Budget Ditches Mount Spokane Road Fix Senator Says Spokane Delegation Will Try To Get Money Back For Road To Ski Area

A transportation budget proposed by the state House of Representatives would eliminate funding to improve a treacherous road used by thousands of Spokane skiers.

The Legislature last year earmarked $1.3 million so the Washington Parks and Recreation Commission could improve Mount Spokane Parkway, as the state calls the only paved road into the park. It is also designated State Highway 206.

The commission spent $770,000 on surveying, mapping and other preliminary work last year. The proposed budget would take away the remaining $530,000, which would have gone primarily toward engineering and some minor improvements, said Tony Rapozo, the state engineer working on the project.

More money would be needed to widen portions of the road, soften some curves and level some of the steepest grades, among other improvements, said Rapozo. But without this year’s infusion of cash, the project will stall, he said.

The deletion was buried in the thick transportation budget, which passed Wednesday with approval of all 10 Eastern Washington House members. Earlier, it was approved by the House Transportation Committee, which includes Rep. Alex Wood, D-Spokane, and Rep. Lynn Schindler, R-Spokane Valley.

Wood could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Schindler said she was so focused on making sure Spokane didn’t lose money for a north-south freeway and work on Interstate 90 that she hadn’t noticed the deletion.

Schindler noted that the House budget must still be reconciled with the Senate, which could put the money back.

“We’ve had calls on that already,” Sen. Bob McCaslin, R-Spokane Valley, said Thursday morning. “All we can do is try” to get the money back in the budget.

The House budget also would eliminate $390,000 for road work in two Western Washington parks, Beacon Rock and Cama Beach.

Sen. Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said the lost funding is just one of many concerns senators see in the proposed budget, which was a compromise between House Democrats and Republicans.

Brown and other Senate Democrats want more money for education, and disagree with the House’s proposal for funding long-term transportation needs out of the general fund rather than the state’s reserve account. The Senate wants to give all homeowners a tax break; the House would give it only to senior citizens.

No one’s quite sure how those big differences and a lot of small ones will be resolved. House and Senate budget-writers met Thursday in the otherwise quiet Capitol to begin discussions.

Mount Spokane Parkway originally was a logging road, Rapozo said. It’s still fine for summer, when it is used by only 120 cars on a typical weekday. On summer weekends, use increases to about 620 cars a day, which is still manageable.

Traffic booms in winter, with an average of 2,150 cars on each Saturday, Sunday and holiday. Those cars carry downhill skiers heading for the slopes, and cross-country skiers and snowmobilers heading to popular trail systems. The park is the closest place to Spokane for snow play.

On a grading scale of “A” to “F,” the parks commission gives the road an “E” in winter. Cars often wind up in the ditch while negotiating snowy or icy pavement, hairpin turns and a grade that reaches 13 percent in places.

Fatal accidents are rare on the parkway, although a Spokane man was killed in August 1996, when his Chevy Blazer tumbled down an embankment.

“That road is passable, but it’s questionable,” said Spokane’s Clyde Anderson, a member of the state parks commission. “Something really needs to be done.”

Rapozo said there’s no talk of turning the road into a thoroughfare. “It’s a parkway and we want to keep it that way,” he said. “But we would like to improve it.”