Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Managing Editor CHICOPEE Mayor Michael Bissonnette made a deal with a group of youth who asked him to consider upgrading the skate park area at Ray Ash Park in Aldenville: help convince state legislators to grant the city funding for a new park and he'll sit down with them for their design ideas. The meeting between the skaters and the mayor on last Wednesday came through a letter written by Chicopee Comprehensive High School student Michael Gendreau Jr. Gendreau sent the mayor a petition with 42 signatures asking the city to consider installing a wooden skate park to avoid injuries to skaters and damage to equipment. Ray Ashe Park has a series of concrete ramps the city obtained from the Boys & Girls Club, Stan Walczak, superintendent of the Parks and Recreation Department. A new skate park would probably be built of a composite material that would have the characteristics of wood, but would not rot or splinter. Gendreau, who has been skating for years, said that as many as 30 skaters use the small-enclosed park at a time and is busy any day there isn't snow on the ground. The problem with the concrete ramps is skaters hit cracks on the way up which cause them to lose their balance, Gendreau said. The ramps were moved to the location three years ago and were placed on a tennis court that was underused, Walczak said. A new skate park is part of the approved first phase of improvements to the park and Walczak said the state has not yet made the grant allocations to cities and towns that could pay for the new skate park. That is why Bissonnette urged the skaters to let local legislators know how they feel. If the city receives the money needed for the renovations to the park, Walczak said design work could begin before the end of this year with the construction funding becoming available after July 1, 2008. | ||||||
