Great news for whitewater park backers - the City of Spokane is slated to receive a $530,000 grant this summer to aid in construction of the whitewater project. The grant, approved through the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program (WWRP), comes to the project contingent on a 50% local match; happily, State and private funds already raised by Friends of the Falls can be used to meet these requirements.

This story started in February, 2006 when FOF Executive Director Steve Faust attended a State Interagency Committee (IAC) grant workshop and identified opportunities to fund needed on-shore items including guest facilities, improved parking, and landscaping for the whitewater park project. The only catch: WWRP grants are only made to municipalities. Steve thought a little collaboration might leverage a lot of help from the State, so he pitched the idea to Spokane’s Parks & Recreation Department. With the go-ahead from the City, Steve and Parks officials Mike Stone and Taylor Bressler began working together on the grant.

In August of last year, Steve and Taylor traveled to Olympia to present the grant to the IAC review panel. Note: the joint application was strengthened by the project information Friends of the Falls had already developed, including many of the maps and graphics from the Strategic Master Plan. The review process is always competitive, but the whitewater park ranked fifth out of twelve grants in its category - a great showing, but still contingent on a full State allocation to the IAC’s budget.

Recognizing this, Friends of the Falls worked with Spokane’s local legislators including Lisa Brown, Chris Marr and Timm Ormsby as well as the Governor’s Eastern Washington Representative Sheila Collins to make sure the project was on everyone’s radar. In January, FOF sent Steve to Olympia with the Spokane Regional Chamber delegation to reinforce the message.

With the support of Governor Gregoire and each of our area legislators, we’re happy to report that the WWRP received funding in the Governor’s budget, the House budget, and the Senate budget at levels that will assure the full $530,000 grant for the whitewater park. Now it’s time to make sure the funding survives final budget negotiations for this year’s legislative session.

What can you do? Please call 1-800-562-600 to leave a message for your legislators, Senate and House leadership, and the Budget Committee chairs, and Thank them for funding the WWRP at a level that allows funding for the $530,000 grant for the Spokane Whitewater Park!

On March 17th, the Spokesman-Review published an article that erroneously linked a $7,500 pledge made by developer Mick McDowell to his efforts to gain permit approval for a proposed tower overlooking the Gorge.

Friends of the Falls wants its membership and the community at-large to know that Mr. McDowell’s generous pledge to the whitewater park was made without any “strings” whatsoever – to his tower project or any other effort. We have been unable to discover what the Spokesman’s reporting refers to, whether the City is actually considering his pledge in its deliberations, or how the misunderstanding may have occurred.

Our Board President, Barb Chamberlain, recently penned a Letter to the Editor addressing this matter. If you missed it’s publication or would like to view a copy of the letter, see the link below. A copy of the original article, written by Staff Writer Jonathan Brunt of the Spokesman, is also linked below.

We do wish to take the opportunity to thank Mr. McDowell, along with the hundreds of other community-minded supporters who’ve helped advance the whitewater park project. Such a feature offers Spokane tremendous benefits, and we look forward to making further announcements as we make progress.

Letter to the Editor
Spokesman article

On March 17, the Spokesman-Review published an article regarding a tower project being proposed by developer Mick McDowell that incorrectly linked a pledge Mr. McDowell had made for the proposed whitewater park to negotiations between he and the City over the permitting of the tower.

The Spokesman-Review reported a donation of $7,500 to the Whitewater Park as a condition the City placed in a development agreement for Mick McDowell’s proposed project above Peaceful Valley. (March 17)
We did not—and would not—request that a donation to the Whitewater Park be included in any development agreement, for this or any other project.
Our board considered the McDowell project over a year ago. We take no position on it because we do not see a sufficient relationship between the McDowell project and the Whitewater Park or other aspects of the Great Gorge Master Plan. Likewise, we do not see the Whitewater Park as mitigating neighborhood concerns about the McDowell project.
In our fundraising efforts, we necessarily solicit businesses, including developers. Our fundraising efforts span the community--including neighborhoods, individuals, Avista, Mountain Gear, and others.
These organizations support us without strings attached to their generosity because the whole community benefits when we collectively focus our attention on our beautiful river and its central role in our community’s history, culture, health, recreation, economy, and quality of life.
With the community’s support, we will succeed in activating the river corridor to enhance its benefits for all of us.
Barb Chamberlain
President, Friends of the Falls Board of Directors

Friends of the Falls’ multi-talented Executive Director Steve Faust showed off another skill recently - as shorthand author of a nice article for the Spokesman-Review.

Spokane’s local paper of record has established several new features recently, including a weekly ”TXT” section on web and software-related issues. One segment of the feature involves local businesspeople and notables submitting thoughts on how they use the web, including addresses of sites they find particularly interesting. Our Mr. Faust took it a bit further and offered a nice historical backdrop - dramatic changes his grandmother witnessed growing up in Montana - to our growing information age.

Among the sites Steve likes: On the political front, he lists MediaMatters.org, The Center for Media and Democracy. For urban design issues, Steve included our favorite MetroSpokane, and local firm Studio Cascade. Of course, river issues fill Steve’s life these days, so his column had to include a few select choices - hints on how Spokane might embrace its river opportunities with Denver’s Greenway Foundation, the Teva Mountain Games, and on a regulatory note, the Avista FERC relicencing site.

Last but not least, Steve siezed the opportunity to mention - who else - Friends of the Falls. Thanks, Steve!

Faust’s TXT article (Weblink)