Talent, balance, skills, energy, practice, encouragement and a place to achieve such interests is what's been the driving force behind a place for all of our children to go and enjoy.
Rather than asking the taxpayers to front the money to achieve the goal of a new Skate Park, many adults and children have been getting together to fund raise to get what it takes to make this dream a reality.
Mayor Jim Ireton attended the event in what seemed like the busiest Saturday I have seen in years, filled with activities everywhere. To those of you who invited Salisbury News to your event, we're sorry we couldn't make them all. This one seemed to be one of the many we felt we wanted to be sure we participated with.
We have provided many photos over two posts I thought you might enjoy seeing. I'm not sure just how much they raised on Saturday but hopefully someone can chime in and let us know how well things went. I had to leave somewhat early because of all of the other events going on. One thing we know for sure though, they're much closer to reaching their goal with the turn out that they had.
Nice to see the new mayor at this event. I'm a county resident but i would vote for this man if i lived in the city. I really feel that he cares about the city.
ReplyDeleteI live right down the road from this Church. I was on my daily bike ride on Saturday and stopped by to donate the $10 that I had in my bike bag that otherwise would have went to a Gatorade. I skateboarded as a kid and I know how hard it is to find a safe place to skate without getting ridiculed by Police or local residents. This is a great thing they've got going and as you can see, there are a good group of kids that will benefit from this. I've said it before and I'll say it again, this Church is INCREDIBLE!!! They care about their youth and everytime I drive by they always seem to have something going on! Keep up the good work kids-It'll will be well worth it!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad it turned out so awesome. Could someone please tell the kids the skinny jean just suck so bad? They all tell me that they are 100% better to skate in but the just look so much like N** huggers that would hurt to me.
ReplyDelete10th picture down is my buddy Andy and his toddler with the helmet Sammy. He's a got a good sized half pipe in his backyard. Not me buddy, I'd break a hip at my age!
ReplyDeleteA mayor cool enough to hang with us little peoples? How long have I been asleep??? :) Cool gig....
ReplyDeleteOk...correct me if I am wrong...but...didn't Salsibury already have a skate board park? It was between the Civic Center and the Zoo. In fact, it was blacktop and was never torn out. They simply filled it in and covered it with dirt. Why can't we just have the city uncover it and patch it up as needed. No expense, no fuss, no muss. Simple solution.
ReplyDelete1:46 yes there was a skateboard park down by the civic center.
ReplyDeleteIt was covered up because no one wanted the liability of the children getting busted up.
So with the opening of the new park.
Let the law suits begin.
But dont put it on me the taxpayer.
The people who donated are responsible for this one.
Trust me someone will get hurt , and i dont want the bill.
anon 1:46
ReplyDeleteyou're right about the skateboard park being there. you're wrong about it being just covered with dirt. it was properly demolished before the fill dirt was brought in. if you dug it up now, all you'd have would be an old pile of asphalt.
1:46. You are wrong; your 'PollyAnna' approach went out of style in November and April.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, yeah, the old park was not simply filled in. That's probably a comment from the same idiot that posted on Delmarvanow. Second, skateboarding is safer than most other sports, but they're allowed on city and county property. You must not like to do your homework first, but here's some interesting statistics for you to ponder thanks to http://www.skateparkdesign.com/statistics.html
ReplyDeleteNEISS (National Electronic Injury Surveillance System - a division of the Consumer Protection Safety Council) injury statistics for 1998 show the following sports ranked by number of reported injuries per 100,000 participants.
Basketball - 223.5
Baseball - 115.7
Soccer - 62.0
Skateboarding - 20.2
Maybe we should shut down the 25 basketball courts in Wicomico County or the 48 baseball and softball fields and build something people will actually use every day of the year...
Adam..don't fall for that negative trip.
ReplyDeleteNO SPORTS should be discouraged: to me that includes frisbee golf {make your own course across the neighborhood if you don't have a formal park}, skateboarding {when was the last time you saw a "big boned kid" on a half-pipe?, or biking {or as they call it in Salisbury-death by impalement on an SUV grill due to no formal bike trails}.
The high school tennis courts I played on during the Hoover administration have been replaced by parking lots/shopping malls {citation to both The Pretenders AND John McEnroe}. Keep your chin up and enjoy the fresh air this week...us reasonable older dudes hear your voice!!
I'm all for the skate park. I am however against these kids (or any dude) wearing skin-tight women's jeans and letting them ride down around their butthole.
ReplyDeleteOkay, maybe that wasn't enough... here's some more recent statistics from the NEISS.
ReplyDeleteIn 2007, per 100,000 people, there were:
7,241 injuries from baseball/softball
14,769 from basketball
14,929 from biking
14,074 from football
6,003 from soccer
3,600 from skateboarding
and 4,324 from glass doors and windows...
Using your logic, we should get rid of all sports and board up all the glass doors and windows on city and county property. Because, you know, I don't want to pay for those kinds of liabilities...
What you are hearing at 4:08 is gospel; and I need some help.
ReplyDeleteYesterday, my already wretched day became wretched-er when I had to visit a local midnight clinic with a relative who had an infected tick bite {seriously..look out, they are bad this year}. At said clinic was a really arrogant {can you imagine how cocky this guy must be if this author calls him arrogant} young man with his father who apparently played lacrosse for a local, prominent Divisio I team that I would be honored for my own son/daughter to play for. I am not sure if this is cool now, but if my son does it he gets the to-now never employed "Lisa Whelchel" special; The kid was a skinny rich kid dork wearing those robotic-era{Michael Jackson ;)} running shoes; WITH HIS FATHER DEMONSTRATING A MALE MUFFIN TOP and GET THIS...the kid had his fingernails painted in a sort of local blue color. I don't know if this was the result of some sort of hazing, or if he actually thought this looked cool. I almost had to receive treatment for myself biting through my own tongue.
Teach your children well, and they will know you love them...
Joe, in the fourth picture, is that a fat mouse on a skateboard??? He's wearing a yellow shirt and black shorts with a black condom on his head.
ReplyDeleteSo how much is this going to cost the taxpayers when one of these kids gets hurt?
ReplyDeleteThe lawyers must be salivating at this one.
Correct me if I am wrong.....
ReplyDeletethey are trying to raise a percentage of the total funds needed for the skatepark. The rest comes out of a federal open space grant (taxpayer money). Just sayin
Anon 3 am : It will cost alot less than it would if a child got hurt skating on public or private property because they didn't have a special area set aside to skate at. If you don't believe me, look it up. Many of the public parks in other states were built AFTER the local municipalities were sued for not providing safe facilities for skaters.We are trying to do the smart thing; proactively solve a problem. The odds of the taxpayers having to pay out for injuries are slimmer than the odds that we would have to pay out for little Johnny's injury when he gets pegged in the eye with a baseball at the public park.
ReplyDeleteAnon 5:31 : Good point. However, those grants exist for projects like ours (among the countless others). If funds are already set aside for projects like this, we would be foolish NOT to apply for them. That said, we don't hold out much hope that we will ever receive substantial amounts of money from those sources. Our general rule is that we will raise the money through fundraising and lobbying for support from the private sector.
Incidently...there are laws that protect local governments from being sued by individuals who are hurt using safe public facilities.
Anyone who uses the "we'll get sued" line is fear mongering and should be ashamed of themselves.
Scott
Right on Scott.
ReplyDeleteDid not say No sports.
ReplyDeleteI said you pay the dam bill.
You dam sports freaks think the world owes you something . well we dont.
Know if you want to bust your brats up on concrete i dont want to pay the g-dam bill.
Sports ass pay it yourself.
Yes they should close down all sports parks in wicomico county and all basketball should stop.
Unless you pay for it yourself and your own medical bills. The general public does not want this.
Just a few who think there tuff again, well find out how tuff you are when you hit the pavement with your face. I dont care if you bust your face it is yours to bust. But dont tell me in a few months the taxpayer have to flip your hospital bill.
10:11, You can't possibly be that much of an idiot, can you?
ReplyDeleteI guess it's not enough to harass and insult people on your own blog. You have to come here, too.
ReplyDeleteHave a nice day.
Look, read the other posts before responding again. There is no burden on you or your tax dollars. You can sit comfortably at home knowing your tax money will be going to pay backwards scandals and all kinds of other crap. The money we plan on raising will be coming from individuals, generous businesses, and hopefully grants that already have a set amount that they will be giving out. So whether that goes to fixing a fence at some park or building a new skatepark, you can count on it going somewhere. I don't want my social security tax to go towards paying for you to sit at home and collect it, but that's life. Get over it. We're doing what we can to get something built. If you want kids skating in front of your house and risking getting hit by passing cars, that's fine. If you want to see basketball hoops lining streets hoping that your car doesn't get hit by a basketball, that's fine, but you have to realize that you're being unrealistic. At least do something nice for the kids and give them a place to go. I'm sorry they never built a lifesize Barbie dollhouse for you when you were growing up, but you should have started a committee for it... Maybe you would have gotten it...
ReplyDelete