Williams Lake allocates land for BMX/skateboard park

Williams Lake, B.C., is one step closer to having a new BMX/skateboard park in the community.

City council voted to allocate a section of land near the Kiwanis Park in the city's downtown to put the proposed park.

Business owner Mark Savard is one of the people pushing for the addition. He says the proposal came after a Williams Lake teen was robbed of his bike at gunpoint in February.

"The problem with the existing location is that it's up in a forest, close to our liquor store, a convenient place to sit and create trouble," said Savard.

"The new location, it's suggested by the local RCMP because they can patrol it quite easily."

Robbery prompts idea of a new park

After the robbery, Savard was involved in raising money to replace the teen's bike and ended up raising much more money than was needed.

The initial idea was to put in security cameras in the current BMX/skateboard park in Boitanio Park but then the city stepped in to pay for some of the additional security features, so Savard was left with unallocated money.

"I was in the hotspot so I was like, well, let's turn the negative into a positive and either expand the existing park or create a new park."

At the same time as Savard was looking for a way to spend the additional money, the city was making some changes at a ball park in the downtown, and a space became available that he thought would be perfect.

Mayor concerned with location

The only person who voted against allocating the land to the additional skate park was Mayor Walt Cobb.

He said his main concern was that the location of the proposed park is so close to the current tot park and spray park.

"We've had some incidents and somethings that have happened at the skate park and I don't want some of that element to be heading down to where there's little kids playing."

"When you frequent the park, you hear the language, you see things on T-shirts that shouldn't be in public," said Cobb.

"I'm just afraid that there's other things going to happen."

'Brings everybody together'

Savard isn't overly concerned about any risks posed by the planned BMX/skate park, in part because the current skate park will continue to operate.

"It's just common sense that you need healthy activities for the youth in a healthy community," said Savard.

He feels that the majority of city councillors understand the need for the park.

"[It] just brings everybody together, you know?" said Savard.

"It's actually right across the parking lot from our seniors' activity centre so they can stroll over and watch the activities as well."

Now that the location has been allocated by council, the money needs to be raised to make the park a reality.

Savard said he'd like to see the groundbreaking on the project in the new year, but he understands that may not be realistic.

The next stage of the project will coming up with a detailed plan for the park.

With files from CBC Radio One's Daybreak Kamloops

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