Mirabeau Point Gets $546,000 Boost From Comstock Foundation

Thu., Sept. 23, 1999

Marny Lombard Staff Writer

Organizers of the Mirabeau Point community complex have received $546,000 from the Comstock Foundation.

The money will help build a children’s pond, complete with waterfalls, a stream and a swinging bridge.

“We were really surprised and really glad to see (the Comstock directors) recognize the value of the project by granting the full amount of our request,” said Sue Lani Madsen, Mirabeau manager. “That doesn’t happen very often.”

These and other amenities paid for by this grant will be clustered in a central area of Mirabeau, northeast of the YMCA, and along the route that people will walk or bike between the Y and the Centennial Trail.

The YMCA is currently under construction. The $6 million center, including indoor pools, a gym and other facilities, is expected to be complete next spring.

The Comstock money will also pay for a chime trellis, which, like the pond, was first designed to be part of the proposed Universal Park at Mirabeau.

Other amenities will include benches, and a gazebo and lighting for trails through Mirabeau’s natural area.

Also included will be various “discovery play destinations.” For example, a cave that was used by the now defunct Walk in the Wild zoo will be restructured for safety and a collection of buried “fossils” will be installed, so that children will be able to crawl inside the cave, brush aside the sand and discover the fossils underneath.

The pond is intended to be stocked with fish; during wintertime, the pond will be frozen for ice-skating.

“Think of the ponds at Manito Park or at Cannon Hill Park. That’s the kind of pond we’re looking at, where kids can go out and play in the mud,” Madsen said.

In large part because of the Comstock gift, “people will be able to go out there next spring and they’re going to be able to see Mirabeau,” Madsen said.

The grant conditions state that the work must be complete by June 1.

With the completion of those projects, Madsen said, volunteer groups will be able to get started with other pieces of the Universal Park. The park carries that name because it’s intended to be open to everyone, including those with disabilities.

Trail design is under way, as well. Mirabeau organizers hope to help people develop “good habits about where to walk and where not to walk,” Madsen said.

Mirabeau Point is south of the Spokane River and west of the Spokane Valley Mall. Current plans for the complex include a senior citizen’s center, cultural center and outdoor science facility.

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