By BRIAN WALKER

Staff Writer

POST FALLS — Post Falls is playing ball on a new 25-acre adult softball complex on the south side of Prairie Avenue.

The City Council has directed staff to seek qualifications from designers for the city-owned site on the north side of the Tullamore subdivision west of Highway 41.

The qualifications will include a design cost estimate, construction bid package, phasing strategy and a plan based on city and community input.

"We hope to have a contract selected by the end of this year," said Parks and Recreation Director Dave Fair, adding that the process will be paid with parks impact fees.

Fair said the design will likely take more than a year to complete and construction another year and a half, so it could be about three years before the complex opens.

"Our goal is to have four or five softball fields, restrooms, a concessions area, maintenance space and parking," he said. "It will be fairly tight."

Fair said it would also be nice to have two multi-use fields, but it's unclear if they'd be a part of the softball fields or separate.

"There's a lot of pieces to this puzzle," Fair said.

Fair said the softball fields are the priority because there is "steady demand" for such a use. Post Falls doesn't have such tournament-ready fields available with the closure of the private Quad Park several years ago.

"We want the new complex to be easy to maintain and able to handle a large volume of use," Fair said.

Ironically, movement on the future softball park comes as the former Quad Park site near the Walmart on Mullan Avenue is being developed into housing.

Fair said the site will likely be built in phases. It's too early to say whether it will have lights when it opens, the type of turf that is selected and other amenities, he said.

Fair said he wouldn't be surprised if the construction cost is at least $3 million.

The complex will likely be built with a combination of parks impact fees, fundraiser dollars and grants.

The city obtained the site from Copper Basin Construction as part of the Tullamore development plan.

Fair said the city was interested in buying Quad Park, but since multiple individuals owned it, the site would have had to been converted to a corporation before the city could purchase it.

"Some believed that move would have been too great of a tax hit, and municipalities can't own stock," he said.