A controversy that split the town

The battle for McEuen Field officially launched 15 years ago today.

A sign-waving crowd of 300 hooted and whistled for nearly three hours May 24, 2011, as the City Council mulled a conceptual plan to overhaul the cherished park.

The crowd demanded a public vote on the contentious issue.

But the council voted 5-1 to push ahead without one.

The controversy split the town. And it led to unsuccessful 2012 recall efforts against Mayor Sandi Bloem and councilors Deanna Goodlander, Mike Kennedy and Woody McEvers.

Kennedy was warned that he would lose his council seat if he backed the McEuen makeover.

“It’s sad to hear,” he told the angry crowd. “But I don’t care.”

Veteran Councilman Ron Edinger was the lone dissenter. He, too, wanted a public vote. To resounding cheers, he roared: “I’m in total opposition.”

Opponents, according to the Coeur d’Alene Press, claimed that the plan was too expensive, that it would change Coeur d’Alene into a theme park destination, and that it didn’t represent community values.

Others saw the McEuen proposal as a plum for “high rollers.”

“They want all the waterfront,” one man testified. “How selfish is that?”

State legislator Kathy Sims threatened to ask the attorney general to check for possible conflicts of interest. She claimed several city officials had ties to downtown businesses.

The modern McEuen Park likely wouldn’t have survived a public vote.

Bitter foes poisoned public opinion, claiming that the park would cost $40 million. “Why pay $40 million to build a park that’s already a park?” they argued glibly. The final price tag, however, was around $20 million, half of which paid to upgrade Front Avenue and to sink public parking below street level for better views.

Now, of course, McEuen Park is a greenbelt paradise drawing tens of thousands annually to the waterfront. An expanded playground, vast veterans plaza, tennis and pickleball courts, dog park, public art and other amenities have replaced tired, underused ballfields.

The battle for McEuen Park took a toll, though. Councilman McEvers won re-election. But Mayor Bloem and council members Kennedy and Goodlander never ran again.

The trio, however, picked the right hill to sacrifice their political careers on.

Postal Pioneer

Mabel Chase of Post Falls didn’t choose to be a trailblazer.

She simply wanted her husband to pass his examination to become a mail carrier. So, she helped him study. Then, tragedy struck.

After World War II, with the help of his wife, Max Chase scored the highest grade on a post office exam and was in line for an open route. But, in 1948, Max and a friend died in a fishing accident on Lake Pend Oreille.

His widow was left with two little boys, a mortgage and a car payment.

“I loved those little kids, and I didn’t want them to go without,” Mabel, then 82, told The Press in May 1996.

Mabel had one thing going for her. She had already studied for the postal examination.

Encouraged by friends, she aced the exam and became the first Idaho woman to work as a rural mail carrier.

For 23 years, she delivered mail six days a week, through snow and rain, heat and gloom of night. Her Route 1 covered Hauser Lake and parts of northern Post Falls and Rathdrum.

In 1972, she retired.

Later, she said, “Early retirement with full annuity I tell you that’s a pretty good piece of pie.”

On May 15, 1996, the Post Falls Historical Society honored Mabel and her pioneering career.

Paper Or Plastic?

Tim Roberts surprised himself 40 years ago when he won the first Northwest competition for boxing groceries.

On May 18, 1986, young Roberts, a Coeur d’Alene High sophomore, bagged 25 items in 51 seconds to claim the regional title at the Spokane Coliseum. According to The Press, he received bonus points for weight distribution and for not placing vulnerable items, like bread and eggs, beneath canned goods.

As his reward, Tim won a stereo, a large perpetual trophy shaped like a grocery bag, and a trip to the West Coast finals in Portland later that summer.

“The average person wouldn’t think it was so big,” said Tim, who worked for Ron McIntire’s Super 1 in Coeur d’Alene. “For me, it is though. Bagging is not as easy as it looks.” Sometimes, he told The Press, he visited other grocery stores to see how baggers “flipped” items — the practice of tossing an item from one hand to the other before gently bagging it.

Today, of course, plastic has replaced paper, customers carry out their own bags — and grocery boxers have largely gone the way of Schmucker’s Snack ‘n Waffles.

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: Of all sweet smells / that May renews / my favorite is / the barbecue’s — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Fragrance of Spring”).

• Old No. 17: John Friesz, the Coeur d’Alene High and NFL star, corrected fans often. Since he graduated in 1985, many thought he was part of Coach Jim Clements’s state championship team that year. But his senior football season occurred in fall 1984. As a JV, however, he was a backup QB for the 1982 state title team. On May 23, 1991, John became the first CHS footballer to have his number (17) retired.

• Did You Know? The foundation for the Cedar’s Floating Restaurant used the same technology as The Coeur d’Alene Resort golf course floating green. When the eatery opened at the mouth of the Spokane River in 1965, it rested on a base that made landlubbers sick, according to one food reviewer. In May 1991, the bobbing base was replaced by a 600,000-pound Styrofoam island encased in concrete that stabilized things.

• All Fall Down: Originally, the 20 acres formerly owned by the Aryan Nations were to be used as a human rights camp for children. As demolition day arrived May 23, 2001, however, human rights leaders debated the best use for it. Ultimately, they decided to destroy it all, including artifacts and trees carved with swastikas. It became a Peace Park and later was sold for cattle grazing. Today, no semblance of its turbulent past remains.

• Catching Heck: Mark Fuhrman, who died in Kootenai County May 12, angered Spokane police with his 2001 book: “Murder in Spokane: Catching a Serial Killer.” The ex-Los Angeles police detective claimed Spokane cops failed to catch Robert L. Yates two years sooner because they relied too much on technology. A Spokane officer replied: “We’re proud of the fact that we caught our killer … and Mark didn’t.”

Parting Shot

It’s easy to take Forest Cemetery for granted. The grass is always mowed. The graves are tidy. The park setting is peaceful.

As Memorial Day 1981 approached, however, the town was up in arms. Weeds crept up the sides of gravestones. Tiny American flags were hidden by tall grass. An elderly woman complained that she tore away weeds to see her husband’s headstone.

Some groused that the director of recreation, parks and cemetery paid more attention to the softball fields than the burial ground.

The mayor blamed the problem on rain and forced layoffs of half the cemetery staff.

But Beverly Hagadone, who had 18 relatives buried at Forest Cemetery, wasn’t buying excuses. She said: “Some people told me they would have gotten their own clippers and cut the grass around the graves just so it would look better. If only (the city) had told them.”

Unsurprisingly, the city found the money to pay for extra help to bring the cemetery “into tip-top shape” for Memorial Day.

• • •

D.F. (Dave) Oliveria can be contacted at [email protected].

    Nathan Baker lobbies for a skate park at the new McEuen Field in 2011 as dozens line up to object to a plan to overhaul the park.
  

    In 1996, Mabel Chase of Post Falls was honored as Idaho’s first female rural mail carrier.
  

    Tim Roberts displays his championship style as he bags groceries at Coeur d’Alene’s Super 1 in 1986.
  

    Coeur d’Alene High tennis coach Ron Estep, left, congratulates John Friesz in 1991 after the school retired the former star’s number (No. 17).
  

    Workers secure a line to a manmade island that would serve as the new foundation of the Cedar’s Floating Restaurant in 1991.
  

    Human rights leaders Tony Stewart, left, and Norm Gissel talk outside the former Aryan Nations compound, which was demolished in 2001.
  

    Mark Fuhrman, author and disgraced former Los Angeles police detective, signs autographs in 2001 after the release of his third book, “Murder in Spokane: Catching a Serial Killer.”
  

    Chris Wilbanks, 17, of Coeur d’Alene places an American flag at a veteran’s tidy gravesite to prepare for the 2018 Memorial Day. The city cares well for the hallowed ground today. But in 1981 it didn’t.