Wanted: people who care about local parks and recreation
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Last updated 7/26/2023 at 9:33am
Kevin Portch, left, and Brian Warnecke check out electrical outlets in North Dam Park after police told them an electric vehicle had been found charging there, a theft of public power - a new thing for commissioners to deal with. They put a lock on it.
The only reason North Dam Park is still green and lovely is spelled: The Coulee Area Park and Recreation District, an entity run by volunteers, at least some approaching burnout.
CAPRD is an actual government organization, created in 2003 by a vote of the people within its boundaries, which stretch from Disautel Pass to Steamboat Rock, a design intended to give it enough reach to empower everyone to contribute minimal amounts to a collective benefit and initial target: siting and building a new swimming pool.
That hasn't happened yet, but the existence of the district did allow the community to come together to save a place central to recreation and events in the greater coulee area. North Dam Park had been operated by the city of Grand Coulee, which found it too expensive to maintain by itself and dropped it back in the lap of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation after the city realized its lease, and its obligation, was up in 2011.
Enter CAPRD, a local park district with elected officials who could fill the local partner role the federal government needed to get some funding and who could also solicit the help of local people, organizations, and cities to collect the required match for the federal funds.
But the volunteers who have made that work for years are hoping others will come forward to either maintain what's in place or take it to the next level.
"There's got to be more people out there that want to get involved ... and we want to give them that opportunity," said Treasurer Kevin Portch in a recent interview. He and President Brian Warnecke met with The Star to talk about the need for more involvement. Both have been on the commission for years. "This is a maintainable thing. All you've got to do is maintain it - unless you have the wherewithal to make it bigger."
There are possibilitie and funding possibilities, but it takes time. And no one on the board of commissioners signed up to continue after this year, an election year when commissioners should be voted in.
"I mean, everybody that's on that board, it seems like everybody's doing five more volunteer duties [aside from the park district], and then everybody's just spread thin," Warnecke said.
Anyone with an interest is encouraged to contact Warnecke or Portch.
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