Welcome to Nyssa Skates!

We're going to start posting the minutes from the latest meetings as a link here, so you can be easily updated. You'll also find the NEED OF THE DAY on this first page -- right now we need to let you know that there is a meeting this coming Thursday, April 10th, at 6:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers. The Agenda is posted here.

The City Council has approved our brochure and it has a lot of good skateboarding statistics that may surprise people. Please copy it on colored paper (if you can) and pass it out. The two pages are front and back, which may take a few fancy manipulations with your printer. (This is a Microsoft Word document, but will soon be available in PDF, too.)

In case people are wondering why we're still trying to raise money and interest, even though the kids can skate on what they have:

When we began this project, we thought we would do a little at a time, try to get some ramps and other things donated as we went along -- but research showed us that if we did anything permanent we would be disqualified from most grants. In order to retain our eligibility and still make a skate park available quickly, we invested in some portable equipment which can be re-sold (or donated to a small town that needs it), and continue our quest for big grants.

When we realized there were some sizeable grants available, it was decided we should think bigger: a South Park renovation that would include the rest rooms and the play area as well as the skate park. All areas will be made accessible to disabled people (did you know kids in wheelchairs can do spectacular tricks in skate parks? Look online!)

Because of our location, we will incorporate a theme into the design -- the Oregon Trail. There are only two theme parks in the state, which became destination points for even non-skaters and brought in tourist dollars.

We're currently writing grants for the Oregon Parks Dept. and other funding organizations. We still need to match what we get with at least 5% and we need to have cash to work with as we go, so we have to continue to raise money and donations of time and "things." We carefully account for all donations and expenditures with Malheur Credit Union records, which can be viewed by anyone who asks to see them.