suntimesnews.com

STE. GENEVIEVE -- A Ste. Genevieve alderman has announced the Ste. Genevieve Skate Park is on target and scheduled to open Oct. 31.

"Larry Marler has indicated he will donate the land adjacent to the lower VFW Khoury League fields and the concrete slab. The VFW Khoury League fields are located between 4th and 3rd streets along the North Gabouri Creek," Alderman Jerry Klein said.

"The seven pieces of equipment are coming from a Colorado-based company that has been providing skateboarding park plans and equipment since 1989, has a 10-year warranty and is for skateboarders, bicycles, scooters and roller blades."

Klein said the money to purchase the equipment is being raised through individual donations, group or organizational donations and business donations.

"The park would not be, if the interest and the ability to raise approximately one-third of the money hadn't been done by interested kids and their friends and families. The organizations and businesses have been approached to let them know what was happening and now that the intended one-third has been raised, the balance of the $10,000 necessary should be in the bank by the first week of October," Klein said.

The board of aldermen showed its general support of the proposal presented by Klein at the Sept. 12 meeting. The Park Board had earlier given the project a thumbs-up after a public meeting with Larry Marler.

"The issue of insurance will soon be a non-issue," Klein said. "The equipment from the company is so good and so highly recommended that 83 insurance companies, and especially the big ones that cover municipalities, have indicated to me, as recently as Sept. 9 and 10 that insurance on this company's equipment is very affordable, sometimes at no more than the current premiums the city is already paying."