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Skate park receives state level award

May 10, 2017 11:23AM ● By Travis Barton

West Valley held the grand opening of their skate park at Centennial Park on Oct. 8. The skate park received outstanding facility recognition from the Utah Recreation and Parks Association. (Kevin Conde/West Valley City)

By Travis Barton | [email protected]
 
West Valley City was presented an award from the Utah Recreation and Parks Association (URPA) for its Outstanding Facility Recognition for the West Valley City Skate Park.

“I'm so excited about the skate park, I think it's such a booming success, and I’m really happy and proud to have it recognized at our state level,” said the city’s Parks and Recreation Director Kevin Astill.

Officials from the UPRA presented the award during a city council meeting on March 28. The membership association gathers each year to recognize facilities and programs for their excellence with UPRA President Derric Rykert saying they love to see what’s happening throughout Utah.

“What stood out to us about this one was the persistence that it took to make it happen,” Rykert told the city council.

The park’s grand opening was in October 2016, but the idea started 15 years before with West Valley resident Josh Scheuerman who continuously came to city council meetings to advocate the community need for a skate park.

“Josh Scheuerman worked on that with us for years, and I don't know of anybody's project that went on that long that finally came about,” Astill said.

Rykert said it was great learning about the “grassroots” of what it took to bring the skate park to the community.

“To find a way to fund that and to make it happen, oftentimes is not an easy thing,” Rykert said. “So, to see you accomplish this as a city, it’s exciting for us as an organization to see the support your parks and recreation department has from you as a city council.”

Rykert said they were proud themselves to recognize the city’s staff.

“We’re proud and grateful to recognize your skate park as an outstanding facility in Utah this year. Congratulations and thank you for the work that you did,” he said.

Astill said seeing the skate park be so popular has been wonderful.

“I really love it…and then to have the skate park so wildly successful, so heavily used (makes it even better),” Astill said. He added having Wi-Fi at the park works to its advantage with parents able to do work in the car while the kids are enjoying the park.

Mayor Ron Bigelow said there was only one day where he passed the skate park and there weren’t people there.

“It was covered in snow,” Bigelow remarked.
 
Another item of note:
 
The city council voted to approve an ordinance on April 4 that would allow additional members to the Professional Standards Review Board (PSRB). The board currently has seven members and the ordinance would require a minimum of five.

The ordinance also amended language of the municipal code to make the PSRB more efficient in their work.

PSRB is a citizen committee tasked with reviewing all use of force and complaints against officers of the West Valley City Police Department. The board offers recommendations and feedback on all cases striving to determine whether officer actions were made within policy or not.

City Manager Wayne Pyle said he proposed the ordinance change after interviewing two different people who he felt both warranted a spot on the board.

When passing the ordinance, councilman Steve Vincent said he’s “encouraged there exists a group of citizens that are willing to review our police efforts. It’s transparent and it’s open and they do an outstanding job.”

The PSRB typically holds public comment sessions on the second Thursday of each month.