Springfield is the largest city in Southern Missouri, yet it has a single skatepark that charges an outrageous amount of money to use. Kansas city has more than 10 free and public parks to use and St. Louis has a similar number as well. Even worse than this, Joplin is smaller than Springfield but has two free facilities that the townspeople can enjoy. Why is this?

It is because Springfield has decided that it does not need to provide skateboarders equal free access to recreational facilities as it does for tennis and basketball courts, walking trails, playgrounds and the like.

So where can we go otherwise? Unfortunately, the closest free skateparks are more than 30 miles away, in either Aurora, MO or in Crane, MO. The budgets of these towns are infinitesimal compared to Springfield's, yet they are perfectly able to find some portion of their tax dollars to allocate for public facilities. Springfield has chosen to contract this responsibility to a for-profit entity, by sponsoring the Springfield Skatepark. This is unacceptable. 

Faced with the option to pay $10 - 15 to use the town park for single day, which equates to $40 - 60 dollars a month on a once-per-week frequency, town skaters are compelled most often to skate at spots like Founder's Park, where we unfortunately end up damaging property, or at less-than-ideal spots like drain ditches, loading docks, or parking lots.

Please sign this petition so that our skating community can finally have a decent facility to use without having to spend so much of our money on daily exercise.

This petition will be presented before the Springfield Park Board in hopes that they will assess and plan for a park in the next fiscal budgeting hearing.