[Vision2020] Linda Pall Plans to Stay Active in City Politics

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (December 29, 2007) Moscow-Pullman Daily News -

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Linda Pall plans to stay active in city politics

Councilwoman leaving her seat in January, but doesn't plan to disappear 

By Tara Roberts, Daily News staff writer

http://tinyurl.com/22o3o6
Linda Pall is leaving the Moscow City Council after serving for the past
eight years. Pall has served on the council for a total of 18 years,
including two previous terms. (Photo Courtesy: Geoff Crimmins, Daily News)

Linda Pall doesn't mind if Moscow residents don't think about her political
career 20 years from now.

She wants them to see the fruit of her years on City Council instead.

"I want them to look at scarlet oaks on Main Street and people on an ice
rink yet to be determined as they're walking on the Paradise Path, wherever
it goes," she said. "When they listen to the 25th season of the Plaza
Concert Series on a Monday night in July, I hope they'll look up (at the
1912 Center) and they'll say, 'Wow, somebody was really smart to preserve
this old building and to make this a beautiful setting for making Moscow
Moscow.' "

Pall has served on the City Council for 18 nonconsecutive years since 1978.
She was defeated in the November elections, and will officially be off the
council in January.

She may not be sitting at a council post, but residents shouldn't expect her
to disappear from city life. Pall said she plans to keep working on the type
of projects she's championed as a council member.

Parks have been a hallmark of Pall's political career. Mountain View Park
was completed in the early years of Pall's time on the council. She took the
lead of a linear park task force in 1994, which helped create the Paradise
Path that runs through Moscow.

"I'm just obsessed with getting additional parkland for Moscow," Pall said.
"It's right out of the Mark Twain lexicon, where his father told him, 'Buy
land son, they ain't making any more.' ... If we don't do it now, we're sure
not gonna have it."

One of Pall's dreams is to build a children's garden. The "interactive
environment for kids" would have play space, garden plots for growing
vegetables and opportunities to learn about local plants and animals. Pall
said the first step to making a children's garden reality is to find a place
for it, then start writing grants and looking for contributors to fund it.

A sculpture garden and art park also are on Pall's list of dream parks. As
president of Friends of the Dog Park, she hopes to find a place for a second
dog park in Moscow. Finding a permanent home for the Palouse Ice Rink is
also a priority.

"Let's face it - we've got to get that ice rink a permanent home in Moscow,"
Pall said. "They need it; I want it. That's a good combination."

Pall has also been a champion of historic buildings. She helped save the Old
Post Office, which is now City Hall. Pall was the City Council
representative on the Moscow Library Board in 1981, when the city considered
building a new library. Pall and the board successfully argued that an
architecturally compatible expansion should be built on the classic Carnegie
Library.

Pall began working to make the 1912 Moscow High School into a community
center in the mid-1990s. The city purchased the building in 1998, and the
first phase of the 1912 Center opened in 2001. In May, the city turned
control over the building to Heart of the Arts, Inc., an nonprofit
organization Pall helped found.

Pall said she's excited about the continued support for the 1912 Center. The
City Council recently approved renovations for the west wing of the
building's ground floor.

"That's just a total winner," she said.

Pall also plans to lobby for the city to include an in-house economic
development coordinator in its next budget. She said a coordinator would be
able to focus on economic development projects such as a business
improvement district for downtown and the Urban Renewal Agency projects. She
unsuccessfully fought to include the position in this year's budget.

When the next election comes in 2009, Pall may be on the ballot again.

She said last time she took an "unintentional electoral hiatus," people were
soon knocking on her door, asking her to run again.

"If that's the case, I just may," she said.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"If not us, who?
If not now, when?"

- Unknown