Valley To Get Lion’s Share Of 1998 County Parks Funding
There was a time, just a few years back, when the Spokane County Parks and Recreation Department couldn’t afford to hook up its pool facilities to the sewer lines that ran right past them. It couldn’t find the cash to pave the dusty dirt parking lots at Edgecliff Park and the Minnehaha climbing rocks.
Times have changed, said Wyn Birkenthal, parks and recreation director. And next year, the Valley will benefit more than any other part of the county from parks improvement funding.
Eight of the 10 major construction and renovation projects planned by the county Parks Department for 1998 are in the Valley.
Plantes Ferry Park will get a new softball and soccer complex, new playground equipment and trails. The Centennial Trail will get new restrooms. Pavillion Park will get new tennis and volleyball courts, a spray pool and in-line skating court. Two pools will be renovated.
“In the past, we would just have had to put patches on those pools,” Birkenthal said.
But in recent years, Spokane County commissioners have made parks a bigger priority, he said. They approved roughly $1 million in funding for the eight Valley projects planned next year. Before 1995, the Parks Department typically received no more than $50,000 in county funds each year for new construction. Some years, it received nothing.
The eight Valley projects will cost more than $2.5 million to complete, so even with more generous county funding, state grants and community donations will still play a big role.
Here’s what Valley residents can expect:
Plantes Ferry Park will get 15 softball fields, five soccer fields, new playground equipment, park furniture, a restroom and landscaping. Expanded to 70 acres, it will become the largest developed park in the county. The project will cost about $1.1 million and will be completed by 2001. Some of the playfields will be ready by 1999. The Spokane Valley Youth Soccer Association will donate $100,000 to the project. The Army Reserve has volunteered to do stump removal, grating and other work, which will save the Parks Department more than $200,000.
Pavillion Park at Liberty Lake will get two new tennis courts, two new volleyball courts, playground equipment, an in-line skating court, a children’s spray pool and new benches, tables and bike racks. The $400,000 project will be completed by the end of 1999.
Brown’s Park, at 32nd and Pines, will get $8,000 worth of playground equipment donated by developer Bob Tomlinson. Parks officials hope to have it installed by next summer.
Balfour Park, on Sprague near Valley Fire Station 1, will be expanded by 1.6 acres and will get new playground equipment. Parks and recreation officials are negotiating with the Spokane Transit Authority over the land purchase. No completion date has been set for this project.
Park Road pool will receive a new tank, new plumbing and other renovations. Terrace View Park pool will also be renovated. The improvements will allow the two pools to be used for another 10 years. The county has allocated about $500,000 for repairs to the pools. The goal is to have the work completed by May 1998.
The Centennial Trail will get four new concrete restrooms, to be placed at Minnehaha Park, Plantes Ferry Bridge, Barker Road and Sullivan Road. The $69,000 project will be completed by April 1998. The county paid for three of the restrooms; CXT Inc., the Valley business that makes the restrooms, donated the fourth. Flood damage to the Centennial Trail at Barker Road also needs repair and the riverside trail must be fortified to prevent future flood damage. That will cost $366,000. A completion date has not been set.
, DataTimes