Ideas of where to put it, what it should be made of, and how it can be funded, were all discussed by a group of youths at a public meeting Saturday held at Youth Innovations in the Seaway Mall.

Youth Innovations leader Ryanne Hale said the initial meeting was meant to help youths express their ideas and concerns about the skatepark — which has to be relocated due to the expansion of Rose City Seniors Activity Centre.

The city has indicated it’s preferred a location is one where concrete is already poured, Hale said, adding if that’s not possible they will assist the youth centre in having it poured.

Still, the centre will have to create fundraising ventures and sponsorship opportunities to help contribute to the cost, she added.

“We want to have the skatepark in an area that’s accessible,” she said, because a lot of the youths who use the current park are too young to drive.

She said it’s important that the park be relocated so youths have somewhere to safely hang out with one another.

“It’s a recreational area too, so they’re staying active,” added Emily Vos, who’s also a leader at the youth recreation centre.

The meeting drew roughly a dozen people interested in sharing their thoughts about the park — including members of the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council.

Ideally, the park will be relocated to an area that’s within walking distance of a store or restaurant similar to Tim Hortons, making drinks and bathrooms accessible, Hale said. The park should also be relatively close to either Welland hospital or a walk-in clinic, in case of injuries.

Ideas for locations were thrown out by attendees, including a portion of the parking lot near the sports complex, the old Phantom Vacuum building, and beside the Lincoln St. plaza where the old Ball Hockey International rink was located.

Brandon Laing, chair of the youth advisory council, said it still hasn’t been determined whether or not money for the skatepark has been included in Welland’s budget.

In response, Hale said she’d be looking into recreational grants the city could apply for in order to help fund the park.

Welland resident Rick Gaskell said it would be beneficial for the city to either build an outdoor cement park, or indoor wooden park. An outdoor cement park would require little maintenance and be a permanent fixture in the city. Wooden ramps are more cost-effective but are only ideal for an indoor park, he said.

Some attendees at the meeting complained about the equipment at the current park, saying the steel ramps are slippery and can be dangerous when any condensation builds. There were also complaints of no lighting.

Hale said some new equipment is expected to be provided by the city once a new location is chosen and planning begins.

Gaskell said an indoor park could be created, along with a stage to host performances by bands to help gain revenue for the city.

If the park was created indoors, it could have set hours and therefore would be difficult to vandalize and easier to monitor, Laing said.

Attendees discussed the possibility of charging an annual fee for the park, keeping it free for children 12 and under.

Kelsie Chasse, a member of the youth advisory council, said concessions similar to the ones at Welland Arena, could be set up to help generate revenue.

It was also suggested sponsorship signs similar to the arena could be used to help support maintenance of the park.

Hale said there would be additional meetings on the skatepark relocation in the near future.

For more information or to share any comments, contact Youth Innovations at 905-735-9009.

mfirth@wellandtribune.ca

[ Welland Tribune ]

After years based away from home, renowned skateboarding legend Claude Regnier has brought the franchise to his hometown of Cornwall.

The 50-year-old and Mary-Beth Lavoie, his girlfriend and business partner, are hard at work building half pipes, flat banks and maybe even a spine at 416 Cumberland St. in a 3,500-square-foot space that could allow up to 35 skaters at one time. The skateboard park is tucked away at the back of a warehouse building at the intersection of Fourth Street.

For the last two weekends the couple has opened up the space to boarders on a limited basis.

They’ve been working through the week to add new features for the next weekend, but already have part of the course done.

Lavoie said there were 32 kids in last weekend using what they could.

It’s exactly what the couple want, to build a haven for young skateboarders and their families during the off-season when weather keeps them away from outdoor skate parks.

“It’s great for the kids, and the more the parents see of it the better,” said Regnier, who has won the Wold Championships of Slalom Skateboarding several times.

Sk8 City has at least one local family using the facility already.

Brad Filion, 29, has been skating since he was nine years old. Now he has three children who skateboard with him at Sk8 City.

He has also been coming in every day while on paternity leave to help renovate the old warehouse.

“I try to help whenever I can,” Filion said. “It’s great for the community.”

Regnier said safety is a priority at Sk8 City. According to the veteran boarder, too many beginners don’t wear pads, end up getting hurt and leave the sport behind altogether.

Sk8 City is designed to be more than just a place to board. It’s a school as well.

Regnier is offering programs he helped develop as a coach in Quebec and Ontario for skateboarders of all ages and skill levels.

“Claude can do a lot with a small space,” Lavoie said. “There will be lots of stations for coaching and teaching. We’ve got programs for serious beginners and the seriously advanced.”

Regnier first became interested in skateboarding in the early 1970s when he saw it on TV.

The clincher came when he was at a friend’s birthday. His friend’s older brother lent Regnier a skateboard.

He gave it a shot and the rest is history.

Unintentionally, Regnier never got the board back to its owner.

Regnier soon bought his own board for $40, quickly found it lacking, then put down $275 for another board. Now he says he is trying to find the owner of that board just to see the look on his face when he sees Regnier still has it. Regnier went on to push for Cornwall’s first indoor skate park at the Bob Turner Arena, but it was soon shut down.

Ever since then he’s been competing successfully, coaching skateboarders and designing and building skate parks.

Sk8 City isn’t a not-for-profit organization, but Regnier says it might as well be.

“You don’t make money running an indoor skate park,” he said.

Regnier says that for years he has been trying to convince different levels of government they should support skateboarding, just like hockey or baseball, to no avail. For more information, call Sk8 City at 613-360-9485 or email Regnier at sk-8-park@hotmail.com.

[ Standard Freeholder, Cornwall ]

Supporters of Pemberton’s proposed skateboard park are firming up design plans for the long-awaited facility and gearing up for a push to secure a chunk of funding needed to complete the project.

A workshop hosted last Wednesday (Nov. 4) by the Pemberton Skateboard Society and the Village of Pemberton drew about 30 participants ranging in age from 11 or 12 to 55 or 60, taking the chance to “speak their minds” about what they want to see in the skatepark being planned for the lot next to the new community centre, said Jeff Clarke of the skateboard society.

Clarke, who said the society volunteers have been pursuing a skatepark for Pemberton since 2003, said the well-attended meeting covered topics such as the preliminary designs, what the community wants to see on the high-profile site to tie together the fun bike and skate facilities, the funding that has been secured so far and how the community can get involved with the push to come up with the rest.

The meeting was the first jointly hosted public planning discussion for the skatepark since the announcement in September that Pemberton had won grants from the federal and provincial governments to cover two-thirds of the cost of the project, or up to $245,236, with the Pemberton Skateboard Society and the Village working to contribute the remaining one-third.

Clarke said those grants are “huge.”

“It’s really our big opportunity to get this done. It’s not something that we’re going to want to miss the boat on because it’s not likely to happen again,” Clarke said, adding that the ball is now in the community’s court to gather its third of the funding to secure the matching grants and make the project happen.

“There’s a big demand in Pemberton to get this done, (and) we’ve had a lot of support from the mayor and council and people from the (Squamish-Lillooet Regional District),” Clarke said.

He and wife Annikka Snow have continued to carry the torch for the project along with skaters in the community, and Clarke said he remains committed because of the unusual and interesting dynamics in skateparks. People of all ages and backgrounds connect, respect each other and enjoy themselves in the facilities, and the parks give people an outlet and a chance to “shine at something” that doesn’t require a lot of equipment and expense, Clarke said.

The skateboard society retained Jim Barnum and Spectrum Skatepark Creations Ltd. to create initial designs, informed by community input, to help draw up a budget to apply for the funding. Clarke said the design is “probably going to change a fair bit before we actually build it,” as the community members and skaters weigh in about what they do and don’t want in the park.

Clarke expects another design meeting will be held eventually to nail down ideas before Barnum finishes the designs.

But first, there’s fundraising to do and donations to seek. Some of the skatepark’s supporters want to host their own events or parties and donate the money to the cause, Clarke said, while grant applications will be made and any community donations of machines, materials or services will be gratefully received to make the park even better.

The current goal is to get the funding nailed down as soon as possible so construction can commence next summer, Clarke said, as the government grants are set to expire in March 2011.

Caroline Lamont, the Village’s manager of development services, said the Village will support the society in fundraising, get a geotechnical quote and discuss project management to help it along.

To see design photos and event information, join the Pemberton Skateboard Society group on Facebook. For volunteering and donations, call Clarke and Snow at (604) 894-5839.

[ Whistler Question ]

The finding essentially greenlights the $500,000 project.

“There is no threat to human or environmental health,” Bob Ostry, senior consultant and hydrogeologist with Stouffville-based AME Materials Engineering, told about 40 residents and skaters at a community meeting Thursday night at Lakeshore Collegiate.

“The levels are low. We don’t anticipate a problem. There is no stress vegetation. The grass is green, the trees are growing, the birds are chirping.”

Consultants found the levels two feet deep in fill soil, the result Ostry said, of a 1977 Islington Avenue reconstruction not from the former tannery operations.

Ground water is not affected, he said.

Low levels are isolated to two small areas in the northwest and northeast of the parkette, outside the proposed 1,875-sq.m. skatepark build area.

A planned site-specific risk assessment will evaluate remediation options, including soil excavation, Ostry explained.

Next comes skatepark design.

Skaters are invited this Friday, Nov. 13 to a skatepark design workshop from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at The Assembly Hall, East Room.

A community working group to design the skatepark will also be struck.

“What should be there? What should not be there,” Ward 6 Councillor Mark Grimes said of the committee’s task. “This (skateboard park) has been very contentious. At the end of the day, we want to work with residents to make it the best it can be.”

Absence of acrimony over the south Etobicoke skatepark follows outrage expressed by residents in 2006 over a city recommendation, later abandoned, to build the skateboard park in the naturalized, lakefront Colonel Samuel Smith Park.

New-age skatepark design incorporates trees, greenspace – even art, said skatepark designer Ariel Stagni with New Line Skatepark, the firm hired by the city to design the Etobicoke skateboard park.

New Line recently designed skateparks in Brantford and London, Ont., and another in Los Angeles.

“When people think about skateparks, they think about old skatepark design of 15 years ago and a lot of concrete,” Stagni said. “Now design is about trying to bring a lot of greenspace into the design, into the skateable space.”

Not all skaters seemed enamored.

“We’re trying to get a skateboard park built that can’t look like a skatepark. It has to look like something else,” said veteran skater Ryan Geluch. “It’s a small piece of land. It looks like the skateboard park is getting incrementally smaller and smaller.”

Some $400,000 is available to construct the skatepark, with another $100,000 budgeted for consultants’ fees, soil testing.

Grimes reiterated a commitment to seek out donations of concrete, as happened with the skatepark built in Ward 32, Councillor Sandra Bussin’s ward.

There, St. Marys Cement donated $250,000 worth of concrete to the 1,935 sq. m. Ashbridge’s Bay Skatepark at Toronto’s eastern waterfront.

Retaining greenspace at the Etobicoke skatepark concerned some residents.

The project dubbed Skatespot at Eighth Street Park’s proposes a skateable space of approximately half of the parkette.

“We’ll retain as much greenery as possible,” Patrick Li, principal with ADA Collaborative Landscape Architects said. “We’ll incorporate a footpath diagonally east to northwest and retain existing trees on the berms (hills).”

Li said he hoped the skatepark design could accommodate the parkette’s existing, relatively new children’s playscape after some residents urged it be retained.

Skater Rob Mark embraced the new location.

“I promise nothing bad will come out of this,” said Mark, who last year sat with 11 others on a community working group that recommended Eighth Street Parkette from an initial list of 20 sites. “Skateboarding is a positive influence. In some kids’ lives, it’s all they have.”

Skatepark designs will be unveiled at a Dec. 17 community open house.

The project then goes to tender, with a contractor awarded by April.

Skatespot at Eighth Street Park could open next August.

[ Inside Toronto ]