Thoughts on the skate park open house
An artist’s rendering from the Board for Life Society shows the former location for a skateboard park inside Cousins Park, next to Beach Avenue.
Just over a month ago, I wrote in an editorial that holding a ‘design’ meeting on a proposed skate park when there would surely be angry adults in the room would be a bad idea. It was.
On Wednesday evening, the District of Peachland held an open house that was advertised with the tag line ‘Let’s build a skate park Peachland’. Residents in the area of the proposed Lambly Park location were invited to provide input.
Sure enough, one teenager stood up to make a point, a San Clemente Avenue resident got snarky, words were exchanged, the man was chastised, the teen became indignant and it all made me think to myself, “I told you so.”
Council and district staff deserve to have their knuckles rapped for the open house escapade. It was stupid to invite kids to attend, to talk about skate park design, when everyone knew the discussion was going to be all about the location.
Mayor Fielding sent a confusing message when it came to consultation. On one hand he said public input would be welcomed. On the other hand he said there isn’t much sense in talking about location if other acceptable locations don’t exist. Council had the chance to back a motion to seek input before making any financial decisions. That motion was defeated, but soon enough word went out that, of course the town wants to hear from residents about location.
It was said during the open house that Lambly Park was ruled out as a location for a skate park because there was not safe access across the highway. While technically true, the real question is why was Cousins Park chosen?
The answer is that it is a much better location for the kids. There’s washrooms there, there’s a bus stop there. In the summer there is a concession stand across the street and Swim Bay for cooling off. Lambly and Cousins were the only two choices for a location and one was better than the other.
It was also said that adult baseball could not be played at Cousins Park if a skate park was built there. That came from Cheryl Wiebe, director of community services, who said the town has been warned by its ‘risk manager’ that it would be too risky to have kids in close proximity to fly balls.
Understand the district does not have a ‘risk manager’, unless council has hired a new employee and neglected to tell anyone. There are people out there, notably insurance carriers, who love to give their opinion on matters of risk. No doubt they would like to see warnings on toothpicks like, ‘Sharp object, use at own risk.’
Wiebe did say that council could ignore the risk manager’s recommendation. That’s a nice way of saying, “At least that way, my butt won’t be in a sling if things go bad.”
It was noted that council has set aside $225,000 for a skate park and that the old Cousins Park design incorporated features to mitigate the possibility of a kid getting beaned in the head. Wiebe’s point was that the Cousins location would be more costly to build and if mitigation features were put into a Cousins skate park, there would be less money left to build something for youth to skate on.
Isn’t it odd that there was no mention of a ‘risk manager’ seven years ago? Isn’t it odd that Lambly Park was apparently not chosen because of the risk to youth of jumping the highway and therefore the much safer alternative of Cousins Park was chosen, but a little over a half decade later, suddenly Cousins Park is too risky?
Isn’t it at all concerning that putting kids in a skate park in the outfield of the only ball park downtown is far too big a risk without some kind of major financial outlay, yet it is perfectly okay for the same kids to walk along the Beach Avenue sidewalk mere feet away from the old skate park location? Does this risk manager have statistics to show that skateboarders attract fly balls but walkers, kids on bikes and babies in strollers don’t?
Isn’t it perplexing that a sport that is played for two and a half months of the year and only on Wednesday mornings, Friday nights and Sundays during that time, takes precedence over a youth activity that could see kids getting exercise for nine months of the year? Isn’t it troubling that, except for a handful of events, Cousins Park sits idle for 7.5 months?
It was said Wednesday night that skate parks run about $40 per square foot and Peachland is planning on a 5,000 square foot park. That’s slightly less than the area taken up by the tennis courts. That’s pretty small.
Oh, but the town only has $225,000 for a skate park. Really? That’s what council budgeted, but that’s not what the town has. When they were elected, a skate park wasn’t on the radar for council members. The town got a cheque for nearly a half million dollars from Treegroup to go toward amenities and suddenly a skate park became priority number one. Council just chose to budget $225,000. It could choose any number it wants.
Lambly Park is not a bad location for a skate park, unless you’re a resident of San Clemente Avenue. However, Cousins Park has always been and continues to be the best location.
However you feel on the subject, I urge one and all to send their comments to council. They are being accepted until the end of June. The skate park showdown is expected in July.
We shall see.
- Excited
- Informed
- Amused
- Bored
- Sad
- Angry
The average age for a skate boarder is 13.
In Peachland there are 265 males and 270 females between the ages of 10-19.
If 25% of the boys board now or later and 10% of the females board now or later there could be 93 regular users of the park.
If we build it at Cousins Park there will be a definite spike in usership during the summer months due to swim bay.
The swings and slides in Heritage Park are for young families and well worth the 15,000.00 it cost to replace the old setup.
Peach Voice of Reason
Why can’t a kid be a kid? Build the damn Skateboard Park and the kids will come! Every adult can only wish for some of these things that the kids of today have the advantage to have now days.
I think that one reason the Senior Housing is such a BIG Deal on the lake frontage, is because there are a whole lot of kids grown old that still want to have and be some of the pretty people of the town… This is great in one degree and in another// it is self indulgent.
I know that if the urge strikes the managers of Peachland monies Will be fork-out as needed (even double if we go ‘cost-plus.) to build Whatever it is the hits the dicision makers fancy… Have no fear in that! Even//: “Let’s give myself a raise” can fall into this very catigory.
Dave..
From your involvement with with Skateboard park 1.0 Would you have a guestimate of the skate park usage?
How many individuals would use the park and how often and how long? I would hope that the skate park backers have some idea of the most optimistic usage that the skateboard park would have.
Your qualitative assertion “takes precedence over a youth activity that could see kids getting exercise for nine months of the year?” needs some quantitative support.
Would it have more use than the outdoor basketball courts that the youth are scheduled to lose to the subsidized seniors housing? 25% of the use of Swim Bay?
Would it attract more year round activity than the Play Set and slides and Swings in Rotary Park (hope I have the name correct – the park at the south end of Beach)
While I am looking for some facts in support of the argument: How does Taxpayer funded youth activity from Peachland compare with other districts?
Swim bay , in my opinion would have far far far far more use in any single summer month than the skateboard park will have in years or Oliver’s skate board park (for example) would have. Am I wrong?
Will the Skate board park be more cost effective and provide more youth activity opportunities than The Boys and Girls club in the Primary school.
Is Peachland the run away leader in taxpayer funded youth activity? or is it a fact as is generally assumed just focused on seniors?
I’m not going to go into detail answering all of your questions.
Count the number of kids you see playing basketball in Peachland and then count number of kids you see on skateboards. That ought to give you an idea. I suspect a skate park would be well used; no, not as much as Swim Bay in July and August, but more than Swim bay in May and October. I also suspect that the number of skateboarders at a future skate park will be greater than the number of youth who would have participated in curling in Peachland. My opinion, of course.
Sorry for not understanding that what you were saying was just your opinion.
I thought that it would be nice to be able to support your opinion with some facts or studies or any valid rationale that would give credence to your position.
But as it is just an opinion it should be read and evaluated as such.
PVOR…this article was written under ‘Soap Box’…which is an opinion column. Just my opinion.
How many clinics have the Skateboard supporters put on for the students of the Peachland elementary school?
When is the next one scheduled?
There must be a numerous volunteer coaches who would donate their time and expertise to this activity that will soon be the most popular youth activity in Peachland.
That’s the great thing about skateboarding: no adults required.
Kids get a skateboard and they simply start. They practice doing something over and over until they get it right. They fall down, they get back up and try again. At a skate park, the boarders take turns, all by themselves. No adult tells them what to do or when to do it. They just do it.
I’ve sat at skate parks and seen older skaters coaching kids… Hey, you might want to try that this way.
There is no formal instruction. There is no league. There is no adult supervision.
Just more opinion Dave.
A simple google search “Skateboard Clinic” will suggest otherwise.
There may not be a lot of leagues but their are oodles of competitions — mainly organized and run by adults trying to sell skateboard equipment and clothing and various energy drinks and assorted hemp products.
The serious boarders are sponsored and travel to various competitions.
You are assuming that Peachland youth that will be using the park are even slacker than the normal slacker that gets involved in Skateboarding?
Will the Peachland park be designed to host competitions and spectators?
In the Narnia that you envision the Peachland skateboard park patterned after at kids go fishin’ with a branch the cut down for a pole and a diaper pin as a hook. There is never a group of older boarders who dominate the park and send the newbies home crying.
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Kids are smarter and more devious than you give them credit for.
PVOR, if you have a problem with people expressing opinions, I suggest you stay away from comments. That is what they are for.
Let’s try to keep this to the topic: the proposed Peachland skate park. Thanks.
My vote is Cousins Park.
Give the youth (now, and in the future) a nice location to just be a kid!
We all//they all will grow-up and do the adult things BUT will always remember the fun ‘lazy-hasie” days of being so carefree: playgrounds??? —swimmimg, skateboarding and just hanging out with friends.
My Gaud! What’s so hard about that???
Interesting article Dave and it should be read by all Peachland residents interested in the outcome of this process about where to put the skateboard park. Especially interesting is the bit about this “risk manager”. I’m fairly sure you’d find that the “risk manager” is somebody they will have paid for a legal opinion but one would have liked to have been told more about this opinion since they are relying on it to defend their decision not to use Cousins Park.
My wife tells me that she’d seen somewhere else here that someone had spoken to a lawyer who confirmed what most of us suspect that there should be no legal issues about placing the skateboard park in the distant outfield of Cousins Park. (?) Possibly the suggestion of stringing nets between poles might very well be required and was discussed with that lawyer as a way to protect the children but that certainly seems worth pursuing.
I have to wonder if this “risk manager” was told that the skateboard park could be adequately protected from home runs by this net system when his/her risk assessment was given? Anybody care to ask the Mayor or Councillors for more information about the assumptions made in obtaining this risk assessment? I’m not sure you’d get a straight answer from you-know-who, Dave, so perhaps worth going higher up the food chain for information.