Letter Prompts Parks Discussion

t was not your typical letter to Mayor and Council, but it certainly caught their attention. Written by Grade Four student, Mitchell Brown, it asks “Mayor Hall” to consider a skate park in College Heights for “a couple of reasons.” Those reasons include the fact that “skateboarding, scootering, etc. is healthy for you” and “my friends/moms are tired of driving to the skate park downtown” and “there are lots of places close to me and my friends houses to build a new skate park.”
The letter is accompanied by a two-page petition.
It was a letter that garnered a lot of discussion around Council chambers, on the heels of the Parks Strategy. That final report was released earlier this year and identified a number of different kinds of parks, such as nature parks, like Cottonwood Island Park, and major parks, like Lheili T’enneh Memorial Park, and Community Parks, like Duchess Park. A review of all park and neighbourhoods found “… there are significant deficiencies in the College Heights/Beaverly and West Bowl community areas given that there are no available
Community Parks.”
Mitchell Brown’s letter built on that finding for Council.
“That strategy looked at all the parks that we have and what’s missing and what the community wants and what the community wants. And what we really identified is that every major neighbourhood needs is a destination park. A big awesome park that has all kinds of stuff that people can go to,” says Councillor Jillian Merrick. “The Hart has the beginnings of one, Duchess Park very much has one and College Heights doesn’t have one.”  
With budget discussions right around the corner, the letter is timely. But Merrick doesn’t think this budget is the time.
“I don’t think it will be part of the budget discussions coming up, only because it’s going to require some planning. What kind of amenities do we want there, what does the community want? Is this the right location? And, what kind of fundraising and sponsorships can we drum up? And those types of questions take more than a few months to answer.”
She says 2018 will be the time planning and fundraising for such a park in College Heights.