Spokane Parks and Recreation wants to get people outside. Josh Oakes began working at the city five years ago, using his background in recreation and leisure studies to train staff, start new programs and maintain the city's aquatic spaces. (SUMMER SANDSTROM)
What is your favorite summertime activity?
Camping with my family. We'll go fishing and bike riding and hiking, and just get out of town and enjoy each others' company.
What place do you go to every summer?
We like to go to Steamboat Rock [on Banks Lake]when we go camping, so that's one of our typical destinations. It's our favorite because it's got water, it's got trails, it's got the playground, it's got a lot of stuff to do.
What's a water sport or activity that you recommend people try out?
We have, at Spokane Aquatics, an AquaFit program that is a lot of fun. It is low-impact so anybody could do it. We have a really fun instructor who makes it enjoyable and high energy. It's a really fun program for anybody to participate in.
What's a hidden gem for water recreation in the region that people should check out?
I would say Liberty [Park] Aquatics Center is a hidden gem. It's got a vortex, which is a fun feature, it's got a diving tank, it's got a couple of water slides, it's got a play feature with a zero-entry guest area. It's by an amazing park right next to a brand new library.
I've seen articles in the past couple years about lifeguard shortages; is that something the city is struggling with now?
I see the same news articles that you see as well. Fortunately for us, we're not experiencing that. At the height of our season we'll have 200 employees, and we've already onboarded most of our employees for the summer. We're going to overstaff a little bit, just knowing that people want to take vacations, and we may lose people because they might find other opportunities, but we're sitting in a really good position right now for all six aquatic centers and needing 200 employees. ♦
