Little League field, more planned at parks surrounding public pools

The parkland surrounding Spokane County’s two public aquatic centers won’t be barren for long.

Construction of new ball fields and volleyball pits is scheduled to begin this summer at Prairie View Park on the South Hill, and Spokane County parks planners received the go-ahead from county commissioners this week to pursue additional state grants to fill out offerings at Bidwell Park in Colbert.

The work at Prairie View Park could give South Spokane Little League a home field, something the group has been working nearly a decade to secure.

“This is just a perfect fit for us,” said Brian Gosline, field coordinator for Spokane South Little League. “The fields we play on are not safe.”

Limited grant dollars during the economic downturn had put on hold plans for both parks, which were acquired by the Spokane County Parks Department in the 2000s. The aquatics centers were built first, but the county always intended to construct park amenities on the same plots of land.

“It’s been a tough go, with the economy, over the last decade or so,” John Bottelli, assistant parks director, told Spokane County commissioners.

The county received $750,000 in grants over the past two years to supplement its $712,000 investment in Prairie View Park improvements, which includes the money used to complete the purchase of a 10-acre plot south of the aquatics center at 3724 E. 61st Ave. With that money, the county plans to build a full-size baseball and softball field, as well as what Bottelli called “the only state-of-the-art, Little League field of its kind” on the southwest corner of the property.

Conceptual drawings put the dimensions of the Little League field at 225 feet to the outfield wall, and the infield will be grass, rather than dirt.

“It’ll be specifically built for Little League play,” said Bottelli, who added the county is in talks with the Spokane South Little League group to share maintenance duties and potentially host tournaments at the park.

Spokane South Little League has been in negotiations for at least seven years to build a complex of fields at 37th Avenue and Glenrose Road. That project stalled after the league purchased the land from Morning Star Boys Ranch in 2012, and it continues to raise money for construction. The complex project faced skepticism from the Glenrose Community Association, which was concerned about increased traffic in the neighborhood.

Gosline said the field at Prairie View would be a first step toward drawing regional Little League competition to Spokane, which could be an economic boon for the county.

“We can’t hold a real Little League tournament, because technically we don’t have a field,” Gosline said. “You’ve got to have fields of a certain standard.”

The school district and city park fields the league plays on lack pitching mounds, grass infields, fences and dugouts, he said.

Eric Sawyer, president and chief executive of the Spokane Sports Commission, said more than a single field would be needed to attract regional-level competition, but it’s a good start for a community that has few facilities.

“It’s pretty pathetic that a community this size doesn’t have better quality youth baseball,” Sawyer said.

“One field can play a big role,” he added. “But what you need is a complex, multiple fields.”

Otto Klein, president of the Spokane Indians Youth Baseball board, said his group supported the Prairie View project, and hopes it would be open for play to all area children.

“The more kids that can play baseball in this community, the better,” Klein said.

A paved pathway will circle the two ball fields at Prairie View Park, with an evergreen tree buffer separating the fields from Freya Street and surrounding homes, according to conceptual drawings that Bottelli said are subject to change.

Bottelli asked commissioners to dedicate $750,000 in 2018 to the Bidwell Park project, which he said would be used to seek up to an additional $1 million in state and federal grant money. Park planners needed commissioners to put the money on the table now in time to apply for grant consideration at the state level.

“We’re just trying to think, long term, about a way to get moving on Bidwell Park at last,” Bottelli said.

Commissioners agreed to earmark the money, which will likely come out of a portion of an excise tax collected during real estate sales in the county. The same method was used in allocating $347,000 to improvements at Prairie View.

If Spokane County is successful in collecting at least $500,000 in additional state funding, park planners say they will have enough to build a picnic shelter, a restroom, a playground and several landscaping features at Bidwell Park, 801 E. Handy Road in Colbert. The work would not occur there until at least 2018.

Gosline said he is hopeful, after talking with county park planners, that Spokane South Little League could have a field of its own by summer 2017.

“I’m just excited for us to have a place we can maybe actually call home,” Gosline said.