Budget proposal targets Spokane-area projects
OLYMPIA – Here are some of the Spokane-area projects included in Gov. Chris Gregoire’s 2007-09 budget proposal, released Tuesday.
•Continue North Spokane Corridor construction from Interstate 90 to U.S. Highway 395 at Wandermere, including park-and-ride lots: $140 million toward the 10.5-mile, $3.3 billion project.
•Build a new Eastern Washington veterans cemetery in Spokane County: $8 million. Design would start in September, with construction starting by the end of 2008.
•Spokane Indians Baseball: $2 million for repairs to Avista Stadium.
•Help build the Emmanuel Family Life Center to provide social services – after-school programs, child care, education and computer learning – for the African American community in Spokane: $500,000.
•Fox Theater: $2 million to complete the restoration of the Fox Theater in downtown Spokane.
•YMCA/YWCA: $2.2 million toward a planned local joint facility.
•$186 million for work at Washington State University, including $92 million for a new Life Sciences Building at the main Pullman campus and $24 million for a classroom and computer lab at WSU Vancouver. Also: $15 million to replace the utilities under the Library Road pedestrian area in Pullman and $11 million to expand the main campus’ cooling system.
•Design work for a new 70,000-square-foot chemistry and life sciences building at Spokane Falls Community College: $2.5 million. Also $1.1 million to renovate the music building, $941,000 to buy the former Intercollegiate College of Nursing across from the SFCC campus and $1.8 million for more classrooms.
•Design work for a new 70,000-square-foot technical education building for manufacturing, construction and technical training programs at Spokane Community College: $2.3 million. Also $1 million to renovate the science building for a radiology and medical equipment technician program.
•$1.2 million for work at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture.
•Setting up a new program to teach first-year medical and dental students, as well as doctoral nursing students, at Washington State University’s Riverpoint campus in Spokane. Part of a $60 million expansion in high-demand college slots statewide.
•$39 million for work at Eastern Washington University, including $11 million to reconstruct Hargreaves Hall, home to the continuing education program and summer classes. Also: $3.5 million to renovate the 47-year-old Robert Reid Laboratory School at Eastern, which serves as a kindergarten to fifth-grade elementary school and a training site for Eastern students who want to be teachers and counselors.
•Boosting agricultural and alternative fuel research at Washington State University: $7 million.
•Eastern State Hospital: $2.3 million to replace the mental-health facility’s outdated phone and data system, $700,000 to design a new boiler plant and $530,000 to design a renovation of the hospital’s administration building.
•Other state buildings: $1.8 million to finish the Spokane office for the Department of Fish and Wildlife and $270,000 for a new roof for the Department of Ecology office in Spokane.
•Major road repairs, starting in the summer of 2008, on Mount Spokane Road and other state parks roads. Total: $3.7 million.