Deadline extended for science center

The Spokane Park Board on Thursday extended a deadline to a civic group seeking to develop a science center on park land on the north bank of the Spokane River.

Science center planners said they expect to complete a business plan by the end of this year for what would be named “Sci Tech at Michael Anderson Plaza,” just north of Riverfront Park.

The center name would commemorate Lt. Col. Anderson, the astronaut and Cheney High School graduate who died in the Columbia space shuttle accident on Feb. 1, 2003.

Park Board members gave the group until next May to finish its work on science center planning.

A year ago, the City Council approved a lease of the 5.7-acre site to the group in exchange for development of a science center. Money from public and private agencies would pay for the $30 million center, said Anne Marie Axworthy, a member of the Sci Tech board.

Science center planners were initially given a year to provide a business plan to the Park Board as a condition of the lease. That deadline was extended until next May. Board member Steve McNutt said he and other Park Board members had thought when the lease was approved it would take more than a year to finish planning work.

The goal is to build a center with 35,000 square feet of exhibit space, with hands-on displays for children and families. The exhibits would dovetail with the latest science curriculum in schools, Axworthy said.

The science center organization has an office at Steam Plant Square, and it is seeking more volunteers to help with planning. The phone number is 984-1400.

Organizers have drawn help from local university students and Avista Corp. experts, who have been studying the feasibility and options for a science center.

The group has looked at various types of large-screen movie theater formats, including IMAX.

“We’ve been working diligently,” Stromberg told Park Board members.

Axworthy said a consultant has been hired for the fund-raising campaign in 2005. More than $600,000 in donations have been received so far and are being used for the planning effort.

In other business, the Park Board agreed to consider extending a proposed “Transient Shelter Ordinance” to park property. A proposed ordinance before the City Council would make it a misdemeanor to set up camps on city-owned property, but park land has so far been excluded.

Also, the board was told that two police officers will be posted at Manito Park to prevent recurring problems with groups of youths who gather for musical drumming sessions on Thursday evenings in spring and summer. In the past, the drumming has continued past park closing at 10 p.m., and has been the site of illegal drug and alcohol use, littering and other problems.

Donna Herak, a park neighbor, said the drumming has been a nuisance for several years. On June 3, as many as 150 people turned out, but only about seven or eight were drumming, she said. “Marijuana is rife throughout the area,” she said, and 11 police responded to the park.

Park Board President Jeff Halstead said he toured the park during the June 3 drumming session and didn’t view the problem as being as serious as Herak says it is. He said youths have a right to congregate, but they must follow the law.

Also, the Park Board accepted $168,000 from the Washington State Historical Society to help reclaim the historic Corbin and Moore-Turner Heritage Gardens in Pioneer Park.

The money will pay for a cultural landscape report, stabilizing garden features and increasing security.