Mayor outlines plans for Liberty Lake

About 4,600 people lived in Liberty Lake in 2003. When the city started operating its library that year, Mayor Steve Peterson ordered 10,000 library cards.

Today, he’s still thinking big.

“We’ve created beautiful communities; we’ve tried to focus on what is in the best interest of the citizens,” Peterson said Friday at his annual State of the City speech.

With the city’s population approaching 6,500, a row of large employers proudly stationed alongside Interstate 90 and new public projects lined up on the City Council’s agenda, Peterson’s speech drove home what many in the almost 6-year-old government have said for a while: The ambitious little city is just getting started.

“Our future is full throttle,” Peterson said after outlining the city’s budget and plans for the years ahead.

In June, construction begins on a park in the corner of what city leaders hope will become an urban center for the city, with new library and city hall next on the list of things to build.

There are plans to put power lines underground and spruce up Liberty Lake Road.

A study will look at public-private financing to upgrade the Appleway freeway interchange and develop the land around it.

Just outside the window from where Peterson spoke at the Best Western Peppertree Hotel, a big mound of dirt indicated the second phase of a pedestrian bridge over I-90.

The city’s nine-hole golf course is up to 12 carts, Peterson said, and the parks and recreation department offers small rental clubs and a junior golf program to develop even the kids’ fairway finesse.

“That’s what really drives the desire to be in Liberty Lake,” he said, pointing to the three golf courses in the city limits, a growing parks system and trail network.

During the speech, he handed out a few free passes for the city’s remodeled driving range, where the golf balls sport the logos of some of city’s largest companies.

Those companies and their counterparts bring about 6,000 people in and out of Liberty Lake every weekday, Peterson said before offering one of those 10,000 library cards to anyone who wanted to sign up for one, regardless of their address.

The city employs 18 people year round, with another 20 filling seasonal positions, he said. In June, the city’s police force will grow to nine officers.

Their salaries come from a city budget of just under $12 million in 2007, and in the speech Peterson said $4.5 million of that is set aside in reserves.

“I think that they’re doing a phenomenal job on the planning end,” said County Commissioner Mark Richard, one of a number of elected officials who listened to the speech.

In the future, the city and the county still face challenges as they work to accommodate people moving to the city, he said.

“Growth is coming here, whether people really want it here or not,” he said.

Liberty Lake’s population has increased between 6 percent and 12 percent annually in recent years.

“Liberty Lake is a beautiful, happening place,” said Councilwoman Wendy Van Orman.

In addition to the projects listed by the mayor, Van Orman said she expects the city will soon adopt impact fees for schools, which she said she would support even if neighboring Spokane Valley and Spokane County didn’t.

Van Orman, who is running against Peterson this fall, also said the city should try to work more with people who live beside Liberty Lake, which is outside the city limits.

After the speech, Peterson talked with attendees gathered around a conceptual drawing of the new open space and city buildings planned for a vacant lot behind Albertson’s.

“In five years you won’t recognize the place,” he said, grinning.