Drawing of former proposed skate park in Cousins Park, Peachland. (Van der Zalms and Associates)
So it begins again.
The idea of a skateboard park in Peachland has surfaced for the second time in a decade. The first suggestion was followed up and pursued by a group of volunteers, including kids. It crashed and burned, divided the town and left a group of people saddened and disillusioned.
This week it came to light that Peachland council members are now considering a skate park as a worthwhile project. The announcement by Mayor Keith Fielding means, once again, the hopes of local kids will be raised. It also means the ‘anti’ group will mobilize, brushing up on the innuendo, stereotyping and misinformation that was so much a part of their campaign last time around.
Though many thought otherwise, the right location was chosen the first time. However, it is unlikely this council will consider for very long Cousins Park again, given the small group of vociferous Beach Avenue residents who raised a stink before.
There are few places in Peachland acceptable for building a skate park. There are likely no locations available that will please everyone.
Hopefully, this time around, if Peachland council really is determined to do something for kids, the rhetoric will be tamed, the name calling will abate and we can, as a community, do something really wonderful.
- Excited
- Informed
- Amused
- Bored
- Sad
- Angry
How many people will use the facility?
Is there any left over organization from the first time to push council to get this built?
I see two petitions that would hold weight with council:
1) I will use the the skateboard park – name , address and age.
2) I support the building of the a skateboard park in Peachland.
Anything with over 100 names on petition 1 would go a long way to giving the council support to stand up to the people that will say it is a waste of tax payers money.
We should use that same petition for giving away expensive property to the seniors center on Beach Ave.
I agree with Deb. I often see the Oliver scateboard park in use. It’s simple and a similar design would work just as well in Peachland.
Bob
It looks like the name calling has already started in this article !
By the tennis courts makes a lot of sense.
That park is under used other than people walking the path. It has high visibility and accessibility.
Wash room facilities to be shared by the boarders and the tennis players would make sense.
The City of Calgary has mobile skateboard facilities. Would it make sense that we try out a temporary facility and see that there is an actual demand? It would be nice to have confidence that it was used. I have never seen the skateboard park in Oliver along Hwy 97 being used.
As our officially sanctioned and district funded youth group has the Boys and Girls club had any involvement? input? request for the funds to be spent on the primary school instead?
Will the youth be too busy hanging around the multitude of activities to be provided at the Primary school to go skateboarding?
Interesting. Every time I have gone to Oliver that skateboard park is packed with kids. One time at 8:30 in the morning – granted it was a Saturday, and during the Summer it was full on any given day I passed. One kid had on roller blades and was using it. As for graffiti in the parks, Oliver had none and I’ve never seen any there.
I live there part-time and very rarely do I see it used. Please note all the paint on cement – wonder what that is covering up??
http://www.skateparktour.ca/index.htm
You don’t find very many that haven’t been jazzed up with graffiti. I think it will come with the territory.
Put it in the right spot again, end of story, the complainers on beach ave now have their walkway and their slower than slow traffic, they can trade that off for something for the kids.
Where is the right spot?
No matter where it will be suggested there will be opposition. One thing I find intriguing is the murals of art work that get displayed on the concrete around these sites. Some of the images are very impressive.
Would the area around the tennis courts be an option?
Still downtown and rear where the kids hang out already.
At least that would close enough to your house Dave so you could get some good practice time in.