Electric City looks again at building a park

Electric City is forming a new committee focused on developing a city park, and Electric City residents can be a part of that committee.

At a May 18 special council meeting, the council approved going forward with forming a new park committee focused solely on building a city park. 

Councilmember Brian Buche noted during the meeting that people have expressed interest in taking up the cause again.

Buche was elected as part of a new administration in 2019, including all new council members, a new mayor, and a new city clerk, with the park being a big topic during the election cycle, with many citizens expressing dissatisfaction with paying for the park with tourism dollars.

The new park committee will consist of three to five citizens of Electric City, as well as Councilmember Cate Slater.

Those interested in serving on the committee can contact city hall at 509-633-1510. 

The city currently has $117,289 in a park fund to develop a park on land behind the city fire station, which the city purchased from the Banks Lake Bible Church for $25,000 several years ago.

The discussion of the topic of building a city park in recent years has been controversial. 

The city previously had a grant from the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office that included $257,650 from the state, matched by the city, to build an “Ice Age Park,” with a theme (the Ice Age) qualifying the park for that grant. 

That project progressed so far as to have city officials stand ceremoniously with golden shovels on a plot of land behind the fire station, break ground, serve snacks, and provide an Easter egg hunt for children.

But when a new administration was elected in 2019,the direction of that park changed.

That new city council voted in December of 2020 to stop the Ice Age Park project and to return $28,234.31 of spent RCO grant money.

A city park levy election failed 330-192 in 2020, leading to the decision to stop the project. During that December’s council meeting, Councilmember Brian Buche cited the levy as reason to stop the project, as well as the idea that the park would not increase tourism, which had been used as justification for using hotel/motel money to fund it. The funds collected from motels and campgrounds are supposed to be used to further tourism, and the use of those funds for a city park was controversial.

Councilmember Cheryl Hoffman said the separate municipal park fund had good seed money for a new park project.

“That is in the parks coffer that doesn’t involve tourism money,” she said at that time. “I think that’s a good start for a park that would be an asset to the community. I don’t think we need to use — in my mind, misuse — hotel funds to build a more elaborate, more expensive park.” Other council members agreed with the idea of having a park, just not the Ice Age Park, and not paid for with hotel/motel money.

The council voted 4-1 to stop the park project, with Councilmember Slater voting against the motion.

“It would be a shame to lose that grant,” she said before the vote.