Letter To The Editor: Writer In Favor of Skate Park

My name is Zak Whitcomb and I am a skateboarder.

I have been skating for the past nine years and never had a skate park of my own. I've seen the skate scene in Berlin and surrounding towns expand rapidly in the past few years and almost every surrounding town has jumped at the opportunity to help the community skaters/BMX riders.

I have recently learned that the idea of a skate park in Berlin has been voted against and instead, a sporting facility would be established. We already have multiple sporting facilities which include Petit Baseball Field, Rentschler Field, Percival Pool and sporting fields. Who can forget that one million dollar turf football field?

Somewhere around five to six years ago, my cousin and a group of his peers, along with the support of many Berlin residents, petitioned and fundraised for a skatepark and to my knowledge, the money was used to renovate the bridge over famington avenue.

All I would like to come out of this e-mail letter is for the Town Council to re-think the decisions they have made against the creation of a skate park in Berlin. It would be greatly appreciated not only by the residents in Berlin who have children who skate, but also the police officers who on countless occasions have kicked skaters out of parking lots and schools for skating (having experienced this myself ). I think it would be a great addition to the town and keep a lot of kids out of trouble.

Thank you for your time and consideration, Zachary Whitcomb