Protection from above

Here’s the scoop: No more pigeon poop will fall on people’s heads in the Pavilion at Spokane’s Riverfront Park.

A contractor was hired recently to install a mesh net to keep pigeons from roosting along the pavilion’s internal roof trusses.

“It’s a 100 percent improvement,” said Park Manager Craig Butz, himself a victim of an aerial surprise. “It’s keeping the area so much cleaner.”

The installation, which included a paint job for the steel trusses, cost about $48,000.

Originally built to house the United States exhibit at Expo ‘74, the open-air Pavilion has served as Riverfront Park’s central entertainment venue since the park was created at the site of the former world’s fair grounds. The internal roof was installed in the early 1980s after the Pavilion’s original fabric covering was removed as a result of wind damage.

During summers, the Pavilion houses amusement rides, and in the winter the floor becomes the Ice Palace for skating.

Over the years, maintenance workers have had the unenviable job of cleaning up the droppings from pigeons nesting and roosting in the roof. Parks officials tried to repel the birds with spikes, stuffed owls and even fake snakes, to no avail.

Butz’s team found the solution on pest control Web sites. Nylon bird netting is commonly used by construction crews and in smaller applications by home gardeners. Alpha Ecological, of Spokane, did the work.

“We should have done this years ago,” Butz said.