Mccaslin Would Like To Move Site Of Mission Park Pool Replacement
There’s no doubt the county will replace the crumbling Valley Mission Park pool after it closes this fall.
The question raised by one county commissioner on Tuesday is where exactly the new pool should be built.
Spokane County officials planned to put the replacement across Mission Avenue from the current pool, on four acres owned by Modern Electric Co. The county and the utility have been negotiating a price for that property.
But Tuesday, Commissioner Kate McCaslin said she’d rather see a pool at Balfour Park, located adjacent to Valley Fire District headquarters at 10300 E. Sprague. If the county can’t get the land it needs to expand Balfour, McCaslin said she’d like to put the pool in Otis Orchards or Greenacres, where there are no pools.
It doesn’t make sense to build at Mission, she said, since the YMCA plans to build an aquatic center at Mirabeau Point, about a mile to the northeast.
Balfour is about a mile southwest of Mission Park. The neighborhood surrounding it is densely populated, McCaslin noted, so a pool there would serve a greater number of people than one at Mission.
“I bet those parents in the apartments (near Balfour Park) would love to have a pool for their kids,” McCaslin said.
Balfour Park is 1.2 acres. A pool, parking lot and landscaping requires about 4 acres, said county parks manager Wyn Birkenthal.
Birkenthal said the county is negotiating to buy an adjacent acre from Spokane Transit Authority. In addition, the county plans to initiate negotiations with a private landowner to purchase two additional acres, he said.
That land may be too expensive for the county to buy, he said.
Commissioner John Roskelley said he fears admission to the Y’s indoor pools may be too expensive for many of the families that use the Mission Pool. He and McCaslin agreed commissioners should wait until they know the value of land at the various locations before deciding where to put the pool.
The third commissioner, Phil Harris, whose district is in western Spokane County, offered no opinion.
, DataTimes