Making a good first impression

Davenport Hotel owner Walt Worthy has long thought the off-ramps leading visitors from Interstate 90 into downtown Spokane needed work.

Euphemistically speaking, that is.

“It looks pitiful. It’s downright disgusting,” Worthy said Thursday. “It shows a total lack of pride by everyone in Spokane to allow it to stay like it is.”

Now Worthy is backing up his words with a challenge to other business owners. By Monday, a landscape beautification project on the Lincoln Street off-ramp funded primarily by Worthy will be complete. Crews are putting in new trees, flowers, shrubs and grass along both sides of the exit.

Worthy said he’s spending between $10,000 and $25,000 to spruce up that entrance to the city and would like to see other business owners do the same at the Division Street off-ramp and along city streets.

“How does anybody think they can show off Spokane?” Worthy said. “We’re like a dime looking for change compared to Coeur d’Alene.”

Many other businesses already have stepped up, in response to requests by Worthy’s project manager, Ron Hanson, and the Downtown Spokane Partnership to donate services or supplies to the Lincoln Street project. The city of Spokane and the state Department of Transportation also provided coordination and necessary permitting, said Mary Ann Ulik, the partnership’s parking and operations director. The partnership itself is funding inmate work crews and paying dumping fees.

“It was actually pretty cool because there were so many contributors to it and it’s happening in a quick turn-around, which I like,” Ulik said. The project is being completed in a week, weather permitting.

Avista Utilities donated resources to remove trees near power lines and traffic control devices were supplied by North Star. Auto Rain Sprinkler donated irrigation materials. Central Pre-Mix donated gravel. Wittkopf Enterprises donated sand. Moore Landscape Materials donated top soil. Ray Turf Farms donated sod and Environment West donated landscaping design and is supplying plants at cost. Materials also are being donated by Columbia Paint, Western Concrete Products, Ferguson Enterprises and United Coatings.

Project support also came from the businesses located at the off-ramp, including Taco Bell, Troy’s Tires and Automotive, and the Trade Winds Motel.

Worthy gave Ulik credit for making the project happen after he’d raised the idea but didn’t have time to follow through.

“I was done with it and I told her to go away three or four times, but she kept pestering me,” he said. “We’re doing it. It needed doing. And I have nothing but kudos for her.”

Next week, Ulik said, volunteers will paint the area under I-90 next to the interchange. The partnership said in a news release that the many layers of paint used to cover up graffiti over the years have made the underpass look like a patchwork quilt. That will all be covered with a layer of gray paint and an accent color.