Sinkiuse Square discussion covers many angles

Parking, bathrooms, transit desk all under microscope at Moses Lake study session

MOSES LAKE — A grand total of three audience members represented the public during Monday evening's study session, but the Moses Lake City Council made progress on the renovation of Sinkiuse Square anyway.

At the study session, the city council considered two issues — whether or not the Square was being redesigned into a park (being comprised primarily of grass) or a square or plaza (being comprised primarily of harder surfaces, with landscaping in the design). The consensus was that the redesign would be a square or plaza rather than a park.

The city council also weighed the issue of maintaining parking versus eliminating parking in the Square.

"We are not, should not, and I don't believe are responsible for providing parking for the post office," Moses Lake Mayor Ron Covey said, noting that postal employees have been informed that the parking across Beech Street is available to them. Covey made that statement following an anecdote from councilman Dick Deane about a Moses Lake citizen who claimed post office employees were utilizing parking spaces intended for customer use.

City councilman Richard Pearce stated, as he has at previous study sessions, his concerns that merchants, who had requested more parking in the downtown area years ago and received it, would be poorly impacted by the changes that eliminated parking spaces

"Once again, I'm afraid that if we really accomplish what we want down here, and we're drawing people to the downtown area, we're going to be in a pinch for parking," Pearce said, noting that he was in favor of saving what parking could be saved in the lot. "I know we're going to lose some of it, and I guess it's just a trade-off that you make, but somewhere along the line, I think we need to consider more parking in another lot down there that won't have the possibility of becoming a square; it will be a parking lot."

Covey responded that the merchants have asked for parking to be provided, back in a time when employees were parking on the street. He said he wasn't certain if the merchants thought it would improve business if more parking were available, or whether merchants thought patrons or their employees would park in the city-provided spaces.

"They requested it, the city did it, they thought it was going to help business — I don't think it did," Covey said. "I don't think it did what they thought it was going to do."

City council members decided by general consensus to have a compromise, and go ahead with the Sinkiuse Square renovation, presently designed to remove eight parking spaces. As the development proceeds, additional parking could be removed, with alternative or underutilized parking lots around the downtown area replacing them.

During the meeting, city council members also addressed a memo written by Vision 2020 the week prior, with the recommendation for 10 essential elements to be included in the redesign of Sinkiuse Square. Those elements included an interactive water feature, restrooms convenient to shoppers that are partially below grade to preserve views of the mural at the rear of the area, and a possible transit center with an information kiosk.

Vision 2020 chair Jacie Daschel said that representatives from the Grant Transit Authority will speak at the next Vision 2020 general meeting, June 21 at 1:30 p.m., with thoughts and ideas on how to improve the city's transit system.

Steve Mallory, project manager and architect with ALSC Architects, has been consulting on the project with City of Moses Lake landscape architect Curt Carpenter and associate planner Lori Barlow.

Mallory addressed the council, saying that the conceptual designs were "a pretty nice job" and mentioned with Carpenter the possibility of combining the restrooms, shown in the designs as being on separate ends of the basalt column wall, in an effort to save money on pipe installation and possibly increase the size of the raised platform stage area.

Another possibility included moving the clock in Sinkiuse Square into the Third Avenue and Ash Street intersection. Councilman Jon Lane said he didn't like that idea because of the potential interuption to the city's stadard parade route. The city council also mentioned the possibility of rerouting the parade route so that it didn't even approach Third Avenue, going along Fourth Avenue and around the park instead.

Daschel and Moses Lake businessman Alan Heroux were two of the members of the public to attend the entire session.

"Actually, it went as expected, and we're moving forward," Daschel said at session's end. "That's the positive thing."

"This city council is very, very positive, forward thinking and moving ahead," Heroux echoed. "They want to see good things happen."

At the end of the hour-and-a-half long study session, the city council directed city staff to incorporate the feedback of the evening into the conceptual design of the renovation, and prepare cost estimates.