Hagadone Details Plans Project Would Displace Playing Field, Boat Ramp

McEuen Field is one of the most underused places in town, but a new library and botanical gardens will change that, Duane B. Hagadone said Friday.

He estimated that only 5 percent of the community now uses the south Coeur d’Alene’s park and playing field.

The Hagadone Public Library and Botanical Gardens - a $6 million project unveiled at a Coeur d’Alene Parks and Recreation Commission meeting Thursday - would come with a $2 million donation from Hagadone as long as it is located at McEuen Field. The proposed conversion would mean several playing fields would have to be moved to the northern part of town.

It also would close one of the state’s busiest public boat ramps.

The project also fulfills Hagadone’s 30-plus year dream of finding a way to honor his parents, Hagadone said during a press conference atop his Coeur d’Alene Resort parking garage, overlooking McEuen Field.

“It goes clear back to my early years, when I lost my father … he was 49, I was 26,” Hagadone said. “He was my closest friend. To see him die was a pretty tough thing.”

Burl C. Hagadone died in 1959 of cancer. Hagadone’s mother, Beverly, died in 1984.

Because he owns the Coeur d’Alene Press and is in the printed word business, the library is a fitting part of the memorial, Hagadone said. But the gardens appear to be the fondest part of his dream for McEuen Field.

“I love flowers. I thought it was something the whole community would use,” he said. “I had hoped the garden could be stocked by every type of flower grown in this area.”

Each type of flower could be labeled and local residents could use the garden to choose landscaping for their homes. That would “elevate the entire beauty of our community.”

Hagadone won’t take an active role in the design of the library or raising the money for the project, beyond the $2 million donation and his pledge to provide a trust fund to cover maintenance of the gardens, he said. And Hagadone denied there is any commercial appeal to having the gardens and library adjoin his resort property.

“This is not a commercial project to me,” he said. The library has no tie to the resort. As for the botanical gardens, the flowers will bloom in the summer when the resort is full.

“We don’t need it,” he said.

Two of the most controversial aspects of the project will be moving the playing fields and closing the public boat ramp at the end of Third Street, which is on the west end of the proposed project.

The playing fields will be replaced with equal or better facilities, said Jon Hippler, president of the Coeur d’Alene Library Foundation. The boat ramp won’t be closed until there is an alternative ramp. Luckily, the BLM is developing a new public boat ramp on Blackwell Island, he added.

The BLM and other boat-savvy folk say that Blackwell won’t fill that role.

“The whole issue is catching me by surprise, to say the least,” said Eric Thomson, the BLM’s area manager. “Never was there any discussion of replacing any of the existing (boat launch) facilities with the Blackwell Island facility.”

The Blackwell Island ramp won’t be completed for several years. It will only be usable from late May to late September. And it only will handle a 20- to 25-foot boat during the highest water, Tomson said.

“For anybody to purport that the Blackwell Island facility would replace the capability of the Third Street boat ramp does not understand the situation, does not understand the facts,” he said.

Sandi Emerson, of the Kootenai County Waterways Advisory Board, said his group would probably be open to an alternative site, “if there is a place as good or better.” That might include something along the Centennial Trail, between Silver Beach and Higgens Point.

But it won’t be so simple to walk away from the Third Street ramps because state grant money was used to either build or upgrade the facility. “You can’t change its use without going through the state Parks and Rec Commission,” he said.

“Somebody’s got to recognize the cost that went into this.”

Steve Anthony, of the Coeur d’Alene Parks and Recreation Department, estimates that some 10 percent of the community - more than 2,000 people - play ball at the fields at McEuen. It’s tougher to quantify how many people use the picnic shelter and the playground.

Some of the ballplayers and coaches have mixed initial reactions to moving their fields to Sunset Park and Person Field, or extending the hours at the Ramsey Road fields by adding lights, as is proposed.

“I hate to see some of the facilities leave the (McEuen) area,” said Lee Libera, who has played at McEuen for several years. He isn’t enthusiastic about playing softball later at night and instead would push for additional fields.

Libera also wonders whether people living close to the fields will like the idea of lights and late-night games. “I’d like to have a lot more information than I have now,” he said.

Some of that information will come Feb. 11, in the first public forum on moving the recreational facilities. It will be held in the basement of The Spokesman-Review building on Northwest Boulevard in Coeur d’Alene, said Doug Parks, parks director.

Jack Foster, a Post Falls teacher, coach and longtime McEuen user, also doesn’t like the idea of playing under the lights. Overall, however, “I think it’s a great idea, as long as the facilities are going to be replaced.”

Mayor Al Hassell promises there will be several public forums before the plan is made final. Like many people, he raises the question of whether the library foundation can raise the estimated $2.7 million in donations to make the project happen.

Coeur d’Alene attorney Scott Reed, who is on the library board, hopes the Hagadone donation will attract other large donations.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: Hagadone proposed park changes

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: THE HURDLES The Coeur d’Alene Parks and Recreation Department has identified the following hurdles to clear if a new library and botanical gardens replace McEuen Field:

Replace the Third Street boat ramp, one of the busiest in Idaho. Relocate the Parks and Recreation Department offices now located at McEuen Field. Provide an alternate site for the American Legion baseball field. Provide alternate softball fields. Replace the tennis courts so residents of the south part of town have easily accessible courts. Relocate McEuen basketball courts. Replace the playground. Replace public restrooms. Find a facility to carry the McEuen name. McEuen Field now honors longtime Parks and Recreation board member Mae McEuen.