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Skate park won’t cause additional budget problemsEditor, Your editorial (“Skate park an extreme mistake,” Oct. 23) was based on incomplete facts and uninformed opinion. As a member of the Athens Skate Park Task Force for the last four years as the representative of the park's users, I am compelled to set the record straight. I share your budgetary concerns, especially in light of the recent closure of the fire department. Postponing the skate park project and using the funds to help reopen the fire department ordinarily would be an easy public safety decision. However, most of the money for the skate park comes from non-transferable private donations, not from city tax revenues. Our badly needed and long-awaited skate park is being financed mostly with funds from a $250,000 grant from the O’Bleness Foundation that was donated for the express purpose of building four tennis courts and to develop other recreational facilities. The grant funds cannot be used for other purposes. Thus, money from the O’Bleness Foundation grant that has been earmarked for the skate park cannot be reallocated to run the fire department. Also, the city's cost for building the skate park will be further reduced by a $50,000 donation from the Ohio University Recreation Department, some private donations as well as donations of equipment, labor and cement from two excavating companies and two cement companies. I urge you to re-examine the skate park project using factual information about its funding, and reach a more informed conclusion about how city council members handle taxpayers' money. Ira Zuckerman |