Editor's note: This is a letter sent to the District of Squamish. It was copied to The Chief for publication.
With winter coming upon us, it is increasingly difficult to imagine the hot sunny days of summer, so I'd just like to remind everyone of the need for a splash-water park in Squamish, and the hope that if we keep planning and brainstorming we will indeed have one in place by the time the hot weather comes around again. Hopefully it is in the 2011 budget.
Communities across Canada have water-parks, and they are always a welcome gathering place for families with children. Kids love water, it's a nice break in the day, there's little danger of drowning, and communities come together.
I would like to support and encourage the idea of the water park being in downtown Squamish, perhaps next to the playground across from the District Building, or if the new Pavilion is (hopefully) built downtown, adjacent to that.
If we want to continue rejuvenating the downtown core, this is the ideal and only location.
Additionally, it would be helping many of the underprivileged in our community. Castlerock Family Housing, a subsidized housing complex comprised mainly of single parents, is in the downtown core and is home to almost 70 kids and children. Many of these parents do not have vehicles to get to Alice Lake, Murrin Lake, or any of the other outdoor recreation sites nearby. Many of these kids spend their summers water-free. Even getting to Brennan Park can be a rarity.
During the summer, I was visiting a friend in Brackendale and her son hopped on his bike with a shovel and rode off to the local river. I realized how unfortunate it is that there is not even a river for these downtown kids to run to - just a nice healthy place to be a kid. The estuary is not kid friendly (bears, drugs, and tent-cities), and Nexen Beach is a dog park. Having a water park would give kids and parents with young children a fun place to go to in our local downtown neighborhood, for Castlerock families as well as for others in the downtown core, not to mention all those coming downtown for groceries, mail, the library, the farmers' market, among other things.Please place the water park downtown! Melanie CochraneSquamish
