Orv Users Work To Keep Park Open

Off-road vehicle riders are used to uphill climbs. Now they face one of the toughest yet.

Ten ORV enthusiasts met Monday afternoon with Wyn Birkenthal, manager of Spokane County Parks and Recreation, to begin developing a short- and long-term plan to keep Liberty Lake’s ORV park open.

County commissioners decided last week to ban all 4x4s from the park. In addition, motorcyclists and all-terrain vehicle riders must create a park management plan that addresses drainage, trespassing, littering and repairing the boundary fence.

Members of the Brush Bunch Motorcycle Club have created a technical review team that will prioritize the problems and possible solutions.

“We need to develop a park we can all be proud of,” said Tom Hildesheim, who is leading the team. “We can do a lot if we’re given a little free rein. All we’ve been doing for the last 30 years is destroying the park.”

Riders have until Aug. 1 to prove they’ve made substantial progress toward implementing the plan. The final deadline is March 1, 1998. Commissioners can decide to close the park permanently at either of those times.

Out of the brainstorming session came a couple ideas which Birkenthal called good ones: Moving the staging and parking area, and reconfiguring the trail system to include one that would wrap around the park’s boundary.

The goal is to rehabilitate the park in a way that everyone - nearby landowners, county commissioners and users - can live with, said Birkenthal.

, DataTimes MEMO: The Technical Review Team will meet at 2:30 p.m., April 18 at the Spokane County Parks and Recreation offices, 404 N. Havana.