About 45 minutes south west of my hometown, is a small village called Lake Orion. We won’t go so far as to call it huge, as the population is roughly only about 3,000 as of the 2010 Census. The village is part of what is known as Orion Township, and even that entire area is made up of only about 35,000 people. After watching the X-Games four years ago, Orion Township resident Logan Kaiser decided to take up skateboarding. Unfortunately for Logan, there is no legal place to skate in his area, which is why he is taking his want for a new skate park to a higher power.
“I want a skate park because kids have no where to skate. You can’t go to public places like a Kroger’s parking lot or a strip mall plaza,” Kaiser said. “We have a bark park for dogs, playgrounds for kids, soccer fields, baseball diamonds, basketball courts, but we don’t have a skate park.”
He appeared before the Orion Township Board at the Sept. 4 meeting with over 300 petitions in hand hoping to gain support for his cause.
“Sometimes it costs too much money and time to drive way out to other facilities or to pay $10 for two hour session just so you can skate,” continued Kaiser. “It would be nice to have something here in Lake Orion for the kids to be able to use at their free will.”
Using a nearby Auburn Hills skate park, which is about 10 minutes south, as a model and scale size, he said there was an ideal spot at Friendship Park where a skate park could be placed. The Auburn Hills site cost $250,000 but that included, price of the land, buying a house that was on the property to demolish, building a parking lots, bathroom facilities and water fountains, and a call box.
With Friendship Park already having all of that, Kaiser, estimates a skate park could be built for around $200,000 tops.
If support is given by the board, next steps will be to figure out how to fund the project.
Besides skateboarding, Kaiser is also a second degree black belt in karate and teaches karate at the Great Lakes Athletic Club. He also plays lacross, and has been on the honor roll since first grade and an honors student since fifth. After high school he plans to go to college in the medical field.
This having been his first time dealing with local government, Kaiser said the experience has him thinking about the future.
“It’s got me thinking about things like what can I do to help my community and I feel I’m basically a spokesperson for somebody in my community,” he said. “The smallest thing can make the biggest difference.
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