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Skatepark champions share plans

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The Ramona Skatepark Champions are a group of citizens working to raise $70,000 to launch a skatepark project in Ramona with the County of San Diego. I’m proud that I’ve been working with this team of dedicated people since July of last year, when I responded to a Facebook call-to-action and attended the first meeting.

Recently, someone asked at our website contact page if the park would raise taxes. We responded promptly with a high level overview of the project and won that person’s support. We then took that project plan to the county, asking them to make any corrections required to set our expectations for the project.

The result is a high-level project plan that has been reviewed by people from the Ramona Planning Group Parks Subcommittee, the County Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) and by Supervisor Dianne Jacob. Each of these stakeholders has had an opportunity to clarify expectations in that document.

Now we present this set of expectations to the community and allow you to understand our goals and expectations.

The full text of this exchange is published on our website at www.ramonaskatepark.org/faq/54-will-there-be-new-taxes. We offer this summary of the original question’s three key parts to the readers of the Sentinel.

The first part is, “How can you convince me that this WILL NOT RAISE TAXES or cost me anything?” I kept the emphasis as our group agrees strongly with this idea. We are taking our game plan from our mentors at Lakeside Skatepark. Their park opened last year with no new taxes. As did they, we will fund-raise until we reach the amount required. It took Lakeside about two years to raise the initial fund to launch the project, which was then built with PLDO and public/private grants.

The second part asks, “Who will be profiting?” The answer is simple, generations of kids who will use the park. All the people involved in our effort are strictly volunteers. The end product is expected to be a fee-free county skatepark.

The third part questions, “Will there be a contract that assures us that we will never have to support the creation and maintenance of this skatepark?” Yes, once we’ve raised our maintenance fund money, we will negotiate a contract that obliges us to continue to raise money to cover maintenance, starting in year one. The trust fund exists to cover the gap, in years when we might be unable to raise money to cover actual maintenance costs.

In summary, we are freely donating our time, money and energy to build a skatepark in Ramona for the benefit of our community. We will do this with the support of like-minded people, not by forcing it on everyone by way of a new tax.

We hope you will join us. Our next fundraiser is the Family Fun 5K Run, Walk and Roll on May 30 at Olive Peirce Middle School track and field. www.ramonaskatepark.org/events/5k-run-walk-roll

Dwight Webster is a Ramona resident and member of the Ramona Skatepark Champions.

LEARN MORE: www.ramonaskatepark.org

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: www.facebook.com/ramonaskatepark

SHARE YOUR IMAGES: Instagram #RamonaSkatepark #LetsBuildThis

COME TO MEETINGS: 3rd Monday at 6:30 p.m. in Ramona Town Hall (next one, May 18)

DONATE: www.ramonaskatepark.org/donate

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