For years West Kootenay communities have grappled with the idea and placement of skateboard parks in the midst of municipal boundaries.
Like Trail and Nelson—who recently broke ground on a new park after years of deliberation—Rossland's park has been booted around for years.
Maybe it is a more difficult concept to comprehend locating a park of any size in the land poor areas like Rossland, but to have a community of this size and no skateboard park available for local people to congregate in and ride is a travesty.
Perhaps it is the “not-in-my-backyard” syndrome, with the parks having a reputation that is unwarranted.
Or maybe it is the cost of such a park, usually in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to pull off a decent and aesthetically pleasing park.
But the time has come to put the skateboard park back on the front burner. It needs to be a priority of the powers that be so that another generation of young skaters does not grow up without a place to ride.