Votes needed for outdoor skateboard project
By Nelson Daily Staff
The Nelson Skateboard Park is in fifth place in the Aviva Community Fund’s million-dollar question voting.
As of Friday, the submission by the Kootenay Lake Outdoor Skatepark Society (KLOSPS) sat at 1,953 votes, around 1,300 behind the first place leader.
With the next round of voting beginning last Monday, KLOSPS has begun to urge those in the region that care about skateboarding to register and vote.
“We really have the ability to blow this out of the water, but it can’t be done without the help of each individual vote,” said KLOSPS member Julia English in an email to around 5,000 people in the Nelson area.
“It takes no time, and it will make such a huge difference.”
The link to register is:
http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/users/registration/login
The link to vote for the Nelson skatepark project is:
http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf5830
Voting for the semi-finalists begins Dec. 2 at 12 p.m. EST.
Who is KLOPSPS and what are they trying to do?
KLOSPS is run by the Nelson youth for the Nelson youth. The society has identified an unfulfilled need, that is the need for a facility that allows local youth to legally practice and participate in the individual sports they have passionately dedicated so much of their time and lives to.
The need for a skatepark in Nelson is straightforward. Skateboarding has been a very popular and positive part of the town’s culture and for the last 20 or so years, there have been no appropriate legal public places to skateboard.
However, local skateboarders have had no choice but to skate on sidewalks and other locations, which is against city bylaws.
Compare that situation with 16 million enthusiasts nationwide, where skateboarding is more popular than baseball for kids ages 6-17 (National Sporting Goods Association, 2000).
Nelson offers baseball fields, soccer pitches, hockey rinks, gymnasiums and curling rinks but no outdoor public skatepark. The skatepark will be free and open to skateboarders, inline skaters and bikers and will act as a needed anchor for youth activities and energy in Nelson.
About the Aviva Community Fund
Aviva Canada is offering $1 million to lead, empower and support community initiatives across the country through the Community Fund.
Whether it’s a project that will help get at-risk youth off the street and back into schools or other ways to extend a helping hand to those in need, the Aviva Community Fund enables all Canadians to not only submit a cause but also become actively involved in making change happen.
First launching in October 2009, the inaugural Aviva Community Fund asked Canadians to submit their ideas and vote for causes on the competition’s online portal – AvivaCommunityFund.org.
Canadians overwhelmingly answered the call, proposing over 2,000 ideas and casting more than two million votes in support of causes from every province and territory.
In the end, eight winners were selected and the Aviva Community Fund’s $500,000 pledge was immediately put to work on projects such as building a kitchen at a youth centre in Moose Jaw, constructing much-needed playgrounds in Burnaby and Brantford, and building a lodge at a camp for kids touched by chronic illness in Prince Edward Island.
Canada’s most popular entries will qualify for funding and Aviva will ensure the winning ideas receive the financial and practical support they need to get off the ground.
About Aviva Canada
Aviva Canada Inc. is one of the leading property and casualty insurance groups in Canada, providing home, automobile and business insurance to more than three million customers.
Our group of companies has more than 3,300 employees, 40 locations and 1,700 independent broker partners.
Aviva Canada Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of UK-based Aviva plc, the world’s fifth largest insurance group. Please visit our web site at avivacanada.com.
Where is the skateboard park project?
The project is once again stalled as the Nelson and District Recreation Commission await a report on the outdoor skatepark.
Over one year ago City council took the report of its appointed skateboard park committee and made a recommendation to “further explore the feasibility and associated costs of locating the outdoor skatepark adjacent to the entranceway of the” Nelson and District Community Centre, behind the Nelson and District Chamber of Commerce building.
But because the skatepark is currently slated for development on the grounds of the Nelson and District Community Complex, the report on the park is the responsibility of the Regional District of Central Kootenay recreation staff.
That means the skatepark report will fall under the purview of RDCK manager of community services, Joe Chirico.
The skateboard park committee, the NDCC, as well the Recreation Commission were directed to reconfigure a layout of the NDCC’s parking lot to allow for a 10,000-square-foot “destination” venue.
Currently, the grassy site in question at the NDCC would allow for only a 7,500-sq.-ft. park but a 10,000-sq.-ft. one would be desirable.
A bigger park would herald the loss of some parking. The report is also expected to outline the pros and cons of having the regional district run the facility.
If the Recreation Commission decides the skatepark should be an RDCK service, the board of directors will have to draft and pass bylaw to support it.
