Landscape architect named to Park Board

A landscape architect is the newest member of the Spokane Park Board.

The Spokane City Council on Monday unanimously approved Mayor Mary Verner’s appointment of Ken Van Voorhis to the board until February 2012.

Van Voorhis, 46, is partner in the firm SPVV Landscape Architects in Spokane and lives near Finch Arboretum. He said he hopes to provide insights on budgets as Spokane’s park system deals with expected shortfalls.

“We’re going to have some fairly challenging years ahead,” Van Voorhis said.

He replaces Elizabeth Schoedel, an attorney who resigned from the board in the fall after the city contracted with her to work with the city attorney’s office on environmental issues involving utility departments, said city spokeswoman Marlene Feist.

Van Voorhis, a graduate of Tekoa High School and Washington State University, worked in the mid-1990s for Robert Perron, the principal landscape architect for Riverfront Park.