The long-awaited Boise River whitewater park between Quinn’s Pond and Veterans Memorial Park is a construction site today, surrounded by chain-link barriers. A wintry chill kicks up off the water, and the river itself has been diverted through Quinn’s Pond while crews rebuild a century-old diversion dam.
If everything goes as planned, kayakers will be navigating dramatic man-made waves this spring.
And just as the whitewater park is opening, construction could be beginning on Esther Simplot Park.
The city will share its proposed master plan and design for the new park at a public meeting Thursday at Whittier School.
Input from Thursday’s meeting will help the city finalize the plan, which will go before the Parks and Recreation Commission on Dec. 15.
Esther Simplot, widow of Boise business pioneer J.R. Simplot, is best known for her work as a philanthropist, co-founding what is today Opera Idaho and constructing the Esther Simplot Performance Arts Academy and annex.
The park will cover 55 acres — 17 of them water, said Parks and Recreation spokeswoman Amy Stahl. Almost nine additional acres will be riparian natural areas.
The park will be adjacent to the whitewater park in a former industrial area between Main Street and Veterans Parkway on the north side of the Boise River.
WATER, NATURE AND WHAT THE NEIGHBORS WANTED
The Simplot family, which gave $1 million to the city in 2003 to complete land purchases for the park, envisions a “water sports park with docks, areas for slow-water boating, fishing and swimming,” said Stahl.
Besides the water elements, the park will include paths, open meadows, picnic groves and educational features.
Those plans fit with the wishes of neighborhood residents, said Matt Ciranni, president of the Veterans Park Neighborhood Association.
“They were afraid the park would turn the area into another Willow Lane Athletic Complex,” said Ciranni.
Willow Lane, off State Street west of Veterans Memorial Parkway, is dedicated to ball fields and bleachers — and dogs aren’t allowed.
“Willow Lane is great. It serves a need,” said Ciranni. “But people here wanted this park to stay natural, a place to walk their dogs and hike.”
Ciranni said Esther Simplot Park and the adjacent whitewater project will do good things for the working-class neighborhood.
“They’ll bring a lot of people to the area who are interested in what Boise has to offer,” he said.
BUILDING IN PHASES
The river recreation park, the Esther Simplot Park and the proposed Bernardine Quinn Park all could one day be part of an expanded 30th Street community.
Access to the parks would come off a new 30th Street, extended to connect with State Street and Fairview Avenue. That neighborhood redesign is still in the planning stages.
Building the whitewater park is Phase 1 in the creation of the river-park corridor. The whitewater play park will be named for Ray Neef, a Boise native who died in a kayaking accident in Kentucky in 1997.
Phase 2 is Esther Simplot Park. If construction begins by summer 2012, the park could be completed in 2013, Stahl said.
Phase 3 will include improvements downriver from the man-made waves and spectator area now under construction at the whitewater park, including an additional quarter mile of in-river drops and chutes for kayakers. Construction will depend on design approval for the Esther Simplot Park and on money.
FINISHING PHASE 1
Here’s what’s happening to complete the initial phase of the whitewater park:
• Rebuilding Thurman Mill Diversion Dam, which sits near the man-made waves. Crews are now working six days a week to take advantage of low water.
• Riverbank improvements include building two parallel Greenbelt paths so kayakers won’t have to fight for space with pedestrians and cyclists.
• The centerpieces of Phase 1 are the “waveshapers” that will create a 20-foot-wide wave and a 25-foot secondary wave for kayakers 11 months out of the year, depending on water levels.
• Jetties on both sides of the river will make it easier for boaters to get in and out of the water.
• Who’s paying? The city of Boise, the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation and numerous other private donations and grants.
A local organization, Friends of Parks, also has been raising money for the River Recreation Park (www.boiseriverpark.com). For information, or to donate, email beth@markley.com.
Anna Webb: 377-6431
