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Letters: Check park for yourself

Youth need a place to cycle in Sooke states letter writer

The 2006 plan for JPMP is vague and out of date for current 2013 recreation trends. It includes a disc golf course and horse shoes. Who plays disc golf anymore?

Bike riders are not a small special interest group; learning to ride your bike is a rite of passage for most Canadian kids. Let’s give Sooke youth a place where they can be passionate about a sport that does not involve high registration fees and expensive equipment each year.

What we desperately need in Sooke is a place for youth of all ages (especially for those 10-18+) that is a safe, central location whether you are biking alone or with friends. I encourage everyone to go to JPMP, before the public input meeting, with a picture of the proposed bike skills park plan and see for yourself a few things:

1) That the proposed plan takes up only a small portion of the park and does not include the pond area,

2) that the central location is ideal as bike paths from the schools already lead to it and

3) this abandoned golf course is rarely used by anyone beyond being an extension of a few people’s backyards and is underutilized in our growing community.

Allow the JPMP Bike Skills Park to be built in phases as grants and fundraising permit.

Dave Smith

Sooke