Motorsports park offers many opportunities
AIRWAY HEIGHTS – People from all walks of life huddled in the Airway Heights council chambers Oct. 7 to let fly a multitude of ideas for what the Spokane Motorsports Park should eventually look like.
A sports complex, the current drag-racing track and a law-enforcement training center are some of the basic options being considered by Airway Heights and Spokane County.
A crowd of more than 35 parents, drag-strip racers, BMX bikers and even one man interested in growing grain on the property all weighed in throughout the meeting.
“We want everyone to have a stake in this,” said Mayor Matthew Pederson, who answered citizens’ questions alongside Spokane County Commissioners Todd Mielke and Mark Richards.
Many citizens were interested in the options behind the sports complex, which could potentially have fields for youth sports like soccer and baseball. The sports complex, said Pederson, will have a lot of acreage for things like that.
The meeting also brought out a large crowd of people in the drag-strip racing community. “I’ve driven a lot of tracks, and I’d say Kent is fun, but Spokane has a heck of a track,” said Bob Westmoreland, a racer from Spokane.
Richards said one of the county’s biggest interests is having an outside company operate the track, “getting the private sector to pay for people, taking the burden off taxpayers.”
Spokane County was the highest bidder for the park in April, offering about $4 million. Also in April, it was discovered that a well on the property contained trichloroethylene, a chemical thought to cause cancer. Today, park receiver Barry Davidson has hired a local firm to conduct tests on the ground.
“Until they clean it up, they have to know why it’s there, where it came from and how extensive it is,” said John Botteli, Spokane Parks and Recreation Special Projects manager.
The county is deciding on an operator for the park and will make its suggestions to county commissioners by Thursday.
The park had four races this season and hauled in quite a bit of money in a short time.
The city of Airway Heights netted $283,000 during those events from people using services such as hotels, restaurants and gas stations within the city. Thousands of people poured in to watch the races, the last of which was Sept. 27 held by the Spokane Pro Gas Association.
“I’m very excited for the next season, to see what we’re looking at for full operations,” Pederson said.
Races are closed for the season. Volunteers had a cleanup day for the park in September and IRS Environmental hauled off barrels of oil and other debris.
As far as moving forward with their feedback from citizens, city officials said they are working on putting together a group of key stakeholders by November.
Some groups on this board would be Airway Heights, Spokane County, Spokane County Sheriff’s Department, representatives of different Spokane racing associations, representatives from youth sports, and the Kalispell Tribe of Indians.