The county youth commission presented a report to Carbon lawmakers on local teen’s thoughts about recreational facilities in the area.
The report was based on a questionnaire the group designed that was directed at teenagers in the area in the junior highs and high schools. The form students filled out included questions about four specific venues, inquired about their thoughts on the location of a recreational facility and it also had an open ended section in which students could place their own ideas.
The four specific venues included an expanded/indoor ice rink, batting cages, a paintball/laser tag course and a miniature golf course. Altogether the youth commission gathered 1,243 surveys.
By far the most popular venue that was proposed was a paintball/laser tag venue. The surveys showed that venue got 60 percent support at the strongest rating while another 14 percent of the respondents were interested.
Miniature golf was the next most popular venue with 67 percent either strongly in favor or interested in having such a facility in the areas.
Third was an expanded ice rink with a 60 percent interested mark, but over 20 percent also said they were not interested at all.
The least popular venue was batting cages. Only 36 percent said they were strongly interested while 15 percent said they were interested.
The questionnaire also asked about where teens would like recreational facilities located. The majority of the respondents, 67 percent, said that they would like to see a central location for such a facility rather than have venues broken up between communities.
It was obvious to the commissioners that the youth commission had done a great deal of work on the project, which gives some valuable information to the county on the kinds of recreational venues teens want. The report also led to a discussion about what is already offered and what is in the planning stages.
“Our master plan for the fairgrounds incorporates a number of ideas for recreational activities,” said Commissioner Bill Krompel. “We already have a number of things for people to do out there, including the motocross track (which is presently shut down for construction) and the 4X4 range. We also have a small ice rink there too.”
Commissioner Steve Burge pointed out that the new gun range that is being planned by Wattis Road will probably have a paint ball range included in it too.
“There is a piece of the property that would be perfect for that type of thing,” he said.
But Liz Kourianos, an adviser to the youth commission pointed out that the direction in which the regular commission has been heading for recreational sites may very well be different from what teens and their parents envision as being a viable place to have activities.
“I understand your master plans but as the surveys have been done we have received a number of comments on various kinds of things,” she told the commissioners. “One of those things is that both parents and kids see the fairgrounds as a more tournament kind of place, not a place for kids to be. Many parents are concerned there isn’t enough traffic out there for things to be safe for kids. All the kids are looking for is a place to be, but it needs to be a place where parents are comfortable leaving their kids, a place where people are watching the area.”
Another thing that was brought out by Kourianos was that some of the respondents also told the youth commission that they are tired of filling out surveys and want to see something done about the recreational situation in the community.
“A number said ‘just do something’ when they filled out the surveys,” stated Kourianos.
Burge suggested that with the input the youth commission should come back with some kind of plan for recreation.
“It would be good to see what you envision,” he told the students. “Bring us a one year plan or a three year plan. Something that spells out what you think we should do.”
The county commissioners also approved the sale of anticipation notes to finance county operations for the budget year. They approved the notes for $3.3 at 2.6 percent interest. There was some question as to if this is financially a good move for the county, despite the fact they have been doing it for years.
“Actually with reinvestment of funds we make money doing it this way,” explained Bob Pero, the county clerk. “By doing some reinvestment with the money we made an addition $50,000 for the county last year.”
The county has also released a list of the funding (from either the county, restaurant tax fund or Carbon Recreation and Transportation Special Service District) or in kind projects it has awarded to various venue within the Price City limits. Those projects include the following.
• Money and in kind services to improve the little league fields at the Toy Atwood ball complex ($124,000).
• Funding for the skateboard park ($25,000).
• Money for the new BMX track ($47,800).
• Cash to improve the ball diamonds for older players at the Toy Atwood ball park ($57,500).
• Cash toward the Kokopelli statue on Main Street and 100 West ($40,000).
• Cash for projects at the CEU Prehistoric Museum such as the Utah Raptor statue, architectural design cost for the proposed museum expansion, and vehicles for the museum ($270,000).
• Feasibility study for the CEU Prehistoric Museum ($125,600).
• City park playground equipment ($20,000).
• Miners memorial statue ($2,700).
• Marquee project ($28,815).
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