IRONWOOD, MI - Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - The BSB Skateboard Club met at 4:00 PM CDT yesterday at the Women's Club Room on the second floor of the Ironwood Memorial Building. The meeting began with a discussion about locating the skate park at the Pat O'Donnell Civic Center. Roughly half of the club members would rather have the club at the Civic Center.

Some of the reasons to locate the park at the Civic Center include: (1) Supervision - The Civic Center is supervised. This insures the safety of the skaters as well as protecting the park assets. (2) Availability - The Civic Center could realistically have a skate park up and running by the first of May. (3) More Opportunity to Skate - The indoor facility will open in the spring before it is suitable to open an outdoor park, and close later in the fall than weather would allow an outdoor park to be used.  Rain and excessive heat make outdoor skating less desirable. The Civic Center will not be affected by the weather. (4) Lighting - The outdoor park will not provide lighting. Lighting allows skaters to use the park later in the evening. (5) Disturbances - The outdoor park has neighbors nearby. The Civic Center is enclosed and isolated from any residential properties. Noise is not a problem at the Civic Center. (6) Safety - The Suffolk Street park poses several safety concerns besides the lack of supervision. There is a deep cavern on one side of the park (an old mine shaft) and a busy street leading up to the softball field on the other side. (7) Restrooms - The Civic Center has both men's and ladies restrooms. (8) Seating - The Civic Center has ample seating to host competitive events. There is also plenty of places for parents to sit while their children skateboard. (9) Snacks and Beverages - Skaters can grab a quick snack any time they wish at the Center. (10) Opportunities to Raise Revenues for the Skate Club - The Center allows the Club to better finance itself to improve the park, as well as contributing towards keeping the Civic Center open. Skateboard rental can be offered at the Center. It is possible to eventually put a Skate Shop at the Center as well. Proceeds could help both the Center and the Club. (11) Parking - The Center has ample parking. (12) Maintenance - The Civic Center has staff to maintain the park. The Suffolk Street park will have to be maintained by taxpayer money. (13) Game Room - The Center has video games that can be played by patrons. (14) Music - The Civic Center has a juke box. (15) Low Admission Fee - A reasonable admission fee insures improvements to the park and helps maintain the Center. Both the Club and the Center could benefit from a reasonable admission charge. (16) Summoning Help In an Emergency - Assume a kid gets hurt at the Suffolk Street park. Where does he summon help? Since the Center is supervised, the Center would assure that help was immediately dispatched. (17) Accountability - The Center provides a place for parents to call to get in touch with their kid. (18) Other Activities - The Civic Center may be offering other activities such as in-line hockey, basketball, and RC racing. (19) Organized Competition - Being an indoor park, competition would be easily organized. (20) Out-of-Town Users - Visitors to the area and people traveling just to use the park will help pay for the facility.

The current location for the park was chosen by the Parks and Recreation Committee. Nick Lahti favors the Suffolk Street location.  Benefits he mentioned include: (1) Location - He prefers and outdoor park and the Suffolk Street park is nearby. (2) Previous Efforts - He said a lot of work has already been put into the current location and it would be a waste to give up on the Suffolk Street park. (3) Paying for Staff - He asked who would pay to staff the supervisors of the park at the Center.

City Manager Scott Erickson agreed that staffing at the Center would be a problem.

In reality, the Civic Center already has a full-time manager. Staffing the facility will need to be done no matter what goes in there. Admission fees and the additional revenues generated by locating the park at the Center would finance the operation of the park.

This reporter posed a question of safety. What happens if there were an accident at the Suffolk Street park?

Supporters of the outdoor park said that wasn't an issue.

"What happens if you have to go to the bathroom? Where do you throw your trash?" a supporter asked.

"Most of the parks don't have restrooms or telephones available!" Erickson said.

The very point of the matter is that a park at the Civic Center offers all of these extras that other parks don't have. Just because other parks fail to provide conveniences and adequate safety measures is no excuse for Ironwood to fail as well.

It was brought up that most of the outdoor parks sit empty 90% of the time and are generally heavily vandalized.

Emerson Lemons offered this information, "Indoor parks usually do better. Parents usually feel more comfortable leaving their kids there." He mentioned that his father was stationed in Germany, and a park that was built there was really nice, but soon was covered with profane graffiti.

Erickson told the group that they have a choice to either pursue the outdoor park or explore the Civic Center. He warned, however that a lot of progress had been made on the outdoor park and that those efforts would all be wasted. He asked how the fundraising projects were coming along.

Nick Lahti informed the group that the Car Wash was scheduled for Saturday, April 19, 2008, from between 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM, at Lahti's Chevrolet in downtown Ironwood. Erickson told the group that he was unsuccessful in his attempts to organize a radio interview with WUPM's Chuck Gervasio prior to the car wash. Sam Erspamer will be interviewing a few of the BSB Club members regarding their car wash efforts on Thursday, April 17, 2008, at 8:30 AM on WJMS 590. The group finalized plans and the meeting was adjourned.

Jim Albert