The District of 100 Mile House has designated a portion of Centennial Park for the construction of a new skatepark.
During the Tuesday, March 25 regular council meeting council voted unanimously to designate a parcel of land below the district's outdoor basketball/tennis court to be the site of a new skatepark. They also directed staff to work with the 100 Mile Youth Initiative, a community group raising money to fund the construction of the new skatepark.
As part of adopting the proposal, Pinkney said the 100 Mile Youth Initiative will have to present a proposed design for the skatepark for formal approval by council. They will also have to conduct a geotechnical site assessment before any construction can begin.
100 Mile Youth Initiative co-founder Maria Roddick said she and the rest of the group are excited to finally have a location decided so they can start planning for what exactly they will bring to 100 Mile House. She remarked it was a bit surreal to reach this milestone.
"It's been the result of ongoing conversations as a group since we first started a couple of years ago," Roddick said. "When we first started out I kept saying to myself that (Centennial Park) is the spot that makes the most sense. I wasn't allowing myself to get my hopes up too high because you don't know what roadblocks you're going to run into when you're that early on in a project. I'm ecstatic."
The 100 Mile Youth Initiative was first formed two years ago by Roddick to replace 100 Mile House's old skate park, located by Horse Lake Bridge. Many in the community criticized the skate park's location and small size, noting it only had two ramps and a grind rail. Last fall the skate park was dismantled to make way for the replacement of Horse Lake Bridge, scheduled for this summer.
Roddick said the new location is open for development with only a picnic table and trashcan currently on the site. The youth initiative's next goal will be canvassing the area to talk with local residents who border the north end of Centennial Park about any potential concerns they may have.
"I'm looking forward to that. When it comes to a project like this you are going to run into conflict, there's no doubt about it, and I'm just really looking, if there are any concerns, to talk to residents in that area," Roddick said.
In addition to canvassing, Roddick remarked that she plans to start having more detailed conversations with the Canadian Ramp Company which will help them design the park. When asked if she has any particular features in mind, Roddick told the Free Press all she knows for sure is that the new park will be made of concrete.
"We're not looking for a state-of-the-art skatepark. We don't need to go from having no skatepark to the best skatepark," Roddick explained. "We are just looking for something relatively simple. The design aspect right now we can say with 100 per cent certainty is it will be made of concrete and it will be professionally designed. However it plays out, it will be a ton of fun to use."
During the discussion before approving the site, Coun. Donna Barnett noted that the district should also take steps to consult with those whose homes border Centennial Park. She said council found out the hard way when they planned to install pickleball courts where the basketball court now stands that community concerns about noise need to be taken into account.
"I think this should be presented to the residents before we make a decision because I don't want to go through with what we went through with the last thing we proposed in the park," Barnett said.
Barnett also asked who will be responsible for maintaining the skatepark after its construction, noting that the 100 Mile Youth Initiative would pay for the construction at no cost to the district. Pinkney said that the district's Joint Committee has agreed maintaining the new skatepark could become a function of the joint committee and that maintenance duties would transfer to the district.
Anyone with questions or concerns about the project is invited to contact Roddick via maria.angelina.reti@gmail.com or by reaching out to the 100 Mile Youth Initiative's Facebook page. She noted she is also happy to talk to anyone who would be willing to volunteer as the group begins to move into fundraising mode later this year.
"We've been operating as quite a skeleton crew this entire time, which has been fine. Once we do start fundraising, our grant applications and increasing our community involvement, we definitely are going to need some more hands on deck," Roddick said. "I encourage anyone who is interested in this project to reach out, send me an email and let me know."
