Several County Parks Will See Improvements, Additions Steel And Concrete Moose Sculpture Part Of Gleneden Plan

Irrigation systems, playground equipment and a giant moose are some of the additions several North Side county parks will soon be seeing.

Park-by-park details are as follows:

Gleneden Park

The 5-1/2-acre area north of Little Spokane Drive and east of Columbus Street is slowly taking shape - a shape unlike anything currently seen at parks around Spokane.

Neighbors’ input helped designers come up with a park very different from the typical grouping of soccer field, softball field and swing set.

Now, crews are working on grading the land. Logs and boulders are being placed strategically to create a natural setting.

“It’s like you’re on a backpacking trip,” said Spokane County Parks Director Wyn Birkenthal of the mood being created. “With the native vegetation plantings, it will be like a natural area with play stuff.”

Sculptors in Chiwaukum, Wash., are working on a roughly 16-foot-long moose, to be cast in steel and concrete, designed to be climbed and played on. The moose will sit in the heart of the park, so that people will walk in and see it sitting in a small clearing of trees.

A sunken basketball court, slide and cable glider are also part of the park’s first phase, scheduled to be completed Sept. 20.

Sontag and Camelot parks

Grants received recently from the State Inter Agency Commission for Outdoor Recreation will help these two parks develop more verdant vistas.

Irrigation has been a long-standing problem at both Sontag and Camelot parks, Birkenthal said. Soccer, softball and open play fields have been watered by means of large pipes, which need to be physically moved.

The method is labor-intensive, and renders the fields unusable while they’re being watered. The fields are usually watered during the day, when people are available to move the pipes, which is also when people want to use the fields for play.

Sometimes, park neighbors have been called upon to move the pipes.

Sontag Park in Nine Mile Falls will receive a $65,000 grant, which will be matched by Park Department funds. The new irrigation system should be installed early next year.

Camelot Park, in the Camelot subdivision off Highway 395, will receive a $70,000 grant, to be matched by parks funds and community fund-raising efforts, for regrading and irrigation.

“It’s unsafe for physical activity,” said neighbor Tom Stebbins of Camelot Park. “The ground is uneven and there are holes, dips and chuckholes out there.”

Camelot was originally a sewage drainfield. Stebbins said he and other neighbors have been waiting 20 years for park improvements, which is why they are eager to do what they can to help.

The Camelot project should be done next spring, Birkenthal said.

Bear Lake Park

Bear Lake Park, near Chattaroy off Highway 2, was built in the mid-1980s. In addition to the swim beaches and fishing, one attraction was the wooden playground equipment.

Unfortunately, the play equipment was built on a wetland area - so it’s not surprising what happened to it after a few years.

“Glory be. It rotted,” Birkenthal said.

Until recently, the Parks Department had no funds with which to acquire new equipment. But last year, parks officials found $25,000 left over in the capital funds budget.

Now, in addition to the sand volleyball court constructed last year, Bear Lake Park has new, metal playground equipment.