Spokane7
49°
August 8, 2010 in City
Merkel sports complex opens
$11 million North Side site honors youth sports advocate
Aurora Mackie-Meuler (cq), 13, dives for a save while warming up for a soccer game with her team at the new Dwight Merkel Sports Complex Saturday, Aug. 7, 2010, the day the ribbon was cut on the new sports facility, which has eight soccer fields, along with facilities for several other sports.
(Full-size photo)(All photos)
LauraLi Gilliam sailed over the mounded dirt of Spokane’s new BMX track on her 20-inch tires, christening the track with a herd of others on Saturday.
The track is one of several new features added in the expansion of the $11 million, 76-acre Dwight Merkel Sports Complex near Joe Albi Stadium in north Spokane. The complex, on North Assembly Street, has six full-size grass soccer fields, two synthetic fields, five softball diamonds, a BMX track, a skate park, a splash pad and walking trails. In 2007, voters passed a park improvement bond that helped finance the expansion of the old facility. Construction started in 2008.
Before this track opened, Gilliam’s family would drive up to an hour just for her to practice.
“It’s amazing. I can practice more and get better now that this track opened,” she said.
Her mother looks forward to watching her daughter race on the track.
“The riders go elbow to elbow – it’s exciting,” Tisha Gilliam said.
Spokane Parks and Recreation Supervisor Mike Aho said that for the past 17 years, Spokane parents and riders looked for a way to get a BMX track. In 2007 they saw their opportunity with plans for the expanded sports complex. BMX enthusiasts collaborated on the design with ex-professional riders, the parks department, and some experts from the Cherry Hill BMX track in Coeur d’Alene, Aho said.
The course has a 16-foot high, $90,000 concrete hill. At the top of the hill is a hydraulic starting gate that will be used to host BMX races, Aho said.
On the other side of the complex, skateboarders glided over ridges and rails and what 21-year-old Bernard Quaid called “a gnarly bowl.” The bowl is a deep, rounded ravine where expert skaters circle at high speeds, sometimes sliding up to the edge for a momentary pause before plunging down again. If a skater accomplishes a trick, the other skaters may tap their boards against the concrete in a type of applause.
“This park puts Spokane on the map for skating. And it keeps skaters out of the public’s way,” Quaid said.
The complex’s namesake, Dwight Merkel, was a youth sports advocate who dedicated more than half of his life in service to the Spokane Youth Sports Association, Spokane Parks and Recreation and the Greater Spokane Sports Association. Merkel introduced youth soccer to Spokane and worked to keep fees low to attract thousands of Spokane children in learning sportsmanship and skills. Merkel died of cancer in 1997 at age 55.
Merkel, along with volunteers, friends and grants, made the original sports facility possible.
“We lived a few miles away from the north complex, and Dwight walked the dog over every night to check the sprinklers,” said Sharon Strand, Merkel’s wife of 19 years. She said Merkel would have been thrilled about the sprinkler system at the new complex.
“Dwight never had children of his own, but he had thousands,” Strand said. “He was dedicated to his community and family.”
SpokAnimal creates rural opportunities for cats 
Softballplayer on August 08 at 11:15 a.m.
Hello…I attended the dedication yesterday…..it was nice to see this much needed complex come to completion…..This complex has a huge trickle down effect on the quality fo ALL parks locations in the city…..But to me the most profound effct is on the softball player and the facilities it currently uses….Ive been playing softball in SPokane/Cda for the lat 15 years…the fields we are currently using are not adequate…..Many balls hit apartment complexs…parked cars……people enjoying the park for other reasons…..and are not of the quality for the Spokane community to use the motto….Near Nature Near Perfect……But the city has built a great complex….so whats the problem..As of today the city has presented the SPokane Softball Associaition with the opportunity to pay $450 per field per game…..that computes to $22 per player per game…..I dont think that the youth soccer player pays anything close to this….the SSA staff has said they have not talked to the city enough to complete a program that would allow the Softball player to use Merkle……This is unacceptable…..this complex has been under construction for 2 years….and ALL of the other programs that will use Merkel had garnered a agreement….why not the SOFTBALL PLAYER?…..The head of Little League even ran on get on the Councel just to promote his shallow agenda to force the city to use such facilities as Franklin PArk…which is perfect for Little League…to me the completion of this complex will be done when the city can communicate effeciently with SSA to get us to use the complex starting the end of this month…IT isnt that hard…I understand the monies being spent for maintaince and for lights but $450 per game per field….ITS A BOND ISSUE….IT IS PAID FOR,,,,,,so lets get going PArks Department.,.and lets get the SOftball player to Merkel..and the Little LEague player to Franklin…..
dp4dodgers on August 09 at 8:34 p.m.
First, I didn’t run for City Council to promote an agenda to get Franklin for youth baseball. Had I won I would have had to recuse myself from any vote due to a conflict of interest. You’ve been listening to Fuzzy too much.
Youth baseball won’t get Franklin even if the City did give Merkel to SSA. The CIty and SSA claim they need all 10 fields just for softball.
Regardless of the quality of fields you play on for softball, the youth baseball players have it way worse.
If the City wants to charge 450 a game then they will have an empty complex for much of the year. I have a hard time believing that since there was just a 34 team tournament there and I doubt seriously they charged $450 for every game that was played.
As far as I know the City has not released a fee schedule for either Merkel or Franklin.
Softballplayer on August 12 at 11:08 p.m.
Hello SIr…..you need to understand a few things……I have not nor will I downgrade the importance of Little LEague Baseball here in Spokane…..My mother was the president of North Boulder Little League in Boulder, Colorado for 35 years…..she garnered the support of the Little LEague parent to go before the CIty Council to ask for space to run a very popular program that has close to 600 kids in it…..
The sooner oyu understand that it is of the utmost of importance to work together on this type of issue…IT is that mutual working that facilities like Merkel was built….
I have never said that Spoaken SOftball player needs these fields anymore or anyless than the Spokane Little League player….
In regards to the city charging an obserd ammount for field usage…yes IT IS $450 per field per night…that computes to $22 per player per game…..THAT is fact…..as of 8/8/10. The fact that there was a u-12 girls softball tournament has no bearing on the cities ability or desire to put forth a Softball prograam that BENAFITS EVERYONE…I paid our Fall players fees to the SSA $600…and asked Sandi when and where we start…she said she has no where to play at this moment…..The Merkel site has been PAID for by a bond issue…and has been under construction for 2 years…and the fact that the SSA and the city cant get its act together is a perfect example of what is wrong with recreational programs in Spokane…..Ive lived in 4 time zones and have never seen such poorly developed programs…..with such poorly developed facilities…..NOW the facilities are built…the programs need to be brought up to expected standards…PERIOD…….
It kinda funny that of all of the dignitiaries that spoke…there was not a single mention of the softball complex…..when all of the other facilities were…..
Sir…your efforts should not be exclusive to LL….if oyu are in fact the recreational advocate that you lead otheres to believe…you will push for all programs…not just your interests..If you think that Im going to hide behind some name here…I caan be reached at twoblodhounds@earthlink.net. and yes SIr..I have emailed Carl Stone at the city rec program…he gave me mumbo…jumbo…in return…..asking me for my contact information so he can send out pertinant information…to me it was a excuse…..I told him it was time for the city to giddly up and get a softball program off the ground and work with SSA…..
Softballplayer on August 12 at 11:09 p.m.
sorry my email address is twobloodhounds@earthlink.net……