Do-It-Yourself City Special Interest Groups Work Together To Improve Spirit Lake
To get anything done in this town, you have to do it yourself, whether it’s a park for kids, flower beds around town or even an updated look for an old water tower.
These days people in Spirit Lake are volunteering their time, money and expertise to make the city a nicer place. And with four growing subdivisions in the area, city officials say it’s time to prepare the infrastructure, too.
Like any small city, Spirit Lake’s budget is limited. And because of cantankerous residents opposed to change, alterations to the city have been difficult. For example, contentious residents balked at the idea of paying for new roads earlier this year.
Grass-roots efforts have emerged, said John Austin, city administrator.
“Every town has groups of special interests,” Austin said. “They’re not asking anything from the city except for permission to do it.”
Still, Austin said the city plans to auction off two city-owned properties on Oct. 10. The land is valued at $168,000, and money will go towards improving existing facilities.
Skate park
When Spirit Lake resident Don Williams visited Pullman a while back, he saw kids gathered at a local skate park, paid for by the city. It looked like the right answer for his city, Williams said.
Williams, a father of two, skated as a kid. He knew Spirit Lake didn’t have a safe place for kids to congregate.
He presented the idea to the Spirit Lake City Council, and got permission to convert the city park’s basketball court into a place for kids to skate.
Williams went to work. He came up with $900 in donations and people willing to dedicate their time.
After Williams received the council’s permission to build in June, a wood ramp was donated to the park. Serving as temporary equipment, more than 20 kids stood in line to take a try.
“It was amazing,” Williams said. “It was just unreal.”
The permanent, 36-foot ramps have just started to rise above the ground and take form. All day, every day, for the past several weeks, Williams and Rick Hockett, a welder, have worked with the steel frames. The volunteers want to do it right, and make a structure that will stand for years.
“When people see a couple guys in the community can make a difference, people will see that’s a positive thing,” Williams said.
The park will cost about $2,000 to build, Williams said. He has no clue where the rest of the material will come from, much less when the park will be done.
“We just need people to come together,” Williams said.
Enthusiasm, generated by local kids, is enough to make the day’s heat on the black pavement bearable, Williams said.
“I’ve had these kids come in here and say, `Dude, this thing’s awesome.”’ An 8-year-old boy approached the men at the park last week. He gave the men two $1 bills and several pennies. He had been saving up for a pocket knife but thought the skate park needed money.
“It just about brought tears to my eyes,” Williams said.
Now that he knows the skate park is a viable project, Williams admits he’s making plans for other projects - another basketball court that could be a skating rink in the winter.
Flowers
An injured back and a lack of gardening knowledge didn’t prevent Joy French from starting the Spirit Lake Garden Club last year after she moved back to her hometown.
“They wanted something here, and I got an idea,” she said.
French sent about 1,000 letters to school kids, asking for their help to beautify their city. No one answered her plea.
She began begging businesses for money and donations. By June, she had received an entire truckload of flowers and $1,000 worth of trees to plant. Five women volunteered to help.
“I give each one of them a place, and they have to keep it up,” she said.
The club has planted flowers and trees in the two parks downtown. One tree, a pink dogwood, was planted in memory of long-time resident Marilyn Brown, who died in June. French wants to do more landscaping by the community center, and down by the waterfront.
Money is tight, but French remains optimistic about the club’s future. She wants to build a sitting area in a nearby park, complete with a Japanese-style garden bridge. More permanent plants, like shrubs, also would be great.
French is writing to national groups and celebrities, to ask their support in reviving downtown. She’d like to see a movie theater in town again, she said, for the kids.
“I get a lot of nice remarks about how nice it’s getting here,” she said. “I’ve got a lot of ambition. I’ve got big dreams for here, but I need the manpower and donations.”
French’s move from Bellevue, Wash., happened after her sister and longtime resident, Helen Cook, died in 1989.
French had to make the burial arrangements. Instead of buying her sister a headstone, French spent the money on donations to the city she loved - half to the city park, the rest to a local historical society.
“So then I went to her grave to say what I did, and of course there’s a headstone there,” French said. “Then I knew what I did was OK.”
Even today, French can’t figure out who paid for the headstone. That was a sign, she said, to actively work to make Spirit Lake a nice place to live.
Water tower
A 50-year-old water storage tank, decorated with graffiti, stands high, overlooking Spirit Lake.
It’s just across the way from Deborah Akre’s home. It’s too ugly, she told the City Council recently.
As a solution, Akre said she would organize an effort to paint the tank, saving the city more than $8,000.
The tower was taken off-line after a new water tower was installed in the 1990s. But because of growth, city officials want to reintroduce it in order to provide an additional 100,000 gallons of water to residents.
A low-interest loan for $32,000 from the Idaho Rural Water Association was offered to the city last month for the old water tank’s restoration. It’s a smart step for the city to take, Austin said.
Additional water storage allows for growth, increased water pressure and firefighting capabilities. A group of volunteers wants to repaint the tower, which could be back on-line this fall, Austin said.
The city already has saved $50,000 because a water pump, budgeted for $80,000, cost only $30,000.
In addition, city workers will complete the installation of 120 water meters around town. The meters will result in a reduction of water usage by 30 percent, Austin predicted.
Efforts to improve Spirit Lake have impressed Mayor Bill Moe, who said Spirit Lake is beginning to look a bit different, a bit better.
“We leave them alone,” Moe said, of the volunteers’ work. “We don’t hound them or poke at them. We just let them do it. We need these people.”