Work Day Planned For Sports Complex At Plantes Ferrry

The Spokane Valley Junior Soccer Association hopes to find willing young workers - and their parents, grandparents, you name it - to help create the new youth sports complex at Plantes Ferry Park.

Next Saturday is a work day for anyone 11 and older, to help with trimming and loading branches.

The sports complex is being built on what was formerly a tree plantation. Most of the trees have been cleared, but some remain around what will be the concession and parking areas.

The 35-acre complex will eventually include 2 softball fields, 14 soccer fields, a picnic area and possibly a playground.

Organizer Gib Brumback said he hopes to have 100 adults and 100 young soccer players show up for work on Saturday.

What would Antoine Plante think of all the activity? By next summer, park users will be able to ask him.

A sculpture of Plante, the pioneer who operated a ferry that carried settlers, soldiers and others across the Spokane River, will stand in the park, on a boulder by the river’s edge.

“Antoine is looking good,” said sculptor David Govedare. The lifesize steel piece shows Plante waving his musket overhead. It will be complete by the end of the month, he said.

Unveiling of the sculpture likely won’t happen until next spring.

The sculpture’s unveiling probably will be coordinated with the finish of a road project just west of the park, said Ross Kelley, county engineer.

The county commissioned the $30,000 artwork as part of the federal requirements for the road widening.

The road project will level and straighten the curves in Upriver Drive just west of the park. Also, a spur of the Centennial Trail will allow safer bicycle and pedestrian access from the existing main trail to the park and soccer fields.

Bids for the project open Tuesday. Because the project involves moving quite a bit of rock and dirt, it will involve closing that stretch of Upriver Drive for several weeks. Whichever firm wins the contract can choose just how to schedule the closure, Kelley said.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WANT TO HELP? Organizers of next Saturday’s work day at Plantes Ferry Park are looking for help. Volunteers should dress with the day’s weather and the task in mind. Equipment needed includes pickup trucks, chain saws, pitch forks, shovels and rakes. Volunteers are asked to meet at 8:30 a.m. at Plantes Ferry parking lot. Call 922-7910 to sign up.