Parks and pathways plan could come in August

A full report on Electric City’s proposed Pathway and Revitalization project could come by late August, city Deputy Clerk Russell Powers said last week.

The Washington State University Rural Communities Design Initiative team will be finishing up its report and then it will be reviewed by Electric City’s community committee. The city council then will review it and it eventually will become part of the city’s comprehensive plan.

The WSU team, made up of Assistant Professor Kathleen Ryan and three students, was in Electric City July 16 for their second community meeting, designed to gather additional comments from residents before finishing up a city pathway and park plan.

The meeting was anything but productive. A handful of local residents continually shouted down comments concerning the trail portion of the study.

They didn’t want any trail to go by their houses or in between their properties and Banks Lake. Concerns included fire danger, drugs, burglaries, and debris.

All of this will be a concern as the WSU team finishes up its report, which addresses much more than trails.

There are two proposed parks — one behind the fire hall and a second near the arsenic treatment plant — sidewalks, design elements at the south entrance to the city, and more.

But the proposed trail became the focus.

Initial comments link a community trail to the Coulee Corridor connection from Othello to Omak, and an opportunity to work with the National Park Service in telling the Ice Age story that would help explain the natural features of the area.

That story would be told at various locations along the proposed trail.

There will be several opportunities to review the progress of the plan as it makes it way through the community committee, the council and before it eventually becomes part of the city’s comprehensive plan.

Only then will the city be able to go after grants to put legs to the plan.