POST FALLS — Dozens of children played on the new dock at the grand opening of renovated Black Bay Park on Tuesday. 

The celebration marked the completion of phase one of a major upgrade of the 60-acre park. 

Mayor Randy Westlund was pleased with the results.

“I’m very excited to have this, with the pavilion and the boardwalk, all of the improvements that have gone in here making the space more useful, more accessible for people, and expanding that ability for us to come out and do things together and build that sense of community,” he said during his brief address to the crowd. 

Upgrades include paved trails, bridges, a public gas grill, fire pits, a pavilion and public restroom. 

Far and away the most popular new feature of the evening was the new ADA accessible waterfront dock, which lay partially submerged at one end to allow people to stand in a few inches of water but still be on the dock. 

Chris Lemly, who lives nearby, brought his family to the event and appreciated how the project created unity.

“It’s actually brought the community together quite a bit,” he said. “We walk down here once, twice a week and it’s always busy.” 

Phase two of the project will look to add a boardwalk along the Spokane River waterfront and more hiking trails. 

Joy Konynenbelt, who explored the hiking trails, liked the park improvements and said it was nice to have more places to go outside and do things. 

“It’s important, especially for hot summer days,” she said. 

The city partnered with landscape architecture firm Civitas to design the new park. Phase one of the project cost $2,748300.65 and was paid for with park impact fees and a Land and Water Conservation Fund grant said Robert Quinn, Post Falls Parks and Recreation parks planner.  

Among their other priorities when designing the park was to make it ADA accessible, a feature which impressed Petrit Xhudo and Heather Conway. 

“We noticed it was ADA compliable, which is really nice and thoughtful,” said Xhudo and Conway. 

    Rexford Brown, red lifejacket, jumps into the water while playing with the other kids on the dock on Tuesday.