Parks Board approves skateboard park for seniors roller hockey rink at Riverside Park

Riverside Park Riverside Park Riverside Park Riverside Park Village on the Cannon

At last week’s meeting of the Park & Rec Advisory Board (PRAB), members approved the installation of a skatepark for senior citizens in Riverside Park. It’ll be installed at the site of the old skatepark. The blacktop has been resurfaced this week and the equipment has arrived, ready to install. Click the photos to enlarge.

The new skate park is a partnership with Village on the Cannon (VOC), a senior condo development adjacent to Riverside Park. “We see this as a real amenity for the active seniors in our condos” said Collin Peters, President of Collegetown Development Group, developers of VOC. “Skateboarding is not just for youth anymore.”

Rich Vlasic, Chair of PRAB, said that he and his fellow board members felt this was something that they could do without consulting the neighbors or the City Council since it involves no financial commitment on the part of the City. “Frankly, we’ve gotten tired of the never-ending process, process, process that’s the hallmark of Northfield. And we’re feeling more than a little burned by the Lashbrook Park archery fiasco. This was opportunity for us to make a quick decision and implement it within a week, Master Park Plan not withstanding. We think that’s an all-time record.”

Members of the Northfield Skatepark Coalition were not unhappy with this news. “More power to those geezers,” said spokesperson Marnie Kingfisher. “The more skateboard facilities the better, as far as we’re concerned. We just hope they’ll let kids use their facility until ours is built.”

Update 5/23: It’s actually a roller hockey rink. See Susan Hvistendahl’s comment attached.

roller hockey rink roller hockey rink

14 Comments

  1. John S. Thomas said:

    Those look suspiciously like Roller Derby boards… and the supports for them.

    Some type of curved track. but why?

    What the heck would those be doing there, on city property?

    And that pad has been freshly repaved.

    Something is going on here, and its not the Farmer’s Market.

    I thought this was a “FN” piece, but it doesn’t appear to be. Something is up. Anyone heard anything?

    May 22, 2008
  2. John S. Thomas said:

    BMX Track, or some other short term event perhaps? Some sort of ramp, but not very high… about 32 supports, 32 long boards, and 16 curved pieces from what I can see from the pictures.

    Shadows tell me only 2 stacks of materials, and the supports. Lag bolt at one end, but not the other…

    Steel reinforced, and the planks are tongue and groove into each other…

    It is beefy construction.

    That has to be some sort of track… but why?

    May 22, 2008
  3. Anne Bretts said:

    Is is a summer hockey practice facility? Don’t know the details, but I know some ‘geezers’ were surprised and annoyed. Maybe they weren’t asked to form a team.

    May 22, 2008
  4. John, it is faux news in the sense that it was reportedly built for skate boarding “geezers” at Village on the Cannon, where I live. The site is actually being prepared for summer hockey practice (for roller blades, not hockey skates, using a ball, not pucks). My understanding is that it is being paid for by hockey parents. Of course, this site once was used for skateboarders, before VOC was in existence. One might have thought VOC would have been at least consulted for this new usage but, as with the proposed archery site, VOC heard about it via the grapevine. VOC was able to at least be represented at a parks meeting where it was agreed that this would be a one-year trial.
    There seems to have been no media coverage of this until Griff gave his inimitable interpretation of what was happening. His previous faux news about VOC (which still ranks as no. 10 if you google “VOC”) is that VOC was going gay.
    Anyone care to join me on my third floor balcony to hear the slapshots (or whatever they are called) ringing through the air this summer?
    Actually, I am not as opposed as some of my neighbors here, but I do think there should have been some notice to the neighborhood on what was in store.

    May 22, 2008
  5. Gilly Wigley said:

    HAHA! Marnie Kingfisher! 😀

    I thought it is the new Milltown Trail’s pedestrian bridge to go over the river, but I could have been miss informed.

    May 23, 2008
  6. John S. Thomas said:

    Well, I was close. It is at least round…

    I wonder how bad it will be. Won’t you have the windows closed, and the A/C on most of the time anyway?

    It couldn’t be any worse that the trains, the motorcycles leaving the intersection, the booming stereos… We do have a noise problem in this town.

    Hopefully, there will be limits on usage times.

    May 23, 2008
  7. Griff Wigley said:

    Jeesh. I made it all up and it turns out to almost be totally true. I’ve added photos of the roller hockey rink to the blog post and edited the headline. Gilly, you were miss informed [sic] by mister disinformation. I thought the boards were for the MTT bridge.

    May 23, 2008
  8. John S. Thomas said:

    That too bad…

    I was thinking ROLLER DERBY would be so much more exciting!

    May 23, 2008
  9. John S. Thomas said:

    Ah! I see how it goes together now… I was trying to figure out the curves. They are walls, not decks.

    And that latch was a door.

    The final thought was clouding the analysis.

    May 23, 2008
  10. Wait until you see me taking on those kids in roller hockey! What kind of pads does a “geezer” need to compete against them, do you think?

    John, I hope not to have windows closed and AC on all summer! Plus, I hope to be out on my balcony, enjoying the ambient sounds of Highway 3 and occasional trains.

    What is really fun is when the siren sounds — right across the river from me!

    May 23, 2008
  11. Griff Wigley said:

    In today’s Nfld News: Neighbors say they should have had input on park.

    Residents at Village on the Cannon, a condominium complex for those 55 and older, can empathize with Northfielders living near Lashbrook Park, once the site of a proposed archery range. They say they got just six hours’ notice before the city’s Park & Recreation Advisory Board considered approving plans for a roller hockey rink in Riverside Park, just west of the condos. “We wish we would have been asked,” said Jan Roberts, whose third-story condo faces the rink.

    May 28, 2008
  12. […] We’ve been talking about the new roller hockey rink in Riverside Park for over a week. I took these photos of two Northfield […]

    May 29, 2008

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