Talking Kelso

You might have seen the article in today’s Daily News about the status of the skate park. As it pointed out, funding sources have been hard to come by. The Tony Hawk Foundation, which could only do $25,000 maximum grants in the first place, turned the project down, and the big money needed from the state isn’t being handed out this year.

The article mentioned that I was open to the discussion of the city paying for the facility if grant funds can’t be found, or if they’re not sufficient to cover the whole cost of the project. I’ve never spent 10 seconds on a skateboard, but I think the facility would be a boon to the youth of our community. The project, as currently designed, would provide a top notch skate park that would give kids a recreational option that they don’t currently have in Kelso. If you want to skate in Kelso, you’re probably going to end up hacking off a property owner in order to do so.

Any thoughts from the crowd on whether this seems like a project worthy of city investment? Let me know…leave a comment with your thoughts.

This meeting consisted of only a couple agenda items beyond the initial formalities and the introduction of the attending Boy Scout troop. The Kelso Eagles were also invited to come present information on the work they do in the community. The mayor has chosen to focus on a different service organization at each meeting, so that we in the community can start to realize the immense amount of volunteer work and giving that is taking place in our area.

We approved the contracting of additional help in the engineering area, in order to keep the glut of projects we have enjoyed moving as freely as possible. With our community development director position open, and with a large influx of development projects, our focus is on bringing in necessary additional resources to help make sure that we can meet the needs of developers and landowners in getting their projects done. I would prefer to face criticism for spending too much trying to provide excellent service than for scaring off promising development projects.