A handful of Inland Northwest parks and trails will look a little different this year as some renovation projects get started and others wrap up.
Some projects will affect the ability to visit specific parks. The day-use parking lots will be closed at Falls Park in Post Falls and Liberty Lake Regional Park.
Other community parks, including Northwoods, Holmberg and Pine River, have received upgrades to their decades-old irrigation systems.
LIBERTY LAKE REGIONAL PARK
Spokane County Parks, Recreation and Golf just began its 2024 parks season, and with that came the start of renovations at Liberty Lake Regional Park. As a result, the park's day-use parking will be closed to the public this summer.The county has been planning for this renovation since 2018 and is glad to finally start work, says Martha Lou Wheatley-Billeter, a Spokane County spokesperson. While the park will be closed to general day use, Wheatley-Billeter says it will still be open to those who make camping or shelter reservations.
Thanks to more than $3 million in funding, the park renovation will include the addition of another restroom, a new dock for kayak launches and fishing, and other quality of life improvements like new lighting, better landscaping, and updated stormwater facilities.
The park will also become more accessible, as about 100 gravel parking spaces will be paved.
Once the renovation is completed by September, Wheatley-Billeter says a second project to update and widen Zephyr Road will begin. She says that project won't have much of an impact on park visitors though, because the construction is scheduled to begin after the park season ends on Sept. 29.
FALLS PARK AND POST FALLS DAM
Community access to Falls Park on the Spokane River will be limited over the next three years, but not because of work on the park itself. Instead, the north channel of the adjacent Post Falls Dam will be getting its first updates in the last 50 years, according to Avista spokesperson Jared Webley.For the last century, the Avista-operated dam has generated hydroelectric energy for customers in the region and controlled the water levels of Lake Coeur d'Alene. The dam's south channel was rehabilitated from 2014 to 2016, but the north channel remained untouched.
"The last rehabilitation on the [north channel] was in the 1970s," Webley says. "We're just working to ensure the reliability of the facility."
This approximately $50 million, three-year project will update the dam's concrete structure and electrical and control systems, and replace nine steel spillway gates and gate hoists. Webley says that the project will be completed in multiple stages to have the smallest possible impact on the dam's operations.
"We're excited we found a way to do it without stopping the dam's operation," Webley says.
Over the next three years, the parking lot will be closed to park visitors as Avista uses the space as an active construction site. Much of the park will remain open during the dam work, but the park's boardwalk and one of its three overlooks will be closed to ensure public safety, Webley says. In the meantime, parking will still be open on nearby streets and near the Centennial Trail.
"It will be a further distance to walk, but a majority of the park will still be open to the public," he says.
NORTHWOODS, HOLMBERG, AND PINE RIVER COMMUNITY PARKS
Over the last few years Spokane County has been working to update irrigation systems in a handful of its community parks.The $675,000 irrigation modernization at Northwoods, Holmberg, and Pine River community parks will allow the county to save water, says Brendan Bemis, operations assistant manager for Spokane County Parks.
However, because the old irrigation systems were installed decades ago, county officials don't know exactly how much water the previous systems used.
"Each of these systems are 30 to 40 years old, so the technology to monitor water usage didn't exist," Bemis explains. "Everyone used to water differently. Basically, you turned the valve and let the water run until the grass looked wet enough."
Now that the systems have been installed — with most work completed in fall 2023 — the county can begin to monitor exactly how much water is used to maintain these parks. Bemis expects the county will gain a clearer picture of water use over the next year or so.
"Our ultimate goal is demonstrated reduction in usage," he says. "But we have to establish a baseline to work from before we can say we reduced water usage. We're just now learning what our usage has been."
Bemis says the new systems will also allow the county to implement a responsive watering approach. The parks will receive less water when it rains and more during sunny days.
SOUTH GORGE TRAIL CONNECTION
Pretty soon, pedestrians and cyclists will be able to avoid long waits to cross the busy intersection of Monroe Street, Spokane Falls Boulevard and Main Avenue, as the project to complete a trail underneath Monroe Street Bridge nears its completion.The trail will connect Main Avenue, west of Monroe Street, to the existing path near the Central Library on Spokane Falls Boulevard.
This approximately $2 million project is expected to be completed in the coming weeks, says Mark Serbousek, bridge engineer for the city of Spokane.
"We've got a few touch-ups to complete, so we don't have an exact date for completion unfortunately," Serbousek explains.
While this trail connection is meant to simplify travel across the busy Monroe Street Bridge and the surrounding area, it will also include a brand new view of Spokane Falls.
"I'm particularly excited about this project because you're gonna see views of the falls like you've never seen before," says Jeff Humphrey, city of Spokane media manager.
Additionally, the connection will finally complete the roughly 3.5-mile Spokane River Gorge Loop Trail through downtown Spokane.
CAMAS MEADOW PARK
This park does not exist yet, but when it's built it will be the first county-run community park in the West Plains area, says Spokane County's Wheatley-Billeter."West Plains has been begging for a park for a long time," she says.
The park will be located along West Melville Road and will cost about $6 million. Although the county has already acquired the 10-acre plot of land for the park, the parks department still needs to hire a designer, which staff hope to find by June.
Camas Meadow Park is expected to open by fall 2025. ♦
