Liberty Lake will ask voters to fund new community center

The city of Liberty Lake is one step closer to buildinga new community center – the Town Square Project – next to the newly finished Town Square Park.

The $12 million project hinges on voters’ approval of a bond measure that will be on the August ballot.

Liberty Lake resident Leslie Zilka was on the community task force that selected components for the Town Square Project.

She said the task force visited community centers in Spokane and Cheney to get ideas for the design.

“We got together and talked and brainstormed what we wanted,” Zilka said. “In the summer we all meet at the farmers market, but in the winter we don’t have a common space.”

The task force came up with a 16,000-square-foot community building with classrooms and a flexible meeting space, an outdoor swimming pool with a changing facility and a concession area, as well as a parking lot and landscaping. The library, which is owned by the city, would also be located in the new building.

The city already owns the proposed building site.

Zilka, who has lived in Liberty Lake since 1993 and served on several community boards including the Pavillion Park board, said another community center proposal some years ago was “soundly defeated” because voters felt it was too ambitious and expensive.

“Many more people live here today,” Zilka said, and “this is something we really need.”

Qualified contractors had until Friday at 2 p.m. to indicate their interest in the project.

Liberty Lake is using a process known as “progressive design-build” in an effort to speed up the completion of the project and cut down on costs.

City Administrator Katy Allen said the traditional model for construction of public buildings consists of designing the project, putting it out for public bid and then building it.

“Using the progressive design-build model, you don’t design anything right away, there are no pretty pictures to look at,” Allen said. “You pick a contractor based on its qualifications and then you design and build the project.”

It’s a method often used on the west side of the state, Allen said, but rarely used in the Spokane area. Liberty Lake had to obtain permission to use the process from the Public Review Committee and hired a consulting firm to help with that.

“It can be very complicated if you don’t know what you are doing,” Allen said.

Allen said the city will choose five contractors by Dec. 18. Those five companies then have a month to come up with a proposal within the $12 million budget, before being interviewed by the city in January.

“We hope to get this to the City Council by February 16,” Allen said.

Once it’s approved by the City Council, the task force will begin campaigning for the bond.

Zilka is optimistic about the bond passing this time around.

“The economy is better now than it was,” Zilka said. “I think we can do it.”

If the bond passes in August, construction could begin right away.

“One benefit of using this method is that we can begin grading and putting in utilities before we know what color the Formica is going to be,”Allen said. “It really speeds things up.”