Volunteer Labor

Taken from an article at Smart Cities Prevail Blog:

There's an ugly rumor going around that volunteer labor projects will be forced to end on January 1st, 2012 when the statutory provision that exempts volunteer labor of prevailing wage requirements, sunsets. This is simply not the case but unfortunately this claim is being used ....to scare California city officials over the future of their volunteer projects.

... We can now proudly announce that two bills have been introduced this legislative session in order to EXTEND the volunteer labor exemption of prevailing wage requirements to 2017.

Skate Park Petition - draft

     We, the undersigned citizens, parents, business owners and skateboarders of Menifee, CA wish to express our support for local youth by proposing the construction of a public skate park.

     Skateboarding is one of the most popular youth activities in the country and has reached international status through World games and X games.  We believe that it’s time that we provide the underserved skaters in our own community with a safe place to challenge and express themselves.  The city, county and parks and recreation foundations have done much to provide some active youth ball parks, soccer fields, and gymnasiums.  We would like the less organized sports activities to have a stake in our parks and open spaces as well.

     During the past ten years, hundreds of successful public funded skate parks have been constructed in cities and towns across the United States. Not only have they proven to be statistically safer than a basketball court or a public pool, they’re also an excellent way to get young people involved in civic and community development. Young people need to have a sense of ownership in and connection to the community in which they live. A skate park is a great way to build such bridges.  Rather than giving young people tickets and additional "no skate zones" for participating in a sport they love, let’s provide them with a legal and safe place to skate.

     By organizing and beginning to lobby for a public skate park, these young Menifee skateboarders have already shown a great deal of initiative, creativity, and responsibility. Let’s not ignore this opportunity to fulfill an important need and strengthen our community.


Sincerely,

Dream Big -- If you build it, they will come.

Our Focus Group was tasked with a mission to move the discussion of a Menifee Skate Park to the next level.  At the first General meeting I believe these points were made.

• Provide a community accepted and approved skate area
• Locate the park for maximum accessibility
• Provide a safe skater environment
• incorporate access or elements for inline, kick scooters, street bmx and skaters
• Incorporate a spectator area
• Be World Class or Destination park to maximize benefit to the community
• Encourage community pride

At the 2nd meeting we decided to go BIG!  If we can dream it, we can add it to our list of elements to have in the park.  We can always cut back our budget or work through it in phases.  I asked my nephew, who does Level Designs for gaming industry to just give me a visual rendering of a skatepark with all the elements that were brought up at the 2nd meeting.

This image in no way is to scale or based on any real property.  I just gave the artist a list of elements to include in the park and this is whre we can start.

We must also develop a Mission Statement as well as a Name for the support group, if we want to become a non-profit and start our awareness campaign.  I've asked the group if they know artists to start working or thinking about campaigns for fundraising.

David Landrey offered to work on the Mission Statement, but these are some of my thoughts, how about adding some of your own.