Airway Heights building first recreation facility in West Plains

Work is proceeding quickly on the new recreation center in Airway Heights, with plans to begin moving in equipment and furniture this spring.

The two-story facility at 11405 W. Deno Road also includes 8.5 acres of sports fields for community use. It will be the first facility of its kind in Airway Heights.

“It’s a full aquatic center,” said J.C. Kennedy, director of Airway Heights Parks, Recreation and Community Services.

The building will include a 25-meter, six-lane swimming pool, as well as a children’s water play feature, a lazy river, therapy pool, hot tub and sauna. There will also be a gym, a 30-foot cross training rig, a fitness studio and large spaces for weights and cardio equipment.

There are rooms scattered all over the facility that can be used for birthday parties, meetings and community events. There’s also a spot for the senior meal program. Members will be able to use the in-house child care area for up to two hours every time they visit without any extra charge.

Outside there are several multisport fields - a softball field, a basketball court and a covered picnic area. There’s plenty of room to expand, and there are six building phases planned for the outdoor sports complex as funding becomes available.

“We own 70 acres out there,” Kennedy said.

The lobby area of the facility will be the community’s living room, Kennedy said. There will be seating, a pool table, a pingpong table and a big screen television. People will be able to use that space even if they don’t have a membership, he said.

The idea for a recreation center first surfaced in 2003, but an attempt to pass a construction bond in 2004 failed. The idea simmered on the back burner until the city brought it back in 2016, when voters approved a $13 million bond. Airway Heights also got nearly $200,000 from the state budget for the sports fields and an additional $500,000 from the state for construction of the building.

The final estimated cost of the project is $17.2 million, said Kennedy. The parks department will chip in $500,000 from its reserve fund, and the Airway Heights City Council has pledged real estate excise tax funding to make up the difference, Kennedy said.

The parks department shares a building with the city’s Municipal Court and the Community Center and has virtually no space for programs, Kennedy said. Instead they have relied on an agreement with the Cheney School District to use school facilities for their programs, which include youth from Cheney, Medical Lake and Fairchild Air Force Base.

It’s that agreement that allowed the city to grow their programs big enough to make the new recreation center feasible, Kennedy said. “Things have been steadily growing and growing,” he said. “We wouldn’t be in the position we were without the partnership we have.”

The new recreation center is expected to draw people from far and wide because there are no other facilities like it on the West Plains.

“It’s just something that’s a little bit different than what exists in the region right now,” he said.

Even people living in Reardan and Davenport have expressed interest in memberships, and the city has been planning accordingly, said Parks and Recreation Deputy Director Andy Gardner.

“We serve such a greater area than just our city, and we understand that,” Gardner said.

With a new facility and sports fields, the parks department should also be able to add programs for adults as well, Gardner said. “We’ll have such better engagement with the adults in Airway Heights,” he said.

People can buy monthly memberships or day passes. The cost for a day pass is $6 for youth, $8 for adults and $7 for seniors. Monthly memberships are $24, $36 and $28, respectively, or $61 for a family. The monthly prices for nonmembers are slightly higher; $49 for youth, $45 for adults, $35 for seniors and $76 for families.

Kennedy said an effort was made to keep the prices low. “City Council wanted to make sure it was affordable,” he said.

The city has recently hired new aquatics and fitness supervisors to help run the new programs. Other jobs are still open, and the city will host a job fair Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon at the Airway Heights Community Center, 13120 W. 13th Ave.

If things stay on schedule, Kennedy said he hopes to begin moving in fitness equipment in late March and furniture in early April. There will be a soft opening before the grand opening, but no dates have been set yet.

People have been asking when the facility will open, Kennedy said. “It’s hard to be champing at the bit more than we are, but yeah, people are excited to get the doors open,” he said.

This story ran in print in The Spokesman-Review’s Voice sections on Feb. 7, 2019.