A community-built skate park will be dismantled as St. Catharines city officials cite safety and liability concerns.
A team of enthusiasts worked together, raising money and pouring concrete to build the park without city approval at the former Knifeworks site near the Merritton Trail.
St. Catharines Councillor Lori Littleton says it is great to see community members come together, but the park can't stay. "It's a structure that's been built in a city park without permission and for liability reasons people can't just build things in city parks. Unfortunately it's got to come down. The skatepark doesn't meet the safety standards, and then it becomes a liability for the city."
Littleton says since the discovery there has been a meeting with a representative of the people who built the park. "We had a meeting at the end of June, trying to talk about it and what can we do moving forward? How can we work with the community? Because clearly there is a need for another skatepark, so how can we go about that, and what does it look like?"
City staff are working with the historical committee to remove the concrete safely without dismantling the Knifeworks walls that are still there.
Click here to listen to Littleton's full interview with Matt Holmes.