Airway Heights council hears bond proposals

Future recreation center could have region-wide draw if residents say yes

The Airway Heights City Council received a rough overview of the proposed recreation center project at its March 28 study session.

ALSC architect Ruston Hall cautioned the council that the site and building plans were preliminary and mainly for determining the size of project bond the city will ask voters to approve at the ballot box Aug. 2. Hall presented three different configurations for the building to be built on 70 acres of city property south of Deno Road, west of Northern Quest Resort and Casino and east of Spokane County Raceway.

Based on the center’s size, the council will ask residents to approve a $10 million bond (27,000 square feet), an $11 million bond (29,600 square feet) or an $11.5 million bond (30,800 square feet). Hall said most of the costs, 70 percent, would go to construction with 30 percent taken up by what he termed “project soft costs” such as engineering and design.

Parks and Recreation Director J.C. Kennedy told the council the biggest consideration is that the building needs to have enough space to drive memberships in order to cover its operations and maintenance costs. The two areas that shifted the most in size depending upon layout and features in ALSC’s concept were the fitness area and the natatorium, which in all three concepts would feature a pool for recreation and lap swimming, along with a shallower kids play pool.

Mayor Kevin Richey commented that in a survey done for the city, interest in the recreation center came not only from Airway Heights residents but from others as well, even as far away as the Fairways-area development, Four Lakes and Medical Lake.

“It will be regional,” Richey said, adding the fitness room and pool would be the most important features.

“That recreation pool, that’s what’s going to bring the families,” Kennedy said.

Council members present expressed a desire to proceed with the larger bond, but will make a formal decision at an upcoming meeting. City Manager Albert Tripp said the city had until May 13 to notify the county which measure they would pursue.

Public Works Director Kevin Anderson also briefed the council on other considerations regarding the project, mainly providing sewer service and transportation issues. Water is available onsite, but Anderson said it would not be cheap to run sewer to the site. Anderson gave council three estimates, ranging from just over $3.215 million to about $1.38 million.

“Just know that sewer to the site would be pricey,” Anderson said.

Transportation to the 70-acre park is currently only available off Deno Road, and it may be necessary to extend Russell Street to the site, a project estimated at $4.29 million. Anderson added the project could qualify for funding from the Transportation Improvement Board if traffic volumes justified it, and that impacts to the Hayford-Deno roads intersection would also need to be reviewed.

“There’s going to need to be a traffic study,” he said.

In action items, the council agreed to move a pair of financial measures forward to an upcoming meeting for formal consideration. Council will consider adoptions of financial policies created by clerk-treasurer Amy Wiedrich and the city’s strategic planning team as well as a proposal from Wiedrich to create a capital projects construction fund in order to separate revenues and expenses for projects where the city has received grants.

The council also moved forward a request from Tripp to consider engaging the National Research Center in conducting a survey of residents regarding community priorities and opportunities for improvement.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].

Author Bio

John McCallum, Retired editor

John McCallum is an award-winning journalist who retired from Cheney Free Press after more than 20 years. He received 10 Washington Newspaper Publisher Association awards for journalism and photography, including first place awards for Best Investigative, Best News and back-to-back awards in Best Breaking News categories.

 

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