway which makes up the eastern end of the Centennial Trail - and no money to maintain it. Apparently, Batt is trying to discourage the state Transportation Department from building projects like the linear Lake Coeur d’Alene park and then expecting the state Department of Parks and Recreation to maintain them.

Batt’s philosophy may be OK - from this point onward. But it’s not fair to Kootenai County and the thousands of people who have discovered this Coeur d’Alene lakeside treasure, which has been open less than a year.

It’s hard to imagine that the governor would scrimp on maintenance and supervision costs for Eagle Island, Lucky Peak and Veterans Memorial state parks in and around Boise. And he shouldn’t do so for the five-mile parkway east of Coeur d’Alene, which probably is the prettiest stretch of the 63-mile, two-state Centennial Trail.

The parkway, from Coeur d’Alene east to Higgens Point, opens five miles of Lake Coeur d’Alene to public access. In time, Coeur d’Alene residents will come to appreciate it as much as their treasured Tubbs Hill.

At least, the state Parks Department should pinch other parks’ budgets to provide adequate parkway maintenance. At best, it should join Kootenai County and the cities of Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls in a contractual agreement for trail upkeep.

Now, the county and two cities have a three-way pact to care for 18 miles of trail from the state line through Coeur d’Alene, costing a combined $20,000 annually. That’s a far cry from the $136,500 state bureaucrats think is needed to maintain and supervise the parkway. Of course, that impressive trail section offers high-cost maintenance amenities that other Idaho sections don’t - such as vault toilets, picnic shelters and exercise sections.

Trail enthusiasts question state estimates, too.

Batt is right to demand fiscal accountability in these tight budget times - but not at the cost of neglecting Centennial Trail care.

That’s not the way to treat a Cadillac.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = D.F. Oliveria/For the editorial board