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!
