des around Sooke can never change regardless of the passing of time. My kids are all adults now but when they were growing up here they were promised bike riding activity areas would be set aside for them so they wouldn’t have to ride in the traffic. These promises were somehow pushed aside or stop gap remedies put in place. Most of the kids took the issues into their own hands and started creating their own riding areas that they would sooner or later get kicked out of.
Maybe we should ask the kids what they want and where they want it. I’m sure they don’t want the riding park down behind SEAPARC beside the swamp. No other community group seems to want to use that area consistently, it has been rejected by the local soccer and fastball groups. Who wants to play in an area where the bugs are as thick as some places up north and some times of the year the sun never shines.
I think Mr. Arnold and I are cut a bit from the same cloth. It’s a ridiculous point of view that some people think his direction in this issue is of self interest because of his ownership of a local bike shop. He will sell bikes with or without the bike park in place. I’m sure his only interest in this issue is he loves kids and wants to organize a safe fun place for them to ride. A few piles of gravel spread around beside a swamp just doesn’t cut it. There are lots of places for people to stroll around in Sooke.but not many centralized places for kids to ride. The old golf course is a perfect location to build something special for the local kids.
About the potential for higher taxes I have to use the point of view of one of our past mayors “get used to it.” When an area incorporates without a large enough tax base available, that’s just the way it is. I’d rather see something special built for the kids than providing special concessions to various local business ventures.
While we’re building things for local kids here’s a couple of wishes for them. Can we honor our local basketball tradition and build some basketball shoot around courts for the kids, there is almost a complete absence of them around town. Also please stop considering the dismantling of Art Morris ballpark as a solution to the Sooke bypass route, lots of kids are still having fun there.
Rod Nyberg
Sooke