West Kelowna’s Memorial Park gets major upgrades

There were two ribbon cutting ceremonies in as many days at West Kelowna’s Memorial Park this weekend.

On Saturday, the city celebrated the opening of a new skate park.

The new, more advanced skate park replaced a 30-year-old model that was not challenging, and literally crumbling.

Mason Barzilay is the co-president of the Westside Skatepark Society, and led the charge to push city council to build the new skate park.

“I look for opportunities for kids to get active, for kids to get involved,” Barzilay said, “and once you buy a skateboard and a helmet, it’s free to skateboard, as long as you have a park.  We have one of the best parks in the Okanagan now.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I look for opportunities for kids to get active, for kids to get involved," Barzilay said, "and once you buy a skateboard and a helmet, it's free to skateboard, as long as you have a park.  We have one of the best parks in the Okanagan now."

The grand opening for the new amphitheatre at Memorial Park was held on Friday night, in conjunction with the Music in the Park concert series.

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About 1,300 people turned out to see Elvis tribute artist, Adam Fitzpatrick headline the show.

The amphitheatre makes the venue much more accessible, with a paved pathway all the way up from the lower parking lot.

“It’s wonderful,” one concert-goer said.  “I came with my walker and it was great.”

The only complaint people seem to have about the 450-seat amphitheatre is that it’s too small.

West Kelowna mayor Doug Findlater calls it “a good start.”

“In the future we do have the opportunity to expand the amphitheatre,” Findlater said.  “It’s just such a big improvement over what we had here previously.”

Both projects were funded in part by the Canada 150 Community Infrastructure Program, with additional funding coming from the city.