Mt. Spokane to close? Maybe.

It’s on the list, another potential victim of the state budget. Park and Recreation officials will meet today in Olympia and figure a way to deal with a $23 million budget cut over the next two years which includes temporarily closing, or worse, Mt. Spokane State Park .



According to Richard Roesler, as an example of a way to prioritize parks, “commissioners have been given a list of more than 30 ( Ed.—-out of 121 total ) parks, ranked by visitation, where closure would save the state at least $150,000 a year.” Visited by 485, 000 annually, it was the only park in the area that could face closure.

We love Mt. Spokane, even though it’s imperfect . We ski in the winter. We hike during the summer. It was one of our seven wonders . The thought of it closing is extremely damaging to our recreation, our near nature sensibilities so close to home. But local businesses would feel it much worse.

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