North Side Park A Worthwhile Goal

The year is 2006. It is a beautiful May morning at Haynes Park in north Spokane County. A father and daughter canoe the Little Spokane River which flows through part of the park. On Meditation Point, an outcropping overlooking the river, a couple are getting married. Higher in the park, a family hikes. It pauses to look out over the vista and sees Wandermere Golf Course below and Mount Spokane in the distance.

Ten years before, this land seemed far away from the city. It looked and felt rural with only a few houses here and there. But then, growth crept northward and subdivision after subdivision replaced the woods. The 103-acre Haynes Park almost was developed into housing, too, but then its owner, Don Haynes, began to negotiate with the Spokane County Parks and Recreation Department.

Haynes loved the land. It had been in his family for 45 years. But in 1996, it was time to let it go. The taxes were breaking him. He had the opportunity - one window in time - to leave behind a legacy. So he negotiated a fair price for the land, which was said to be worth more than $1 million.

Of course, the county didn’t have nearly enough money. And it needed even more money to fashion Haynes’ land into a regional park.

But then, magical things happened. Friends of the Little Spokane River organized tremendous fund-raisers. Several wealthy people in the community stepped forward, too, and donated hundreds of thousands of dollars. State and federal funding became available. And a county conservation futures tax, set to expire in 1997, was extended a few more years. It cost a typical homeowner only $6 a year but raised thousands of dollars to help purchase some of the park land.

Haynes Park became a jewel in north Spokane. Those who worked in the ‘90s for Haynes Park were visionaries - even though they didn’t know it. They joined, in history, other people of vision who had created Spokane’s lasting legacies. Manito Park once was surrounded by woods. Riverfront Park once was cluttered with ugly train trestles. Before the Centennial Trail was built, no way existed to walk along many stretches of the Spokane River.

In September 1996, the Parks Department and Haynes began informal discussions about the land. That’s where it all began. Several individuals saw in their minds a park emerge from the raw land, the way a sculptor sees the finished statue in a chunk of marble.

This Haynes Park scenario could happen. The vision already exists. The rest is details.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Rebecca Nappi/For the editorial board