Counting down the days: Liberty Lake will gather Saturday in new Orchard Park

Residents in Liberty Lake’s River District north of Interstate 90 have been eagerly watching construction of the city’s new 11-acre Orchard Park at the corner of Indiana Avenue and Harvest Parkway for the past year. The park will host a brief soft opening ceremony Saturday at 1:30 p.m. to welcome neighbors to explore the new green space.

The city has been asking people to stay out of the park as they seed grass and make other preparations for use, said Operations and Maintenance Director Jennifer Camp.

“They’re counting down the days,” she said.

The work on the north end of the park is almost all complete and is the only portion that will be open. There are four tennis courts that can be divided into eight pickleball courts. There’s a basketball court, a picnic shelter with tables and an 8,000-square-foot splash pad.

The largest features on the sprawling splash pad are several tall apple trees that squirt water. Squirrels cling to the trunks of some of the trees, spouting water from their mouths. The trees were picked in a nod to the park’s name, Camp said.

“This park definitely has a theme,” she said. “The theme out here was orchards and trains.”

There’s also a tricycle path for the little ones, who can ride under several metal arches as they wind through a small maze created by the path looping back and forth. There are grooves and stones embedded in some areas of the path to give a different sensory experience as they are ridden over.

A large playground structure beckons to older children while toddler-age children can use a smaller playset designed specifically for them. There are drums and chimes to bang on to make music. A second picnic shelter sits at the south end of the park, and there are also restrooms and a concession stand.

Trees have been liberally planted, but the grass is newly seeded and will be delicate and easily damaged if people walk on it before it has a chance to get established.

A wide swath of ground that starts small along the west side of the park to the north and then expands to include most of the south end has not yet been seeded, though it will be soon. It’s the area designated as an open meadow and play fields. “We’ll actually rope off the area that hasn’t been seeded,” Camp said.

The park has water fountains, but these are not your grandfather’s water fountains. In addition to the fountain for people, there’s also a fountain for dogs about a foot off the ground as well as a bottle filling station.

Last year the site was simply a field. Neither Indiana Avenue nor Harvest Parkway existed at that location. The land to the east was also an empty field, but now graders swarm the area across the street from the park, putting in streets for a future development. An apartment complex is expected to break ground immediately south of the park this summer.

The city had hoped to finish the park last fall, but there were some delays, said City Engineer Scott Bernhard.

“There were some issues with the Health District with getting the drainage for the splash pad,” he said.

The park land was donated to the city as required by the River District development plan that was finalized by the City Council in 2009. The River District is being developed by Greenstone Corp. on land owned by Centennial Properties, a subsidiary of Cowles Co., which also owns The Spokesman-Review.

The money the city is paying for construction of the park will be reimbursed with money from the Tax Increment Financing and Local Infrastructure Financing funds. The funds collect a portion of property and sales taxes generated within the district that can be used to pay for certain infrastructure projects.

Last year the city believed that the park would have to be built in phases, postponing amenities such as a pavilion, but it hasn’t worked out that way.

“We did have money to put a pavilion in,” Bernhard said. “We’ll probably go out to bid in two to three weeks.”

The pavilion will be just south of the play areas, placed in front of a grassy hill that will provide visitors a good view of what’s happening on stage.

“We’re going to continue adding trees and plants, but the park will pretty much be complete,” Camp said.

The city also partnered with the Central Valley School District to double the amount of tennis courts, which will be used by students at the new middle school under construction just south of the park.

“Central Valley had two of the courts built,” Camp said. “There was originally going to be two.”

Saturday’s soft opening ceremony will be simple and short, Camp said. Mayor Steve Peterson will say a few words and push the button that turns on the splash pad to mark the occasion.

While the north end of the park will be open this summer, the entire park won’t be fully usable as intended until next year, Camp said.

“We will do a formal grand opening next spring when everything is established,” she said. “It takes a whole growing season to get the turf in.”

The city will put in boxes to house the pickleball equipment and people can check out the key at City Hall. Camp said she expects the pickleball courts to be popular.

“Pickleball is huge right now,” she said.

The city also expects the new park to be well used and has hired one full-time maintenance worker and two part-time seasonal employees to look after it, she said.

“It’s going to be a really popular park,” Camp said. “I can see big events being held out here just like we do at Pavillion (Park).”