To the Editor,
Any facility to help our youth get exercise is a good idea. Building a skateboard park in a residential area is a bad idea.
A huge number of articles exist showing viable concerns on this topic. It is in bad taste to suggest that Lagasse Park is the ideal spot because “fewer residents would be affected.”
Check your St. Paul history and you will see that the park was created by the Lagasse Park Society. Resident of the lakeshore area changed a field of weeds into a beautiful, quiet park that St. Paul can be proud of.
Now that the Town of St. Paul has taken over, it is a great place for people to enjoy. There are plenty of recreational areas where the skateboard park can be built that are accessible and not in a residential neighbourhood.
Stating that the RV campground is “out of the way” says nothing for kids in the west end of town. As the mayor stated, “They don’t want it in their backyard,” which I’m sure most people would agree with.
Build it in a recreational area, not a residential area. For example, the land where the grain elevators were; near the ball fields; by the soccer fields; and the underused campground are all recreational areas.
Building by the schools is a weak argument as well, since summer holidays would be a prime use time.
Rod Ayres
Lakeshore Drive resident, St. Paul
