The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Neighbours convince council to move skateboard park Continued from page 1 3 · Thursday, June 3, 2010 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.oakvillebeaver.com not be bothering any residential and the kids can have a lot of fun," he said. The issue of the skateboard park in West Oak Trails has drawn considerable community attention in recent weeks with residents living directly adjacent to the park calling for its removal. These residents have stated that since the skateboard park's construction in July of 2009, at a cost of $110,000, the constant noise, particularly at night, combined with late night partying taking place there has made it difficult for them to enjoy their properties. "The noise from the skateboard park is continuous, it's violent, it's harsh, it's different from the other activities in the park and it really disrupts the life of the residents around the park," said area resident Craig Ferguson at Tuesday's meeting. "We aren't able to enjoy our backyards. We aren't able to sleep with the windows open and it can be heard inside the house at times. It really is a different type of noise." Ferguson said he would have reconsidered his decision to move to the area had he known a skateboard park would have been built there. He said the skateboard park has become a magnet for bad behaviour with alcohol and drug use becoming a problem there in the evening and early morning hours. At last week's meeting of the Community Services Committee (CSC) the Town's Director of Parks and Open Space Chris Mark said the Town had been unable to curb this rowdy behav- ERIC RIEHL / SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER ON THE MOVE: West Oak Trails Park skateboarders like Thomas Nason will soon have to move with the skateboard park to Palermo. iour in the park despite spending $15,000 on additional security patrols in 2009 and $2,000 in 2010 so far. During last week's meeting, those who used the skateboard park appropriately during the day said they were being punished because of a few bad apples. Others said skateboarders were not responsible for the bad behaviour in the park at night, stating other parks without skateboard facilities have similar problems. None of these viewpoints were heard Tuesday night, however, as no West Oak Trails Skate Park users spoke before council, much to the dismay of Ward 5 Councillor Marc Grant. "I'm disappointed we don't have any of the youths we had at the CSC meeting because I think we're really just hearing one side of this at the end of the day. The question I'm having is when do we stop doing this? We put in the skate park where it became popular with four year olds, five year olds. It's a place where 10-12 year olds know they can go to have fun and still be home in time for dinner and now we're moving it across a highway, Dundas Street," said Grant. "We had an e-mail today where somebody was complaining that there was a football tournament on a football field over the weekend and they want us to look into that. Where do we stop telling kids they can't do things in Oakville because it ruins our enjoyment of the community?" Elgar said all of the West Oak Trails Skateboard Park users he'd asked at the CSC meeting said they had no problem with the park being moved to Palermo Park provided there was as little downtime for the skateboard park as possible. Even Heather Conway, who collected more than 200 signatures calling for the park to be retained, said during the CSC meeting the Palermo location would work for her and her family. Not everyone felt the same, however. "Moving it even further north and putting it away from people is defeating the purpose," said skateboard park user Josh Ranells, 25, following the CSC meeting. "There needs to be a skate park where there are people. Having a skate park where there are no people is pointless. I'm compassionate towards the people who live in the area. I understand it is different from Shell Park. They moved in and then a skate park was built, but where I live I have a neighbour who plays the bagpipes all the time. I'm not going to call the cops on him, he loves to do it." Ward 5 Councillors Grant, Jeff Knoll and Ward 3 Councillor Keith Bird attempted to defer the decision until Halton police had an opportunity to comment on the issue, but this effort was not successful. Town staff did examine the possibility of erecting an acoustic wall around the skateboard park, but the estimated cost of doing this was between $35,000-$50,000 with no guarantee it would work. There were also concerns about the wall's appearance, that it might attract graffiti and serve as a place for youths to hide to engage in inappropriate behaviour. The West Oak Trails Skateboard Park's concrete pad may be utilized for others sports in the future. Ferguson said he is fine with this possibility, though he did point out that if asked to choose between a basketball court and a tennis court, he would choose tennis.