Architects prepare master plan for Betz Park

The design for the proposed Betz Park is getting closer to its master plan.

Representatives from Sherry Pratt Van Voorhis, the landscape architects for the project, presented to Cheney Board of Park Commissioners three options: 50-Acre Wood, Betz Forest and Full Monty.

Residents attending the May 1 meeting discussed with architects what they liked about each design.

The architects will use the ideas to design a master plan, which will give the city a cost estimate.

“We have a blank slate, and that’s a good thing,” said Ken Van Voorhis, a principal at the architecture firm.

Designers were curious to see the residents’ priorities. The park could be a regional destination, or a community park.

If residents requested baseball and softball fields, designers wanted to know the fields’ size. If they asked for a swimming pool, designers wanted to know whether they wanted a lap pool or a full-service aquatics center. The 50-Acre Wood is the least costly and most bare-bones proposal.

Anne Hanenburg, a landscape designer, presented the 50-Acre Wood, which would have its main entrance on Betz Road, with secondary and tertiary entrances on South Betz.

The design features a large natural area, which includes an amphitheater and a dog park hidden away. It also includes a skate park, basketball courts, two playgrounds, a set of restrooms, walking trails, scaled down ball fields, soccer fields and a picnic shelter.

The aquatics center proposed in the design is the smallest of the three. There is a lazy river, where people can rent inner tubes and float, a zero-entry side of the pool, which starts shallow and gets deeper the farther you move into it and a place for diving and slides.

Betz Forest is a little more elaborate. The primary entrance is in the southeast corner of the park. It includes two buildings for concessions, a pool house and office space, an RV park, basketball courts, parking on the east and west sides and a more elaborate picnic shelter.

The aquatics center includes the lazy river, splash pads, a zero-entry pool, lap pools and slides.

The Full Monty is, as Hanenburg described it, “like Disneyland.”

“It’s very intense,” she said. “There’s a lot of things happening in this space.”

It includes four sports fields, a boulevard-style entrance, baseball fields, a dog park in the natural area including a water park for the pooches and concessions for the ballpark.

The aquatics center in the Full Monty includes a slide, an elaborate lazy river, an indoor pool and more.

Groups represented at the meeting included the West Plains Little League. A spokesman said there are 550 players signed up for Little League in the West Plains and not a lot of fields for them to play on. He added there are 60 games played throughout the West Plains on Saturdays, many of those games in Cheney, Medical Lake and Airway Heights.

There were also swim team parents. They expressed concerns that a nice indoor facility should be built for their kids to get as much practice in as they can.

Julie Poolman-Jackson, a resident of the community, said she would love to see Cheney get a nice aquatics center, but the cost of admission to use it worried her.

“I wouldn’t want to pay $30 to take my child to get swimming lessons,” she said. “If Cheney residents can’t afford to use it, I don’t care if it’s here.”

Paul Simmons, the director of parks and recreation in Cheney, said they are looking into ways to make the aquatics center affordable, much like the Moses Lake aquatics center, which costs about $6 for admission.

Mike Stark, a member of the park board, expressed concern that the city coordinate with the school district to make sure both entities aren’t running bond elections at the same time.

The architects should come back to the park board with a final plan at its next regular meeting, June 5 in the Wren Pierson Community Center.