Small Town News

Council approves match for 50-acre park grant

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After the Cheney City Council approved certification of a grant match at its Tuesday meeting, one more hurdle remained for the first phase of Cheney's Betz Park to become a reality: the state budget.

"The good news is it's currently in both the Senate and House budgets," Parks and Recreation director Paul Simmons said of the $500,000 grant the park was set to receive after being ranked second of all parks applications by the state Recreation and Conservation Office.

While the high ranking would normally guarantee funding, tight state budget times threatened the entire grant fund, but now things look brighter.

The grant requires a 50 percent match, which Simmons said would come in the form of utility infrastructure work by EaglePoint apartments in lieu of park mitigation fees as well as a $10,000 grant from Farmers Insurance. The rest of the match, $300,000 of the required $500,000, would be contributed by the Cheney School District's proposed project to build sports fields on a 20-acre parcel of land that currently contains Crunk's Hill.

"The remaining $300,000 would come in the form of an in-kind donation of soi1, both gifted to the city as well as transported to the property from the Cheney School District," he said.

The district had planned to construct the fields this summer, and the proposal was approved by the Cheney Planning Commission Monday, but has yet to come before the council for final approval.

The council tackled a short list of resolutions at the meeting, starting with an extension of a contract with Spokane Recycling Products to collect the city's recyclables through 2013. It also approved a resolution to

continue as a part of a consortium of small cities in Spokane County that participates jointly in the state's Community Development Block Grant program. The program has funded many street and water improvements as well as the Cheney Outreach center in recent years.

The council also heard several presentations at Tuesday's meeting, including a presentation by Eastern Washington University professor Rodger Hauge, who told the council about plans to build an alternative energy site on the EWU campus behind the stadium. He said the site would include a classroom and several renewable energy technologies, including solar panels and wind machines with the goal of teaching young students about engineering.

Simmons told the board about a $35,000 grant Cheney was competing for on Facebook through the Sprite Spark Parks program. He said the funds would build a basketball court at the proposed Betz Park and encouraged people to log on and vote for the project. He also told the council that construction at the Wren Pierson Building was coming along well, with an opening planned sometime mid-summer

Finally, Mayor Tom Trulove spoke on the city's role in the Cheney Rodeo and the new Cheney Jubilee event, both planned for the second weekend in July.

"There's some ugly rumors going around town about the city and the rodeo and I just wanted to assure everyone," he said, noting that the city would coordinate the annual Rodeo Parade Saturday, July 9 in downtown Cheney. The Rodeo will be July 8-10 at the Bi-Mart arena just north of Cheney. He said the city was not involved in the Cheney Jubilee, which has planned a barbeque competition, car show and other events at the Safeway parking lot July 9-10.

"It's a non-profit operation. It isn't the city of Cheney. Their idea is to have something for people to do in town and close it down in plenty of time so ev-eryone can get out to the rodeo grounds and enjoy in this annual activity, which we hope every-body does," he said.

Becky Thomas can be reached at becky@cheneyfreepress.com.



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© 2011 Cheney Free Press Cheney, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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