Cross Country Race Avoids Greens Fees Commissioners Say Northeast District 7 Won’t Be Charged At Hangman Valley Course

Small high schools participating in next year’s cross country district finals will get a break, compliments of Spokane County commissioners.

Commissioners decided Tuesday not to charge Northeast District 7 schools for use of Hangman Valley Golf Course, the site of the October event. The race draws about 500 runners from 50 mostly rural schools in the easternmost counties of Washington.

Tuesday’s decision reverses - or at least delays - a policy set last week. Commissioners had said schools should help cover the county’s cost of closing the course to golfers for two days.

The cost to the Northeast District would have been about $1,000 - far less than the county would charge a for-profit group to use the course. School officials complained they couldn’t raise enough to cover that cost from the $5 charged to spectators.

The schools have used the course for years without charge. Larger schools, like those in the Greater Spokane League, use it for regional finals most years, but plan to hold that meet elsewhere in 1999.

Commissioners John Roskelley and Phil Harris said Tuesday they want a more accurate accounting of the county’s costs and the schools’ take for the meet. They also want to know how often county-organized recreational league sports teams use school gymnasiums without charge.

They’ll use that information to decide whether to start charging all schools for use of the course, starting in 2000.

Commissioner Kate McCaslin opposed the delay, noting that the county charges groups that use the fairgrounds for horse shows and other nonprofit youth events.

“This is a bad decision,” she said. “We’re discriminating against other youth groups, and we ought not to be doing that.”

, DataTimes