Valley Independent Sentinel

Student Lobbies Oxford For Skate Park

by Mike Russo | Feb 9, 2010 10:18 am

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Posted to: Oxford

Great Oak Middle School seventh grader Tommylee Buskey is lobbying town officials to open a skate park.

Buskey, 13, said he has been skate boarding for almost four years and is tired of taking his chances riding on the street — or catching a ride to skate parks in neighboring towns.

In a letter to First Selectwoman Mary Ann Drayton-Rogers, Buskey said he is just one of hundreds kids his age that want an Oxford skate park.

Currently there area skate parks in Seymour, Middlebury, Brookfield and Southbury.

“This skate park will get us off the street,” he said. “It would be nice to have a place our own to go in town to skate.”

Drayton-Rogers said she was impressed with Buskey’s letter and forwarded it to the Parks and Recreation Commission.

During a presentation to the Parks and Recreation Commission Wednesday, Buskey explained the benefits of a skate park along with photographs of possible locations.

Debbie Gatto, director of Parks and Recreation said the idea of a skate park has been percolating for several years.

About five years ago, the town considered building a skate park on property across the street from Quaker Farms School.

It was estimated to cost $100,000.

Gatto said support for the project was strong at first, but diminished as the project moved forward.

“Parents were very interested in the project but their kids grew up and they don’t see the need anymore,” she said.

Gatto added the town can access at $3,500 grant from the Katharine Matthies Foundation toward the project, but it would take public donations to see it through to completion.

“If there could be public funding, it (Skate Park) would certainly be welcomed,” she said.

Tommylee’s parents, Steva Buskey and Robert Werden, said they have been working with him on a proposal.

“This would be for all the kids in Oxford now and in the future,” Buskey said.

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