Parents of students attending a school near one of the sites for the proposed mountain bike skills park are worried about the safety of their children, ruining the park’s historic nature and the lack of communication from the city.
A delegation of three parents of Ecole Father Jan students shared their concerns with council at its last meeting in mid-December. The school is located at Seven Hills, one of the proposed locations for the skills park. The other site is Liberton Park.
“My main concern is the historical value of the site and how it will forever change it,” said Andrea Marko. Seven Hills, she pointed out, is where Father Albert Lacombe originally founded St. Albert in 1861 and is home to St. Albert Catholic Parish, Founder’s Walk and several baseball diamonds.
“It’s always been representative of the beginnings of St. Albert,” Marko said.
She and parent Barb Bauer are also concerned for the safety of their children while they attend school. As proposed, the site won’t be continually supervised and there will be few limits on who can use it.
“As long as you bring a bike to the area, you can hang out all day long,” Bauer said.
“We all know how vulnerable children can be. If you look at the plans, it’s just a couple of yards away from one of the parks my children play in.”
There are no bathrooms being built at the park, Bauer says, which means users might try to use washrooms at Father Jan or at the parish. Safety while using the park, she said, is also a point of contention.
“Young children are little daredevils. Although there are different skill levels for the park, I know my son certainly wouldn’t just stay on the beginner ramps at the bottom of the hill,” Bauer said.
Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools shares those concerns, says superintendent David Keohane. The board of trustees supports the idea of a bike skills park, Keohane said, just not the Seven Hills location.
“It seems not to be an appropriate placement,” Keohane stated, adding the board’s support is “100 per cent” for Liberton Park and “zero” for Seven Hills.
Both Marko and Bauer are upset the city did not better share the proposed locations with residents. A postcard sent to surrounding residents, advertising November’s two open houses, did not list either proposed location.
City ads that ran in the St. Albert Gazette informing the public of both open houses also did not list either location. If either had been listed, more people might have come to the open houses to share their concerns, both said.
“I think that was negligent on their part,” Marko said. “I would like to see more input.”
Monique St. Louis, the city’s director of recreation services, said the locations weren’t listed on the postcard or city advertisement in an attempt not to overwhelm the reader with text. Both contained website information, she said.
“I guess the bottom line is it’s a good learning experience for us too. We’ll be more clear about that in the future,” St. Louis said. She added the department has made contact with everyone who spoke at council Monday night and plans to meet with them.
Both Marko and Bauer want to see the public consultation process, which officially closed Dec. 7, re-opened so more people have the chance to provide feedback now that both locations have been widely publicized.
“This park just doesn’t belong to the residents around it,” said Bauer. “This is part of St. Albert’ s history. I would like (the public consultation) re-opened and I would like other sites to be suggested.”
St. Louis said that if council asks, the public consultation process could be re-opened, but finding different locations might be difficult. Over the course of an 18-month process, city staff examined 60 parcels of land, but settled on Liberton and Seven Hills because both fit the most criteria established for the skills park.
“This was the final best two sites we could come up with,” St. Louis said.
