Weyburn city council will have to decide very soon which location for a skateboard park they support, and whether they will put any dollar figure behind that support.

Weyburn councillor Bill McKenzie held a public meeting to gauge support for locating the proposed skateboard park on city-owned land at Jubilee Park, rather than the current proposal of locating it adjacent to the Weyburn Youth Centre.

The youth centre's executive director Brian Hopfe had made a presentation to council a couple months ago to have the park located next to their TAGS Teen Club facility, and obtained approval-in-principle from council to proceed with their plans. No dollar figure was attached to that approval, as that has to wait for the budget process, which is currently underway by council.

The question about who should be responsible for the skateboard park was a survey on the city's web page, and Coun. McKenzie noted some e-mails were sent in saying the park should be located at Jubilee Park.

Attendance by the public was limited at his meeting on Thursday evening, partly due to the Weyburn Junior High holding their Christmas concert that evening, which would have tied up a good number of youths aged 12-14 and their parents, who would be potential users of a skateboard park. McKenzie said he would like to hold another meeting with parents in January to get a better feel for community support for this project.

"There were a lot of board members from the youth centre. When you bring the full force of one group and the other wasn't represented, you don't get the whole story," he said, adding those present had security concerns with the proposal at Jubilee Park.

"Brian and them are very passionate about having it at TAGS," added Coun. McKenzie. "I'm going to talk to Brian again. We're trying to coordinate the fund-raising, and city council is working on the budget right now."

One reason he would like to see the park put up at Jubilee is that the park will host many of the events for the 2004 Summer Games, and McKenzie thinks that skateboarding and BMX biking may be events for the provincial games in the future, so this would be a good showcase for Weyburn to have a park in place.

For his part, Hopfe said the youth centre would very much like to have the facility located by their centre, or else they really can't be involved with it.

"The thing I'm encouraged with is we have a councillors who's taken the initiative to get things going for the youth in the community. I appreciate that," said Hopfe, adding the youth centre has permission from the city to locate a skateboard park next to their facility near the Sports Arena, and there are reasons for having it there.

Some of those reasons include that the park would be covered by the youth centre's insurance, whereas at Jubilee Park it would have to be covered by the city. Secondly, the park would be supervised at the youth centre, where the Jubilee location would not be.

"It's not going to be us standing around watching 24/7; it's going to be us checking in to see if everything's okay. Plus, if we're able at some point to hire someone, and I'm not saying that will happen, but a staff person could teach kids tricks and stuff," said Hopfe. He also pointed out that donations to the skateboard park can receive a tax receipt from the youth centre, but not if the park were under the purview of the city's rec department.

Mayor Don Schlosser was present at the meeting as an observer, not as a council representative, and had some concerns with the proposed Jubilee Park location.

"I know council's on record that we supported in principle to get a skateboard park combined with the youth centre. I think he (McKenzie) was hoping the youth centre would go along with the idea of it going at Jubilee Park," said Schlosser.

Council will have to make a decision on where the park is going very quickly, he added, particularly if the rest of council supports the idea of having it at Jubilee Park in 2004. The decision could come up as early as this Monday, Dec. 22, or perhaps in January.

Cam Weber, chairman of the board for the Weyburn Youth Centre, said he can only support the original proposal of having the park at the youth centre, if that group is going to be involved with the park at all.

"The main reason I see putting it at the youth centre is that city had offered the same area (in Jubilee Park) to build the youth centre, and the neighbours got a petition together and said no, we don't want it there. Plus, over at Jubilee Park we wouldn't be able to supervise it," said Weber, explaining if the youth centre wasn't wanted in the park, the neighbours aren't going to support a skateboard park either.

He said the main concerns with such a park, especially if it were unsupervised as some kids indicated they wanted it, would be a rise in vandalism, which was one of the reasons the youth centre wasn't wanted for that location.

"Brian has put a lot of work into it in the last two years. The youth centre has been working on it, and that's why we got the city on side, rather than just the youth centre without any backing. We would like to see the park go ahead," said Weber, adding that if the centre gets half of the funds needed by spring, the park can proceed to be built in 2004.

Youth centre board member Edee Frank echoed some of the concerns that Hopfe and Weber mentioned, and added that as a taxpayer she has concerns that the city would have to take on the vast majority of the expense to build and then maintain the park, as well as provide liability insurance coverage for it.

She also felt the youth centre won't be able to go any further with their proposal until they know which location will be supported by the city, adding that she didn't think Weyburn is big enough to be able to support two such parks.