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Vol. 120, Issue 77
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Page 11
PROUDLY SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF ROSSLAND, WARFIELD, TRAIL, MONTROSE, FRUITVALE & SALMO
New skate park survey postpones potential grant money
HAVING A SPLASH
BY SHERI REGNIER Times Staff
Updating demographics for the Trail skate park has temporarily dried up a sizeable funding stream for the project. Rotarian Scott Daniels, a longtime Friend of the Trail Skate Park, was disappointed to learn Thursday that a large grant he was seeking through Columbia Basin Trust (CBT) hit a bump after the City of Trail announced an upcoming survey that could alter future park plans. Park design, location and other specifics haven't been cemented just yet, and could change depending what the random telephone survey reveals. “It's very sad that the city's decision to move ahead with the survey has resulted in further delays by the CBT regarding our request for funding through their Community Development Program application,” said Daniels. The decision wasn't made lightly, and isn't a question of whether or not the trust supports a skate park, says Delphi Hoodicoff, CBT's communications director. “Absolutely not,” she explained. “There's just too many changing and variable factors and I think that is what is happening in the community right now. We are just LIZ BEVAN PHOTO taking that and saying okay, maybe On a sunny and warm Victoria Day weekend, Cameron Eagar, 6, spent his holiday Monday at the we need to sit back on this for a spray park in Gyro Park with his family instead of the classroom. The spray park opened this weekend bit.” for kids to get a little wet, have some fun and cool down in the hot summer weather. She said the situation is simi-
BV Citizen of the Year just ‘doing her part’ to help community
BY LIZ BEVAN Times Staff
Although she says she is a private person, Fruitvale resident Dorothy Mitchell, this year's Beaver Valley Citizen of the Year (BVCOTY), can be seen all around the area lending a helping hand where she can. Mitchell is heavily involved in her church community, teaching Sunday school, working at the thrift shop and the Beaver Valley
Food Bank and participating in almost every aspect of church volunteership, making her, according to the BVCOTY selection committee, the best choice for the 2015 award. She has also committed time to substitute teaching at Beaver Valley Middle
DOROTHY MITCHELL
School, working in school libraries when there was no librarian and spent 10 years as a Brownie troupe leader. After a few weeks of nomination reviews and deliberation, the committee chose Mitchell and she says she was surprised when the news came that she had won. She didn't even realize she was in the running for the award.
lar to what the skate park committee recently experienced when $20,000 from CBT's community initiatives grants expired. “The money does expire after awhile and this year the money was reallocated to that group because it looked like it (skate park project) might be going somewhere.” After news that the city is surveying a random section of Trail residents this summer, to ascertain how much taxpayers would be willing to buck up, preferred locations and other factors, the CBT decided to hold off its decision until results of the survey are complete. With respect to the community development program, the trust requires certainties that the project is moving forward as well as particulars, such as site confirmation, noted Hoodicoff. “Without all that in place the money gets tied up,” she said. “Typically in a contract, which is case by case, we might say the same thing – the money expires in a year. And why would we want to tie that money up when it could go to benefit another project.” Hoodicoff acknowledged the matter as discouraging to skate park supporters, but said without certainty the grant couldn't be supported at this time. But that doesn't mean CBT doesn't support skate parks, not by a long shot. See SUPPORT, Page 3 “It was unbelievable to tell the truth,” she said, adding that she just wants to help her home community and its residents. “(Volunteering is important because) I happen to be a citizen out here and I want to do my part.” Mitchell says there isn't a single piece of her volunteer work that stands out, or has the most impact. See CEREMONY, Page 3
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