Jamestown Skate Park.
After several years of prevarication our Skate Park is at last up and running.
I first heard of the proposed skate park some time prior to may 2008 when local boys in my area were selling raffle tickets to raise money. At that time, all there was to show for the proposed facility were some mounds of earth pushed up in the park lands between Boston Ford and the Catholic Church, and that was as much as was done until one day in late May 2009 when I saw that some bunting and several pieces if steelwork had been dropped off at the site.
Even in the photo below it is apparent from the tyre marks that the kids were just “busting a gut” in anticipation, using the still muddy site as a place to practice
29 may 2009
Nothing more seemed to happen until January 2010 when things started to move again.
02 Feb 2010
Over the succeeding weeks it all started to come together with a Port Pirie firm providing much of the labour and the great work of Ian Garde our local concreter par excellence, seen hard at work below.
12 February 2010
Once the job was started, it moved along very quickly.
15 Feb 2010
It wasn’t until Thursday, 13 March, that I saw it in use, after watching it’s, on again, off again, progress over the last two or more years.
13 March 2010
I must say that on the days that I have been present, I was quite surprised at the good behaviour of the kids using the facility. On more than one occasion, several of the older users (12 -16 year olds) held up the traffic to allow the “littlies” to have a go on their own rather than having to thread their way through the larger and faster traffic.
On every occasion that I have been at the Skate Park, it has been very busy, and already it seems that it will probably need extending when finances allow,… and from what I can see, it seems that provision has been made for this on the Southern side.
I fully realise that as yet, it is only early days, but to me, the money seems to have been well spent. Of course it remains to be seen how the area is treated by those who frequent the area.
My heartiest congratulations to all of those who stuck with the concept through a long and tiring battle to get this great facility for our local kids.
