WEST KELOWNA – West Kelowna will be checking two projects off its to-do list. Federal funding was announced Tuesday to help the city make improvements to Memorial Park. The project will see concrete tiered seating built into a hillside and the aging skateboard park upgraded. Both items have long been on the community’s wish list.
Mayor Doug Findlater says the skateboard park is around 25-years-old.
“The community has known it has been inadequate for a number of years.”
He credits a young skier, who doesn’t skateboard, with turning the skateboard park upgrades into an issue.
Local teenager Mason Barzilay started advocating for a new skate park back in 2014 after seeing a Facebook group.
She spoke to West Kelowna’s council and started fundraising for the skate park.
“I’m a competitive mogul skier so I’m definitely not a skateboarder,” she says. “I’m just totally passionate about other athletes getting the support they need.”
Tuesday’s official announcement that the federal government will be contributing more than $315,000 towards the upgrades is welcome news for Barzilay.
“I’m just so excited for everything that is happening,” she says.
The total cost for the project is estimated at $813,000. The mayor estimates that if it wasn’t for the federal funding it would have taken the municipality three or four years to build up enough money to do the upgrades. The city hopes to start construction in the spring and have the new tiered seating and skateboard park finished next summer.
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