Park and recreation district pursues wellness center plan

The dream of a community swimming pool and wellness center is due for a visible rendering, which architects started to get a feel for Tuesday morning in a field of weeds.

In January, the Coulee Area Park and Recreation District awarded the job of helping the community see what could be to NAC Architecture of Spokane.

NAC's Keith Comes and Ryan Palmquist met with district commissioners Bob Valen and Phil Hansen Tuesday. They toured two possible sites for a "wellness center" - the old Grand Coulee Dam Middle School and the more likely site across from the hospital along the highway to Bridgeport.

Standing in that field just south of an old grain storage facility, Comes sketched rough lines on aerial photo of the site, envisioning a facility to house a swimming pool and other health-related facilities.

The land was purchased for that purpose by the local hospital district several years ago. A sign facing the highway declares it the future home of the Coulee Regional Wellness Center.

A feasibility study completed in 2012 concluded such a facility could easily support itself in the area if money could be found to build it, and it would employ more than a dozen people.

The park district obtained a $25,000 grant from the Grant County Strategic Infrastructure Program to get the planning rolling, including planned public meetings to talk about the possibilities.

The project harkens back to the original reason the park district was formed in 2004: to build a community swimming pool. The project has nothing to do with the management of North Dam Park and Event Center, which the district took on during a civic emergency after the city of Grand Coulee abruptly abandoned the park.

With the building of a new school and that has left the old middle school empty, some aspects of a community center may end up in that facility, which prompted park commissioners to ask NAC to explore the possibility of a pool at the west end of the old school.

The Grand Coulee Dam School District has been working with a chamber of commerce economic development committee on other uses for the building, and a meeting of interested agencies is planned to explore the possibilities in March.

NAC will study both areas and work up ideas and initial drawings.