The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor City council is set to ban skateboarding at Pioneer Square, asking boarders to respect the costly development while awaiting completion of a park designed just for them. At their regular meeting Tuesday, council unanimously approved first reading of the no-skateboarding bylaw. It is expected to become law as early as Oct. 4. "The whole idea is that we have what should be a centrepiece to our town," said Mayor George Fontaine. "It should be respected. We want to do what we can for all the segments of the town, but (for) skateboarders, we're working hard to try to" build a "proper facility for them." Coun. Karen MacKinnon, who introduced the motion, said there are concerns skateboarders could "very easily" damage the concrete benches at the park, located at the corner of First Ave. and Main St. She said council is asking skateboarders to cooperate with the city "to keep that park beautiful." The bylaw makes mention of the skate park planned for the Queen's Park area, with construction expected in 2012. Mayor Fontaine said the city continues to work "really hard" on the skate park, which he noted is "well over half funded." Isn't an option He said it "just isn't an option" to permit skateboarding at Pioneer Square until the skate park is built, as "that's one place that just won't withstand the rigours" of the activity. "The idea here is that we can get the word out to the kids (to) 'please respect this' and 'we're working as hard as we can to get you what we can,'" said the mayor, adding that he encourages parents to pass the message on to their kids. Though it could be modified prior to final reading, the bylaw does not specifically prohibit BMXing or rollerblading. The city is not necessarily concerned with those activities. "The vulnerable parts of the park are not expected to be the ones that typically would be accessed by a BMXer and probably not by rollerbladers, either," said Municipal Administrator Mark Kolt. "However, because skateboarding tends to be really ambitious about what sort of structures are used, I think that the risk that some of the concrete will be damaged is greater, and this is something which is a very strong concern by those who are on the committee who worked very hard to raise a very large amount of money in order to make that park possible. And this is something that has been repeatedly brought up to different people associated with City Hall." But Coun. Skip Martin asked whether BMXing and rollerblading could be added to the bylaw. Kolt said that could be proposed either that night or at the next council meeting. Coun. Martin chose not to propose any immediate changes. In July, council voted to tentatively sell Queen's Park and invest the six-figure windfall into a skateboard park to be built on the vast green space. Council entered into a memorandum of understanding to sell Queen's Park to the Flin Flon School Division for the assessed value of $102,600. At the time, Mayor Fontaine expressed confidence that whatever legalities remained would be worked out. The concept of a skate park has been around Flin Flon for at least a decade, with this latest push dating back well over a year. Yet council's signing of the memorandum marked the first time that a definitive location, endorsed by the city, was publicly identified.
