Funds For Pools, Parks Improvements Sought

Parks officials are asking Spokane County commissioners to approve two new swimming pools, $1.5 million for a new senior’s citizen center and redevelopment of Valley Mission Park.

The projects would unfold over the next four years. Under the capital improvements plan, interim repairs to the county’s four swimming pools would come this year.

The senior center would be built at the proposed Mirabeau Point and would replace the current center, which was built over an unstable landfill.

“It would be a wonderful asset,” said Fran Boxer, head of county parks, recreation and fair. The county’s $1.5 million would likely be added to money from the late Hank Grinalds, a Valley developer who wanted to see a new senior center built.

Commission chairman Phil Harris said the county has been remiss in its maintenance of its four pools. He said he wants to improve care.

“We take nickels and dimes from kids going to the pools, then don’t keep them up,” said Harris.

The commission will likely take public testimony on the proposed parks improvements in mid-January, Harris said.

Commissioners might approve money for the plan as early as Tuesday, Boxer said.

The plan also must be approved by the county planning commission.

All four county pools - Valley Mission, Terrace View and Park Road and the North Side’s Holmberg pool - would be renovated this spring.

“The idea is continuous uninterrupted pool usage,” said county parks manager Wyn Birkenthal.

The $700,000 renovation pot will mean at least plugging cracks in the aging pools. Most certainly need repair. The Valley Mission pool has leaked up to 50,000 gallons a day, Harris said.

“They are near the end of their usable life span,” said Birkenthal.

A new Valley pool would go under construction in 1998. The site is uncertain, Birkenthal said.

The following year, a new pool would go in on the North Side. Each new pool carries a $1 million price tag.

Commissioners first saw the proposed capital improvements plan in December. The plan also involves projects to which the commissioners have already committed, including $1 million for Mirabeau Point infrastructure, $450,000 for an expansion of Plante’s Ferry Park with a soccer complex, and $250,000 for a new North Side park.

, DataTimes