What is this project about?
The Alexandria Skate Park is a municipal asset extensively used by youth in the community and adjacent areas. During COVID-19, the skate park was one of the facilities available to the youth to exercise in a socially-distanced manner. To date, the Alexandria Skate Park Committee has been created, a presentation was made to Council and a resolution was approved by Council to support the park and apply to funding opportunities. Engineering plans have been paid for and created for the expansion. Geo-technical study and soil sampling date obtained. A survey was commissioned and completed for the project.
The expansion of the existing Alexandria Skate Park, located in Island Park in Alexandria will see the surface increase by nearly 200% from 3,525 sqft to 9,670 sqft.
Presently the skate park is adequate for one user at a time which is less than ideal with COVID-19. The creation of new platforms and obstacles allows for more skaters to use the asset in a safe manner at the same time.
The project has a dedicated website - https://alexandriaskatepark.com/
Why is this project important to the community?
The proposed park will allow for multiple users at the same time with segregated starting and resting locations, increasing the open usable area for multiple users on the course at the same time while maintaining social distancing, which is especially important during COVID-19.
The new course is designed with inclusive accessible diverse obstacles at 2021 standards of skateboarding that allows for the continued growth of the sports for all ages, genders and abilities.
The skate park encourages more people to be active, opens new career opportunities and creates lifelong connections. Schools have included skateboarding in their sports curriculum; the skate park creates future learning potentials through skate schools, skate camps, and is now accepted by a large majority of education establishments as a weekly optional physical education class that is taught professionally and academically accredited.
This asset can help attract new residents and younger families to help grow the community. This expansion will allow for more community interaction by providing a larger more welcoming environment for many people and families to come use the park or spectate. This is especially important since North Glengarry is one of the lowest-income areas in Ontario. The new park offers a safe area for youth to play and exercise at little to no cost other than owning skating gear.
Montreal, Ottawa, and Brockville are the closest locations that have skate parks that appeal to all sports and all ages. This presents a unique opportunity that the expansion of the Alexandria Skate Park can fill.
Alexandria now becomes a destination town with a focal attraction not only for skateboarders, but for roller bladers, scooter users, bmx,individuals with assistive devices and the community, enticing more tourism and visits, showcasing what the town has to offer and therefore also create more economic benefit by increasing local spending.
Skate parks offer the opportunity for sport accessible to all individuals, no matter their age, language, gender or ability. When compared to other traditional sports, it can be accessed by lower-income individuals due to the lost cost of equipment. It also encourages individuals to be outdoors. The new obstacles and entry points are also designed to for individuals with disabilities or mobility issues.
Skate parks are viewed as a positive place and welcomed as a community public facility. Due to COVID-19, it was determined that the best way to conduct stakeholder engagement would be through a dedicated website and a petition which received 713 signatures in the space of 20 days. Over 4,515 individuals visited the site with 16,569 pages visited. A presentation was done before to the Township in June 2021 which was received positively by the skate board community. The presentation received 193 comments from viewers supporting the project.
