Pools focus of parks bond

So many letters of the Shakespeare quote on Comstock Pool’s bathhouse are missing that the statement no longer makes sense.

To supporters of a tax increase to make pool and park improvements in Spokane, the unreadable line serves as a reminder of the deterioration that could soon make the pools as useless as the letters on the bathhouse.

City leaders are asking voters for a $42.9 million bond measure that would fix the pools, create a new sports complex and add other park features. If approved, it would be the largest park bond proposal in memory.

The money would pay to replace or rebuild the city’s five outdoor swimming pools and add a new outdoor pool – likely near Joe Albi Stadium – to compensate for the pool that closed this year at Shadle Park. The city also would build 10 spray pads meant to replace the wading pools recently shut down in city parks, allow the city to build a sports complex promised almost a decade ago north of Albi, and improve or build baseball fields across the city.

If 60 percent of voters approve, taxes on a $140,000 property would increase by about $36 a year.

Supporters argue the bond is a small price to pay for maintaining a quality park system, preventing obesity and giving kids healthy summer activities.

“There are times when to preserve this legacy, you have to step up to the plate,” said Jeff Halstead, a former park board member. “Spokane is going through one of our golden eras right now and if we’re not going to do it now, when are we going to do it?”

There has been no organized effort against the bond. Much of the testimony at City Council when officials were deciding if it would go on the ballot was over two controversial proposals that were cut from the list. Most who came to the meetings appeared to favor items that remain.

But some have questioned the final price, especially when taxpayers still are paying off the last parks measure, a $15 million bond approved in 1999 that bought new park land, constructed new parks and paid for several improvements throughout the system.

“I just have a very difficult time accepting $6 million for the cost of a swimming pool,” said George McGrath, who ran unsuccessfully for City Council this summer.

The parks department has estimated that five of the pools will cost about $4.5 million each. The larger Witter Pool is expected to cost $6.5 million.

The projected prices are similar to the $5 million Spokane County is paying for a new aquatics center at 61st and Freya.

Aging pools

Spokane’s first swimming pool opened in 1937 in Comstock Park with the goal of giving kids a safe place to play and learn to swim.

With three of the city’s four other pools also older than a half century, parks officials have been saying for years that the pools are wearing out.

They have had significant repairs and upgrades through the years. Most recently, the 1999 bond included money to repaint and seal the pools – work completed soon after it was approved.

But Tony Madunich, a parks division manager, said at some point patches won’t make financial sense.

Some problems won’t be hard to fix, such as poor lighting and fences that soon will violate new state rules because they’re too easy to climb. Pools don’t have lockers, forcing the city to hire employees to act as property checkers. Some pools have no concession stands.

Madunich said other problems show that major overhauls are necessary. Many features don’t comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Filtration systems, while adequate, are outdated and manually intensive. Gaps in pool floors are widening and harder to seal, allowing more water to leak. Some pipes are rusted and mechanical equipment is inefficient.

“With some of this stuff, if it goes down, the pool’s closed for the rest of the summer,” Madunich said when pointing to a rusty boiler at Comstock Pool while giving a tour.

Only a few specifics are known about the designs of the new pools. A new Witter Pool at Mission Park will stay an Olympic-size venue, but the details of the others are unclear. Aquatics director Carl Strong said he hopes new pools will include designs such as zero-depth entry, which would allow kids and people with disabilities an easier and more gradual entry. Parks leaders also hope for more deck space and added play features.

But they stress that once a bond is passed, design decisions will be made only after consulting neighborhoods.

“We’re going to try to take public opinion into account in everything we do,” Madunich said.

Parks director Mike Stone said the historic bathhouse at Comstock Pool likely will remain or be rebuilt in the same architectural style. Some parts of other pool complexes might be kept, especially at Liberty Pool, which is the city’s newest. But almost everything will be replaced.

Some swimmers criticized the park board when it pulled money from the plan for an indoor aquatics center. They noted that an indoor pool would be open year round while outdoor ones are open for about 10 weeks.

Ann Murphy, who used to coach a synchronized swimming team in Spokane, said swimming teams had difficulty booking pool space even before Shadle Pool closed. However, she said the absence of an indoor pool will not stop her from voting for the bond.

“I will support this because it’s a piece of the whole package,” Murphy said. “If we get step one, hopefully, we’ll get step two.”

Broken promise

In 1999 voters approved the sale of park land to Wal-Mart. City leaders said money from the sale would be used to build a softball complex near Albi Stadium.

In the years since, attempts to build the complex stalled, in part because of opposition that arose from traffic and other concerns. Meanwhile, money from the sale, now $4 million, sat collecting interest.

Earlier this year, Councilman Rob Crow, who led a mayoral committee charged with making progress on the Albi land, finalized a plan that satisfied many former opponents, including the Northwest Neighborhood Council.

However, it costs $7.6 million more than the $4 million the parks department earned from the property sale.

The new park, which partly sits on Dwight Merkel Field, would include improved soccer fields to replace what’s on Merkel field, a softball complex, a skateboard park, a BMX track, a playground and parking lot.

The deal includes adding 14 acres of wooded land the city will get from the adjacent Fairmount Memorial Park in exchange for five acres of city land the cemetery wants in order to build a maintenance shop. Supporters say the exchange will preserve land that’s already used for its walking trails.

Remaining critics of Crow’s proposal were Little League baseball leaders, who said the diamonds they use are in such bad shape that they are unsafe. They noted that there already is a softball complex at Franklin Park and questioned the possibility that beer might be sold at the new softball complex.

Crow hopes many of Little League’s concerns will be eased by including $3 million in the bond measure to build new baseball fields. Exactly where that money will be spent is unclear, but some of it is expected to be used to convert softball fields to baseball diamonds.

Although voters didn’t get what they were promised in the 1999 vote, Crow said he’s confident they will this time.

There were not enough specifics when the first concept was approved, he said.

“This time around, they already have a plan and the cost estimated,” Crow said.

Brushing up Shakespeare

If voters agree, the first new pool would open in 2009 at the earliest, Stone said.

Madunich, who has wanted to restore Comstock’s Shakespeare quote from “The Tempest” for two decades, said he’s hopeful that voter approval of the bond will restore it. The line refers to a character who survived a shipwreck because he could swim.

“Sir, he may live: I saw him beat the surges under him and ride upon their backs.”