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Check out the eight page Spotlight on the Flinders Ranges and Outback 2006 in this edition of The Monitor
Skate park saga
By Stuart Deed
Skate boarders and bike riders in Roxby Downs are risking their own safety and those of the public by using the town’s streets, pavements and car parks because they have nowhere else to practice their skills. “We want a skate park pretty badly because there’s nothing else left for us to do, especially since the Youth Centre was closed down,” said skateboarder, Brendon Passmore, 14. Photocopies of The Monitor’s front page from the July 3, 2003, have been posted in several places around the town. The front page story concerned a $50,000 State Government grant which had been made available to design and build a skate park in Roxby Downs; in the story the council had agreed to donate an additional $45,000 towards the park. However, nearly three years on and there is still no skate park. Local youths, who currently skate “anywhere we (they) can”, want the opportunity to practice their skating skills in a place specifically designed for the task, instead of on sidewalks and carparks. Roxby Downs Council CEO, Bill Boehm, said building the skate park in Roxby Downs is “a very high priority project”. “This particular project is something I would have liked to have finished three years ago,” Mr Boehm said. Precisely when the park will be built is uncertain because the funding for the project (now expected to be in the region of $120,000) must be approved by the council’s funding partners – BHP Billiton and the South Australian Government. This is expected to happen in the 2006/ 2007 budget and Mr Boehm said the park would be built “as soon as possible after funding is given”. “The council’s intentions on this skate park are entirely honourable but it is a
discretionary project (non vital) and to an extent funding is out of my hands,” said Mr Boehm. Another problem which continues to haunt the possible building of the park is the issue of location – in the original design process the park was to be placed behind the Roxby Downs Area School on the site of the old Community Hall. Mr Boehm said the siting of the park depended on the completion of the BHP Billiton Master Plan, which is due to be finalised by May/June 2006. Roxby Downs Youth and Family Services Officer, Tom Beever, said the failure to deliver the skate park was “the most pressing issue facing the youth and people of Roxby Downs”. “I will be extremely surprised and disappointed if the skate park is not up and going by this time next year,” Mr Beever said. Skate parks in suburban areas often attract police attention but Senior Constable Scott Cheers of the Roxby Downs Police said he would be happy for the youth to have a place to skate safely. “It is going to give the youth in this town something to do – it would be an area where they could meet with one another and call their own,” Constable Cheers said. So why did the other park fall through? The Roxby Downs Council recently commissioned a consultant, Alan Male, to prepare a report on why the original skate park plan did not eventuate. The report states the design for the park was simply too big and expensive – it would have measured 560 square metres, which is bigger than Adelaide City’s North Terrace skate park.
ABOVE...ROXBY DOWNS...skateboarders Samuel Graham, 15, Brendon Passmore, 14, and Jesse Dansie, 14, skate along Richardson Place. LEFT...Brendon, Samuel and Jesse take a break.
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