Skateboard park users are dismayed with the City of Red Deer’s removal of their summer Christmas tree — just two days after hearing Mayor Morris Flewwelling loved their creation.
Since Sunday, users of the city’s only skateboard park near Red Deer Arena had been tossing their worn-out or broken gear onto the naked branches of a nearby city-owned tree. It accumulated more than 15 ornaments, including a pair of lime green runners, bike tires and skateboard decks.
Flewwelling was impressed when he saw the tree while attending Monday’s launch of the city’s Green Deer outdoor cleanup campaign. He phoned the Advocate to say he thought it might make a good story.
“They’ve done a clever little initiative,” he said Monday night. “I think it’s a signal that the kids appreciate the park and they are going to look after it.”
“That’s why we are doing it — to show there are lots of kids going down there all the time,” said Josh Knelson, 22. “The Red Deer (park) is like a big family.”
Knelson, one of the originators of the idea, was later astonished to learn that a city crew used a bucket truck to remove all the paraphernalia Thursday morning.
“Everybody is pretty choked that the city would go out of their way to take it down,” said Knelson.
He spoke with Steve Davison, parks amenities supervisor, who told him that it was against city bylaws to throw things up into the trees. Violators would be ticketed.
“We were trying to show we wanted a new skateboard park and that we wanted to have our own Christmas tree down there,” Knelson said.
Flewwelling was surprised to hear the items were taken down on Thursday and said he would make some inquiries. He said he didn’t talk to any staff about ensuring the stuff remained.
“I didn’t think it would be an issue,” Flewwelling said.
Davison said it wasn’t his crew, but he would check into what happened.
“It’s ridiculous,” Knelson replied. “It’s not like we’re the first place to have a tree with board decks.”
Knelson and buddies, Donnie Halladay and Jeff Derrick, decided to imitate what had been done in Port Coquitlam, B.C.
The B.C. boarders tossed their broken decks — the flat long wood part that skateboarders stand on — into a tree they dubbed “the graveyard tree.”
Knelson said he saw the West Coast tree and thought it would be great to transplant the idea here.
Regular park users quickly came on board. Steven Wieler, 22, and his younger brother Corey tossed away bike and skateboard tires and broken skateboard decks.
“It’s something that people are having fun with,” Wieler said.
BMX rider JayC Crawford said on Tuesday he thought the creation was funny and artistic.
“Every board, tire and shoelace symbolizes a piece of fun from the past,” he said.
ltester@www.reddeeradvocate.com