Skateboard Park Gets Push From Council

With skateboarders barred from sidewalk surfing, the City Council has decided to chip in $50,000 to help build a park where youths can skate legally.

Mayor Charlotte Craven, who introduced the anti-skateboarding ordinance in 1993, spearheaded the push to get her fellow council members to contribute toward the project.

“I made a commitment to the skateboarders that I would try to have something built where they could skate, and I have never forgotten it,” Craven said at the council’s meeting Wednesday night.

The council’s decision was well received by Marlana Evans, 17, who said it was not the sole responsibility of the Youth Advisory Council to plan safe activities for Camarillo youth.

“It is also the city’s obligation,” said Evans, whose comments were met with applause from more than 50 people who attended the meeting, most with skateboards in tote.

The Pleasant Valley Recreation and Park District in July set aside $100,000 for the park, which will be located at Ponderosa Drive and Temple Avenue. The project is expected to be completed in June.

The donation of $50,000 will pay for a sidewalk, fencing and other amenities for the skateboard park.

At 102,500 square feet, the facility will be the largest and the first public skateboard park in Ventura County.

The council voted 4 to 1 to contribute toward the park, with Councilman Bill Liebmann dissenting.

“If a little kid came to my door [selling something], I’d be the first to reach in my pocket,” Liebmann said. “But I don’t think it’s right to reach in someone else’s pocket and make a contribution just because I think it’s a good cause.”

Liebmann said the city’s general fund is entrusted to council members to spend and that contributing to the park district is not an appropriate expenditure.