Park plan in formative stage

Children might still be dreaming of swimming, even though public pools closed for the season last week.

Well, Spokane Valley’s three pools linger on the minds of city officials, too.

A consultant team has dived into the first steps of a master plan for the city’s parks and recreation system. Once adopted next summer, the plan will suggest ways to make the whole system better, whether that means adding new parks, hosting more events for senior citizens, building a fourth pool or finding better ways to connect citizens with facilities and services that already exist.

The consultants updated the City Council on their progress Tuesday, although their work has just begun.

“All three of your pools are extremely well maintained,” Bob Bignold, of ORB Organization Inc., said. “Even though they’re 36 years old, one wouldn’t know it walking into the pools.”

Bignold said that includes the Valley Mission pool. Several years ago, Spokane County warned that pool was sinking because it was built on a landfill.

“I don’t think that’s a major problem with that pool,” Bignold said, adding that all the city’s pools probably could be used for 10 or 15 more years.

The county planned to replace the Valley Mission pool two years ago. But bids came in over the county’s $1.6 million budget, so the new pool was axed. The county set aside the money, though, and has said it would give it to Spokane Valley for an aquatic facility.

Although the city’s pools got a clean bill of health, the Spokane Valley’s Parks and Recreation Director Mike Jackson said the consultants will look at more than maintenance as they prepare the master plan.

“The condition of the existing pools is just one component,” he said. “We still have to look at the demand for pools and do a marketing study.”

The consultants plan to ask citizens about their aquatic wish lists. For example, would they prefer a water playground with spray hoses and man-made rivers over a traditional, rectangular pool?

Jackson said Parks Department employees had to turn children away on hot days this summer because the pools reached capacity. Bignold told the council there might be ways to allow more people into the pool facilities at one time without making major changes.

“The fences could be expanded. You could bring lawn area into those pools,” he said.

Jerry Draggoo, of Moore Iacofano Goltsman Inc., is gathering information on the city’s parks and other recreation offerings. He said at first blush, Spokane Valley’s park-acreage-to-person ratio is “a fairly low number.”

Spokane Valley has 118.5 acres of developed parkland, or 1.47 acres per 1,000 people. By comparison, Spokane has 8 acres per 1,000, Coeur d’Alene has 4 acres and Post Falls has 16 acres.

Draggoo said further study could find that 1.47 acres is sufficient, though. In the past, Jackson has said that could be because residents use school playgrounds, parks in neighboring jurisdictions or private recreation programs.

Draggoo said the city might decide on other guidelines, such as aiming to provide parks within walking distance of all neighborhoods, rather than setting an acreage-per-resident goal.

Citizens can tell the city how they feel about parks and recreation starting next month. Randomly selected households will receive a written survey in mid-October. The city also will hold public meetings this fall to hear from anyone who wants to have a say.

The dates and times of those meetings will be posted on the city’s Web site, www.spokanevalley.org.

“Watch for those meetings,” Jackson said. “Be thinking of parks and recreation needs.”