By Chad Klassen

Kamloops brothers hoping to bring skate park to Rayleigh

Mar 1, 2017 | 5:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — Two brothers from Rayleigh are lobbying the city for a skate park in their community. Merek and Owen De Witte are avid skateboarders and cyclists and have long wanted a place to play in their local park.

At Rae-Mor Park in Rayleigh, snow still covers what is a basketball court, but the hope is it’s soon a skate park for youngsters.  

“There’s not a lot to do in Rayleigh,” says 13-year-old resident Merek De Witte. “All you can really is ride your bike around, or go inside. There’s a couple baseball fields, but I don’t really play baseball.”

The boys have been pressing the city for the project, which would cost about 250-thousand dollars. but instead of concrete jumps, they would be made of steel — a cheaper expense. 

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On Tuesday night, they spoke with councillors about their hopes and dreams. Owen, who’s in Grade 12, first worked on this proposal two years ago but didn’t get anywhere. He says he and all his friends would use it. 

“I think it would bring some more for families because there would be more stuff to do,” says Owen. “It would help get kids out active. I see a lot of the younger kids out on their bikes, too, and it would give them somewhere to go and ride.”

Owen says kids have built their own jumps in the past, but they haven’t lasted long. 

“The same spot we had wanted, we had built dirt jumps there,” Owen notes. “But because somebody had complained to the city, they had to take them down. Every time we’d rebuilt them, the city would take them down. If we could just get a skate park, it’d be a lot easier.”

While it is on the supplemental city budget, Merek is hoping the skate park can be approved, so construction can start soon. 

“They seem to be happy about the idea, that we already had everything planned out, and we’ve just been going off what they told us to do. It’s doing pretty good now.”