This day in history: City budget cuts impede Riverfront Park attractions. Pasco-Elko air mail on pause

From 1976: The city had always planned to turn the Expo ’74 site into a showcase park.

Now that plan was coming up against the harsh reality of a city budget crunch.

The Spokane Park Board ordered a cutback of $354,950 in facility construction and activities at Riverfront Park. Canceled were a children’s play area, a children’s zoo, improvements to the U.S. Pavilion, some landscaping, and the “activities area above the Spokane Story display.”

These were what the city called “non-revenue-producing activities and facilities.” Revenue-producing items, such as the ice rink, the theater and concessions areas, were still funded.

The shortage came about because the city did not receive the full $3.4 million special park levy money it was expecting. A senior citizen tax exemption cut into the total.

From 1926: The Pasco-Elko airmail route was put on hold for 60 days – just a week after it began – for good reason.

Postal officials ordered new motors – Wright “whirlwind” airplane motors – for the mail planes. This was prompted by the recent incident in which an air mail plane went down in a forced landing on a remote ranch on just the second day of service.

The pilot, who escaped injury, said he had engine trouble, which caused his plane to be short of fuel while trying to evade an oncoming storm.

“The route, we believe is a good one and we are showing our confidence in it by ordering $15,000 worth of new motors,” said an official.

The Pasco-Elko airmail route was important for Spokane, since it would cut days off the time it would take to deliver mail to and from the East Coast.