Spokane City Councilman Jeff Colliton wants the city of Spokane to consider making a second attempt to develop a Spokane branch of Seattles Pacific Science Center.


Colliton met with staff members of the Pacific Science Center in Seattle two months ago to ask whether they would be interested in participating in another effort to open a science center here.


I asked them if they would still be interested, and they said yes, Colliton says. They said they werent sure what the political climate would be in Spokane, and I said, Let me take care of that. He says he referred the matter to Park Board Chairman Mark Casey.


In September 1995, city of Spokane voters narrowly rejected a proposal under which the Seattle nonprofit organization would have developed a science center here in the pavilion at Riverfront Park. This time around, Colliton wants the city to consider all potential sites for a science centerincluding a site overlooking Spokane Falls where the Saltys at the Falls restaurant did business. The city now owns that land.


Casey says the Park Board wouldnt be interested in being involved in a second attempt to put a science center in the Riverfront Park pavilion. The Park Board would be interested in talking with the Pacific Science Center people about some other effort to put a science center on some other park land or adjacent park land to the pavilion, Casey says. He adds, Weve gone in another direction with the pavilion.


In that new direction, the Park Board is evaluating the idea of moving the pavilions current attractions to the edges of Riverfront Park. That would allow the pavilion to be made into a more placid area, more of a green space, Casey says. He says its been estimated that it would cost $2.8 million to preserve the pavilion complex and make its attractions accessible to the disabled, and we dont have $2.8 million.


The defeat of the earlier science center proposal came even though businesses, individuals, and foundations here had pledged almost $2.2 million for the proposed $10 million project, and state and federal sources had agreed to provide another $3.2 million.


A vocal group worked for the projects defeat, and Colliton says he believes the project failed at the polls because people who take their children and grandchildren to the kiddie rides at the pavilion were unsure what would have happened to those rides if the science center had been approved.


A number of business leaders gave strong backing to the earlier science center proposal, and Colliton says some of them are aware of the efforts hes made recently to have the city take a second look at developing a science center here.