OJAI : Skateboard Park Issue Faces Council

The Ojai City Council will again attempt to navigate the slippery slope of skateboard politics at its meeting tonight.

This time around, Mayor Nina V. Shelley hopes to settle the divisive skateboard park issue with what she considers a peace offering: She proposes that the city immediately pay $4,800 for a study to determine whether a skateboard recreation area could fit inside Sarzotti Park.

“I want to make a good-faith effort to resolve the matter peacefully,” Shelley said.

The council initially had said it turned down requests to provide money for the study because the city lacked the funds for this budget year. Teen-age and adult supporters of the project then independently raised the money for the study.

Then there was the sticky issue of the recreation initiative--proposed by the skateboard park supporters--that would require the city to spend $125,000 a year on children’s recreational activities. The council, considering the initiative as a backdoor way to force the skateboard issue, last month defiantly refused to spend the $4,800 for the study--whether the money came from the public or city coffers.

Now, the council appears to have had a change of heart.

“First, the city said they don’t have the money; now they say they’ll fund it anyway,” said Craig Walker, who organized the initiative. “I just don’t understand what the council is thinking. They’re sending a real mixed message to the kids.”

Shelley said the money the children raised should be put toward actually building the skateboard park. As for the initiative, she hopes supporters will drop it. “It has the potential to devastate the finances of the city,” she said.

Walker said he is willing to discuss a compromise, but sees little reason to scrap the initiative. “It’s really an issue for the voters to decide,” he said.