Craig Gilbert | [email protected]
Skateboarders, or skaters, grow up watching videos of their heroes making huge tricks.
Once distributed on VHS tape, the viral videos are now ready to roll after a few clicks, and much of it features the “fails” that come in the attempt before success.
The chair of Jasper’s skatepark committee, went big on Feb. 19, asking town councillors to consider shouldering half of the cost of the $700,000 skatepark his group wants to build.
The committee is applying to a $350,000 grant due in the fall, and Darrell Savage said a promise of $350,000 from the town would help.
Savage said it would be conditional on the grant coming through.
At the meeting Tuesday he screened a short film called Push To Heal, produced in part by New Line Skateparks, the company that would build the Jasper park, that outlined the mental health benefits of skateboarding.
Aspects of skateboarding, like the rhythmic clacking of the wheels and the exercise of “pushing” through a skatepark or down the street are good for the parts of the brain responsible for emotional regulation and decision making.
“If you’re paying half price or less for a world-class skatepark, that’s pretty good,” Savage said.
Coun. Jenna McGrath thanked Savage for his personal dedication to the wellbeing of children and said she saw value in a new skatepark behind the elementary and high schools.
Coun. Scott Wilson asked whether the skatepark committee had applied to the “large scale” provincial community infrastructure fund. Savage said when he did, they called him and directed him to the small scale fund, which awarded them $21,000, and gave him other advice.
He said New Line gave the group a list of grant sources to apply to, but some they didn’t qualify for.
Mayor Richard Ireland and Coun. Paul Butler urged Savage to pay attention to the upcoming culture and recreation review, to attend soon-to-be promoted open house events and make the case for the skatepark then.
Ireland also invited Savage to stick around the meeting as the Jasper library, then the Jasper Yellowhead Museum and Archives presented their own budget requests for 2019, $16,000 for the library and about $100,000 for the museum, a doubling over 2018, which itself saw a significant hike over the year previous.
“I appreciate your time on this initiative but there are others here, even today, also looking for support.”
I’m a gasket
The arena’s new Zamboni’s new engine needs a new head gasket, the same part that failed on the last one, because it's leaking oil.
Culture and recreation director Yvonne McNabb said Tuesday the repair would be covered by the warranty, but not until the spring when the ice goes out.
She said the arena has seen “nothing but problems” in the last two weeks. There’s a leak in the refrigeration room, and a liquid feed valve in the machinery inside that needs replacing.
McNabb said the company that would do so has been out a number of times to try and diagnose the problem, unsuccessfully so far. The valve is a new one, replaced along with a set of control systems when the former valve failed. But the new valve isn’t working right yet, and can cause the entire refrigeration system to shut down. She said power issues have contributed, but couldn’t be more specific when asked by Ireland to do so. The last repair cost $14,000, and the system can’t operate without it, she said.
Arena staff are also trying to push the bearings in the main compressor to the end of the season, because it would be a difficult fix with heavy parts.
Swimmingly!
One thousand, two hundred and twenty-two times have young people used their new free pool pass to gain entry since October.
That’s when town council extended the free aquatic centre pass program to all Jasper students up to Grade 12. Until then, students could access the poll until Grade 6.
Coun. McGrath said it’s “amazing” so many young people are engaging in healthy activities.
