A preliminary design scheme showing Hayden Mini Park, a 2.5-acre project the city of Airway Heights is considering for location on its Sunset Crossing property, whose developers dedicated the land to the city for the building of the park.
By CARA LORELLO
Staff Reporter
Administrators of the Airway Heights parks and Recreation Department have been busy the last two months in preparing their separation from the city's Public Works Department into their own, but things won't be official until January 2008.
The City Council approved, on Oct. 1, five new parks, recreation and community services positions, which included department director and supervisor, recreation assistant, maintenance coordinator and parks maintenance over-hire.
Current director J.C. Kennedy said this is the first official council action taken in the process of separation. The approved positions will be filled in-house or be transfers from other departments, including maintenance coordinator.
A separation was needed, he added, to better accommodate the growth and project activity both departments are experiencing at this time. Parks and recreation currently functions as a separate, but mostly secondary, unit within public works.
“The way public works [is] growing, it just made sense to separate the department with the purpose that the park is better maintained, not done as a secondary responsibility for public works.
Safe, clean and green—that's our goal and what we're dedicated to doing here,” Kennedy said, adding officials are already seeing changes in the upkeep of the city community center grounds and improved maintenance in areas along the highway strip.
The department is currently at work on some major projects in consultation with ALSC Architects for developing two city parks recently donated to the city by area developers.
Landreth Family Investments Limited Partnership and Korsumo Inc., according to the city website, agreed to donate approximately 8.56 acres located in the northwest part of town to the city with options to develop a wastewater storage facility and park, or park without the water storage.
Developers of the property generally known as Sunset Crossing have agreed for all future developments of its property, Hayden Homes, shall dedicate 2.5 acres of land and improve the road adjacent to the land in lieu of paying additional park impact fees.
The city shall determine park amenities and improvements based on public need.
Department officials are also awaiting news from Spokane Century West Engineering, the company in charge of design plans for the city's new wastewater treatment plant, on the possibility of including a reuse (or storage facility) pond in design plans for the larger park. Water from the pond could be made available for irrigation uses.
Storage facility ponds are common features included in park systems in other area communities, and were a suggestion to members the park's advisory board.
“It's a real pleasing element to any parks system,” Kennedy said. “Right now the city council seems very passionate about the idea.”
The addition of this feature, however, will require adjustments to the existing design as a change order, which could be a financial burden for the city, he added.
Century West is in the process of putting together preliminary orders for expenses on the addition for council's review next month, though it could take until after the first of the year to know what the final plans are.
For now, Kennedy said the board will likely maintain its current plan for the mini park at Hayden Homes while waiting for further direction from both Council and Century West before finalizing any detail on the other.
“That [added expense] will determine how passionate the City Council is about this…so it will be interesting to see where it goes from here,” Kennedy said.
Cara Lorello can be reached at [email protected]
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