August 24, 2013
Gore Street in Murgon was blocked off for several hours on Friday afternoon to allow 600 schoolchildren and invited guests to witness the official opening of Murgon’s new $162,000 skate park.
The ribbon was cut by former Murgon resident, and acclaimed actress and director, Leah Purcell who came from Sydney for the special occasion.
Leah told the crowd she missed her old home town and had been delighted when the South Burnett Regional Council phoned to ask if she would be the guest of honour at the opening ceremony.
She said nothing like the skate park had existed in Murgon when she was growing up; she urged the schoolchildren from Murgon and Cherbourg to make the most of it and to take pride in it.
Then she mounted a scooter and rode forward to cut a big, yellow ribbon to declare the facility officially open.
SBRC Deputy Mayor Cr Keith Campbell said the skate park had its origins in 2012 when a delegation of Year 7 students from local schools petitioned the South Burnett Regional Council to build a skate park in their town.
The Council had taken their ideas on board, he said.
After a series of public consultation meetings, followed by many months of design and construction work, the skate park unofficially opened in late July.
Since then it has been very well-patronised by local children.
Council intended to expand the complex in future to make the park into a full youth park.
Cherbourg Mayor Ken Bone, who performed the Welcome To Country to launch the proceedings, said he welcomed the new park and took it as a sign that things were steadily getting better in the area.
He said he wanted to encourage local children to take ownership of the skate park and treat it with respect.
During the ceremony the architect of the facility, SBRC Natural Resources and Parks Manager Greg Griffiths, was presented with a Special Commendation certificate by local school children for his work on the complex.
Mr Griffths said he was genuinely pleased that the children seemed to like the complex, and hoped it would continue to provide them and their parents with safe, healthy outdoor recreation for many years to come.
After the ceremony, Murgon Business and Development Association president Leo Geraghty told southburnett.com.au that although he knew of a few people in town who didn’t like the park, he thought most did.
He said council would be doing further work on the facility in the future, including adding car parking spaces to the front of the park, painting the adjoining climbing wall, relocating children’s playground equipment from Rotary Park, and landscaping the grounds.
He felt certain that once the complex was fully developed, any remaining opposition to the project would soon vanish.
Related articles:
|
|
|
