State Trims Orv Park’s Funding

A popular off-road vehicle park near Airway Heights is losing half its state funding.

The change probably will mean higher fees for the people who ride ORVs off the jumps, around the tracks, through the mud and over the sand at the Spokane County park. Maintenance and other care will be cut.

The changes may be more dramatic in 1999, if those steps don’t make up for the $50,000 loss in annual funding, said county parks manager Wyn Birkenthal.

“It’s a really serious cut,” he said.

Built by the county, the 216-acre park was paid for primarily with $2.4 million from state gas tax revenue. That tax and state ORV license fees also provides most of the money for maintenance and other annual costs.

For 1996 and 1997, the state Interagency Committee on Outdoor Recreation provided $207,000 from the gas tax and state off-road vehicle fee for the local park. The committee recently voted to cut that to $104,000 for 1997 and 1998.

Funding for an ORV park in Thurston County also was cut in half. The committee didn’t cut funding for an ORV park in Richland, where users traditionally have shouldered a greater share of the cost than have those who use the Spokane or Thurston County parks.

Unlike other projects that get money from the committee, the three parks are used primarily for competitions and other organized events.

Eric Johnson, the committee’s project services manager, said the committee received requests for $1.6 million for 16 different parks and projects to benefit ORV riders. It had only $1.18 million to give during the next two years.

That’s typical of most years, he said, and the committee decided it no longer could justify spending about half its budget on the three parks.

Entrance and camping fees, concessions and other income at the Airway Heights park amounted to $67,000 in 1996 and 1997 - or 21 percent of the cost of keeping the gates open. That compares to about 42 percent at Richland’s Horn Rapids ORV park.

Spokane County taxpayers contribute nothing to the park.

“In hindsight, I don’t know how the state got into subsidizing this (park) so heavily,” said Birkenthal.

Riders and viewers at the Spokane County park paid $3 apiece last spring and summer. Birkenthal and representatives from user groups propose increasing that to $4 when the park reopens this season.

Their plan, which will be discussed Thursday night by the county parks advisory committee but must also be approved by county commissioners, includes cuts in maintenance, advertising and other expenses.

More drastic changes - like a shorter season - may be necessary in 1999 if the fee increase and cuts don’t offset the $50,000 annual loss, Birkenthal said.

Johnson said the state and county eventually may have to consider leasing the park to private owners, who would operate it as a for-profit facility.

The county first talked about building an off-road park in 1971, when the state Legislature decided that 1 percent of the gas tax should benefit ORV users. The park was completed in 1989.

Sam Angove, the county parks director at the time, said shortly before the opening that he hoped the park eventually would support itself.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: What’s next The Spokane County parks advisory committee will discuss a proposed fee increase for the county ORV park Thursday. The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. in the parks department office at the fairgrounds, 404 N. Havana.