County Ready To Offer House At Lake For $1,000 A Month
After $30,000 in improvements, a county-owned waterfront home at Liberty Lake Park is ready to be rented.
Remodeling work on the three-bedroom, two-bathroom house was completed this week. County Parks Director Wyn Birkenthal said he plans to inspect the house early next week and then put it on the rental market.
The parks department expects to lease the home for about $1,000 a month, its fair-market value. At that rate, the project will pay for itself in 2-1/2 years.
“We think it’s going to be a nice revenue source for a parks department that is impoverished,” Birkenthal said.
The county acquired the house in 1966 when it paid $245,000 for the nearly 3,000-acre Miller Ranch, which has since become Liberty Lake Park.
A fairgrounds maintenance worker who doubled as an on-call assistant caretaker at the park lived in the home for more than five years before moving out last spring.
Instead of paying the worker overtime, the county allowed him to pay a reduced rent of $95 a month. County officials decided the reduced rent was not in the taxpayers’ best interest.
The worker, a distant cousin of County Commissioner Steve Hasson, moved out of the house at 2018 S. Zephyr Road in early April rather than pay full rent.
A group of five students from Educational Services District 101 began working on the house in mid-July, said Ray Anton, ESD 101 construction supervisor. They completed the construction on Wednesday.
Birkenthal was impressed with the work the group did. He estimates the students saved the county about $40,000 in labor costs.
“The house was just in awful shape,” Birkenthal said. “Now it’s very sound.”
The work included adding a second bathroom and insulation. The monthly heating costs, which previously hovered around $400, should be reduced significantly, Birkenthal said.
Among the house’s more attractive features is its view of the lake. And the lake’s swimming hole, which is watched during the summer by a county lifeguard, is about 75 yards away.
“I expect there will be a great deal of interest,” Birkenthal said.
, DataTimes