Bike/Pedestrian Trails Would Link Neighborhoods

For the past 10 years, Jacob Laete has bicycled from his home on Spokane’s North Side to his job at Hewlett-Packard in Liberty Lake.

He takes the Centennial Trail all the way out to the Harvard Road trailhead, then bikes south along Harvard toward Interstate 90. Along that half-mile stretch between the trailhead and the freeway, the road’s shoulder tapers down to nothing, he says. As development along Harvard has increased, Laete has had to battle increasingly heavy traffic.

But a solution is in the draft stage.

For the past three years, a group of Liberty Lake residents has been drawing up a plan for a network of bicycle trails throughout their community and connecting with the Centennial Trail.

If that plan becomes reality, Laete said, “It would be the happiest day of my life.”

As planned, the network of bicycle and pedestrian trails would link residential areas - including MeadowWood and the older sections of Liberty Lake - to Pavillion Park and the Centennial Trail.

Friends of Pavillion Park and Liberty Lake Trails Organization are trying to find funding to build the trails.

So far they have not received any state, county or federal funding. The trails that have been built are those in the MeadowWood subdivision by the developer.

In March, a National Park Service representative will meet with citizens to offer advice on applying for federal grants, said Jim Frank, president of Greenstone Corp. and developer of MeadowWood.

Frank has offered to donate right of way to part of the project. MeadowWood already has existing trails throughout the subdivision.

“We feel a real commitment to seeing our trails connected to the rest of the community,” Frank said.

Currently there is a total of about four miles of bike and pedestrian trails in Liberty Lake, he said. The proposed expansion would increase that total to about 10 miles, he said.

The plan to expand the local trail network involves adding separated bike paths along the east side of Liberty Lake Road and along Harvard Road north of I-90 and trails throughout the community connecting to Pavillion Park.

The group plans to ask for funding from the National Recreational Trails Fund Act for the $100,000 quarter-mile stretch along Liberty Lake Road from Sprague Avenue to south of Apppleway.

Last year, the organization applied for state funding, but did not get it.

Next month, the group also will apply for funding from a federal conservative futures program, said Ludlow Kramer, president of Friends of the Pavillion Park.

The trail system is part of a larger, holistic approach to Liberty Lake, he said.

“It’s a confirmation that the total amenities of Liberty Lake will be in place,” he said.

, DataTimes