Huckleberries: Here's how Cd'A parks proliferated

Some know that the North Idaho Centennial Trail was built despite fierce opposition and long odds.

The same can be said of Coeur d’Alene’s renowned park system.

In the mid-1980s, city parkland consisted of four parks totaling 45 acres: McEuen, City Park, Memorial Field, and Sunset Park.

In 1986, a parks master plan, presented to the City Council by Parks Director Doug Eastwood and the Parks and Recreation Commission, calculated the city had a park shortage of 315 acres.

The council agreed in principle to the 13 recommendations made in the master plan but balked at an unconditional endorsement. After all, the council received the plan on April Fools' Day. And it refused to be tricked into going all in when the city had no money for parks.

Also, local building contractors whined that the plan would chase developers out of town.

“I just took a beatdown,” Eastwood told Huckleberries this week.

What happened next would fill a book. And should.

Eastwood and allies found funding sources for new parks. The city began charging for special events and concessions on the waterfront. The city passed a parkland acquisition law that required developers to set aside two — and later four — acres per thousand population for parks, or an equivalent fee.

The council and city planners boarded the park bandwagon. Area real estate agents did, too. The Realtors realized a nice entrance to a subdivision and strategically located parks boosted house sales.

Eastwood pieced together the growing parks funds with a federal grant and land gifts and swaps to open 29-acre Ramsey Park, opposite what is now the city transfer station. Ramsey Park was one of the original proposals of the master plan, as was 3.3-acre Northshire Park, which followed.

Building booms and annexations poured money into the parkland acquisition account.

After 10 years of struggle, the city began to view parks as vital as streets, sewers, water, and streetlights.

The city has built 28 parks since the introduction of the master plan. At one point, the city was opening a park about every 18 months.

The Spokesman-Review was so impressed by Coeur d’Alene’s park system that it dubbed the Lake City: “Park Paradise.” And that nickname still thrills persistent Mr. Eastwood.

Life after cop work

Mary Wolfinger sums up hubby Ben’s life after the sheriff’s office: “He’s LOVING it!!!” The “it” in this instance refers to the former sheriff’s post-retirement career as a substitute teacher for Coeur d’Alene schools. Since retiring on Dec. 30, Ben has taught at all three high schools and four elementary schools. And by next week, he will have taught at all three middle schools. He has handled a variety of subjects and duties, from library to social studies, language arts to music, and fourth grade through high school speech. He has taught 13 of 26 available days. “He comes home and talks nonstop about his day,” Mary tells Huckleberries. He views his work as a privilege. He’s impressed with the caliber of staff and students at our local schools. And one other thing. Since Ben retired, Mary said, his cholesterol has dropped 30 points — “yes, THIRTY points!!!!!” Mary’s exclamation points indicate her approval.

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal/are quite extinct, though famous;/but still breeding prodigiously/is Homo Ignoramus — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Survival of the Fittest?”).

• Huckleberries hears that The Press will soon be getting into the podcast business. Sez Editor Mike Patrick: “One of the people we want to interview, as soon as the COVID coast is clear, is none other than Dave Oliveria.” The Press has a studio that, much like the Death Star, is fully operational. You’ve been warned.

• In the Grownups Acting Like Babies category, a seventysomething burst into Coeur d’Alene post office Wednesday seeing red. Someone had parked too close to her car. And she bawled out the culprit who admitted the felony. To quote a famous line, “Can we all get along?”

• Angela Goodman of Rathdrum offers these Monday musings by daughter Ava, 5: “Why do you spell it O-K-A-Y? It’s just fine with the O and the K!” And: “Why did God make cars go 120, when no one is allowed to drive that fast?” And: “What should we get Daddy for his birthday? If I was an adult and had lots of money, I’d buy him a new gun or a new knife. Or some underwear.” Hmm. Must be silk underwear.

Parting Shot

Todd Banducci, the North Idaho College board chairman whose combative ways have divided trustees, was in hot water seven years ago, too. At a trustee meeting in late winter 2014, he was scolded by then ASB president Benaiah Cheevers for what Cheevers viewed as “inappropriate behavior” and “harshly interrogative” style toward faculty, administrators, and trustees. In response, Banducci told Cheevers that his "indoctrination is clearly complete" and that he has become "a pawn" of college forces. Someone should slip Banducci a copy of “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”

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D.F. “Dave” Oliveria can be contacted at dfo@cdapress.com.