County Parks to approve Comprehensive Plan

NEWPORT — Pend Oreille County Parks and Recreation is soon to approve its next Comprehensive Plan, a five-year plan guiding the sustainable development and improvement of the county’s parks and recreation system through 2030.

For this Comprehensive Plan, Parks has revised the goals identified in its previous Comprehensive Plan to make them more achievable, Parks director Mike Kirkwood said. With most of its revenue coming from timber harvesting, which is subject to market fluctuations, Parks did not have enough funding to achieve many of its goals within the last five years. And only about one full-time equivalent of Parks staff are paid, including Kirkwood as director and a couple parttime seasonal workers.

Now, Kirkwood said Parks has about $270,000 in funding from past timber harvest sales. Parks also collects revenue from camping fees and grants, the latter of which will fund some of the facility plans and improvements projected within the next five years.

“We want to keep moving the ball forward, even if it’s an inch at a time,” Kirkwood said. “We keep going forward with it.”

Parks has two flagship facilities: Pend Oreille County Park and the Sweet Creek Rest Area. These are the facilities Parks dedicates the most time and effort to for maintenance and improvements, Kirkwood said.

“That’s where we’re putting a majority of our effort into because it’s probably our highest- used facilities,” Kirkwood said.

Off Highway 2 between Diamond Lake and Deer Park, Pend Oreille County Park may receive improvements to signage and campground information, upgrades to campsites that better accommodate larger recreational vehicles and trailers and enhancements to maintenance programs for disc golf course mastication and campsite maintenance. Parks also plans to remove the Park House there and construct a storage facility and washroom.

Parks has fewer goals for its other flagship facility, the Sweet Creek Rest Area along Highway 31 near Metaline Falls. At that facility, Parks plans to install solar-powered lighting, as well as construct a bridge connecting the upper and lower trails into one loop. That project, Kirkwood said, would require “big money” and take Parks at least 25 years to achieve rather than five.

“We’re actively seeking grant money for [Sweet Creek Rest Area],” Kirkwood said.

Another facility may become Parks’ third flagship: Wolfred County Park, a 167-acre property northwest of Newport formerly known as Lake Newport State Park.

“2019, I think, is when we acquired that piece, which is going to be added to our flagship facilities one of these years,” Kirkwood said.

Wolfred County Park is currently vacant, with no amenities or infrastructure. A feasibility study, conducted by the Port of Pend Oreille and funded by a grant, determined that the property could one day house a community forest, recreational vehicle park, sports fields, marina, hiking trails and other features.

However, Wolfred County Park is bisected by a Pend Oreille Valley Railroad line and borders Highway 20, the Pend Oreille River and a few privately owned properties. That means it does not yet have any legal access points.

With consent from the state and certain private property owners, Parks may construct a road for access to the southern section of Wolfred County Park. For access to the northern section, Parks must install a railroad crossing between that section and another Parksowned property. To fund the installation, Parks is applying for a grant from T-Mobile or the Public Works Association.

“My goal as director in my tenure here is I want safe, legal land access to both pieces,” Kirkwood said.

Parks’ common facilities may also receive improvements. Those include Ashenfelter Bay Recreation Area, Yocum Lake Recreation Area, Calispel Trail Recreation Area, the water trail system, public water access points and Batey Bould ORV Parking.

For Batey Bould ORV Parking, Parks has earned at least $10,000 in grants, one from Yamaha Motor and another from Polaris. These will fund the construction of camping and picnic tables, purchase and installation of bear-proof trash receptacles and dust control treatments for air quality and road conditions, expanding options for campers, snowmobilers, motorcyclists and hunters.

Also proposed is the rehabilitation of two facilities: the Goat Viewing Site by Boundary Road in Metaline, and the Sandy Shores Plat public access and boat launch on the Pend Oreille River.

“These are sites that we have that already kind of have some stuff in place on them, but it wasn’t our stuff to begin with,” Kirkwood said. “Some agency transferred it over to us, and not a lot of people have used it for one reason or another, and they’re kind of falling by the wayside.”

Parks may even develop three new facilities: a rifle, pistol and archery range, boat launches on Davis Lake and Riverbend Loop Road and a campground on the Pend Oreille River near Ione. Though Parks does not yet have infrastructure or a site for the range, it does have sites for the boat launches and campground, though all are described as underdeveloped in its Comprehensive Plan. A preliminary design for a turnkey facility for the Davis Lake boat launch was completed in 2020. The campground, Kirkwood said, may become Parks’ fourth flagship facility.

“My future facilities are these parcels, or ideas and concepts, that we would like to do,” Kirkwood said.

Much of the Comprehensive Plan was based on the results of a public survey. Almost 200 submitted a response, more than half of whom were under the age of 18.

This offered Parks insight into the needs and interests of youth, who Kirkwood described as the county’s “leading export” — they grow up here, then move away and never return. Hearing from youth, Kirkwood said, showed Parks how to retain Pend Oreille County residents: good recreation opportunities.

“This all intertwines back into how do we market our county to get people to come here?” Kirkwood said. “How do you get them to stay here? How do you get them to spend money? How do you get our kids to stay here?”