Sinking Feeling Inch By Inch, Popular Senior Center Is Settling Into The Landfill It Was Built Above 20 Years Ago

The earth beneath the Spokane Valley Senior Center is caving in, and the future of the facility is on shaky ground because of it.

The senior center just east of Valley Mission Park is sinking into the landfill on which it was built 20 years ago.

The building has fallen 5-1/2 inches already and could drop another three inches in the future, engineer Donald Petersen wrote in a report for the county parks advisory committee last month.

As a result, the basement floor is buckling, the foundation is cracking and entrance stairways are pulling away from the building, creating unsafe conditions, Petersen determined.

Not much can be done to stop it, he added.

“It is my opinion that there is no reasonable remediation that would cost effectively return the building floor to level (or) prevent future settlements,” Petersen of PPL Coffman Engineers wrote in his report.

That news may have sounded the death knell for the senior center, a popular Valley gathering place for people over 55.

After hearing Petersen’s findings, members of the parks advisory committee decided last month the building was a lost cause.

They voted unanimously to recommend to county commissioners that no more money be spent maintaining the facility.

That includes the $50,000 Petersen estimates would be needed to fix such current safety concerns as the stairways and basement floor.

“It just doesn’t make sense to sink that kind of money into something that will continue to sink,” committee member Ed Sharman said this past week. “It doesn’t make sense to pour more money into a black hole.”

The decision does not mean the building will be shut down any time soon, and there are no immediate plans to do so.

It does mean that unless county commissioners say otherwise, the facility will be allowed to deteriorate until it is no longer usable.

Petersen said in an interview this week that it’s hard to tell how long that will take.

In his report, he encouraged park advisory committee members to think about obtaining another site for Valley senior center as soon as possible.

“The owner may want to consider an alternative building rather than the stop-gap repairs to the current building,” he wrote.

The decision also means that seniors will have to continue to contend with the building’s uneven floors and sloping staircases, which could cause someone to trip and hurt themselves.

The decision dismayed the county’s parks and recreation director. Wyn Birkenthal said the senior center is one of his department’s most popular facilities.

More than 2,000 seniors from throughout the county use the center weekly. They play bingo, shoot billiards, dance, make pottery and socialize.

“It’s a piece of bedrock in the parks department,” Birkenthal said. “It’s almost sacred.”

Norm Knudson and Bob Cox think so, too. The two men spent a recent morning at the senior center playing snooker with several friends.

“What do we care if it settles?” said Cox, who didn’t play billiards before he began going to the center a dozen years ago but now displays a nice touch with a cue. “It’s still a good building.”

Knudson, who makes the 10-mile trip from his home in west Spokane each day to play pool, agreed.

“It’s a lot of fun, and it sure beats staying home,” he said.

Sharman said the county should be looking for other sites for a senior center. He recommended the old Tidyman’s store on North Pines Road or the former Albertson’s at Argonne Village.

There has also been talk of including a facility for senior citizens in a Valley community center proposed for the former Walk in the Wild zoo site.

But none of those alternatives is likely to be realized in the near future.

Birkenthal said it would cost nearly $250,000 to turn either of the old grocery store buildings into a senior center.

Even if the parks department had that kind of money, the senior crowd would need a place to play while those improvement were being made, he said.

The Valley community center is only in planning stages now. It will probably be several years, if ever, before buildings start going up there.

In the meantime, problems at the current senior center get worse.

“My sense is we really do need to make the current facility safe in the interim,” Birkenthal said.

Knudson agreed.

“I hope they leave this one open until they build the new one,” he said.

But Sharman said the parks department doesn’t have the money to make the temporary fixes at the Mission Avenue site.

“There just isn’t money to do those things,” he said. “And not just those things - anything. The whole parks system is falling apart.”

All of the county’s parks - and there are more than 20 of them - need some kind of work, he said.

The swimming pools are still in bad shape, and many parks need new or improved bathroom facilities, playground equipment and irrigation systems.

Sharman said it was up to residents to convince county commissioners to spend more money on parks.

“The citizens need to realize that there’s no angel that’s going to come along and fix it,” he said. “They are the ones that need to take ownership and responsibility and do something about it.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 3 Photos (1 color)