The Trail skate park project won't fall off the beaten path as council moves into a challenging year of budget decisions, says the Trail mayor.
“Council remains committed to considering the skate park within the financial capabilities of the city,” noted Mike Martin.
“Based on all the initiatives we have sitting in front of us at this time, we will continue to review (the skate park) in the context of our budget deliberations and during our strategic planning session in March.”
With so many pricey ventures on the city's books in the coming months, the future skate park will probably remain far off in the horizon for now.
While the Trail Skate Park fundraising committee remains chipper that the city's new council will consider the project as a priority, a new bridge and new library will most likely be the primary objectives in the next few years.
Martin said the city is facing a fleet of projects, and council has some tough decisions down the road.
“The planning session is certainly the time when we will look at all the initiatives and how we can best address them going forward with what we have available to us through the operational funding of the city,” he said.
At the fundraising committee's monthly meeting last week, chair Scott Daniels, said the group's discussion centred around the lack of funds Trail council has directed toward the area's youth in the last decade.
“And what message they will be sending to youth in their first budget,” he continued.
“A skate park has been discussed for several generations of children and while more than 125 skate parks have been constructed in B.C., parents and grandparents continue to drive their children to use skateparks in Castlegar, Nelson, Montrose and now, Ymir.”
He maintains that Trail's current council can be armed with the 2013 Trail Parks and Recreation Master Plan, which cost taxpayers $80,000, contains six pages of content in support of making the Trail skate park a priority project.
However, the committee still has to raise over $200,000 to meet its portion of the $550,000 proposed project.
“The fundraising committee continues to be hopeful regarding their request to council that 'their' fundraising portion be reset to a realistic, achievable and ambitious goal of $100,000,” Daniels explained.
Grants, corporate and personal commitments for the skate park currently stand at about $63,000.
“In light of repeatedly being told that no other park for children in Trail has required such as large threshold for fundraising, the committee remains positive and looks forward to an encouraging outcome during council's 2015/16 budget deliberations.”