Strategically set, amongst firs and wetlands Coal Hills is a super natural BC playground and plays host to thousands of visitors a year to our village many of whom camp on its grounds. Coal Hills BMX represents the best of Cumberland youth and adults working together to achieve a goal.

Could anyone imagine a better welcome to our village?

Could anyone even imagine considering a developers request to put a road through a children's park? But that is what our Council is prepared to do. This after considering a design for this public space by a private developer only concerned with its own interests.

Let's back up a bit.

The idea to build a BMX facility in Cumberland started in 1997 when a group of Grade Five students approached Rick Grinham-who was a member of the Village Council at the time-and asked that there be some kind of recreational opportunity provided in the village. Three types of facilities were provided- a skateboard park, a rollerblade park and a BMX track. After conducting a survey it was decided that the BMX track was the option to pursue. After all, Courtenay already had a skateboard park, and Comox had a rollerblade park.

Weldwood , the owner of the land adjacent to Village Park was approached and an agreement was entered into whereby Weldwood donated lands to the Village-in exhange for an ecotax credit. The land is now incorporated into Village Park. Although the land is owned by the village, the operation and maintenance of the BMX facility is the responsibility of the Coal Hills BMX Association.

The Association received a grant of $25,000 from the Regional District of Comox-Strathcona and a Millennium Grant of $50,000 from the Provincial Government. Additional funds were required so the association sought corporate sponsors who would provide services and materials. Lafarge Cement Canada, Wacor, Edgett Contracting and Cumberland Ready Mix stepped up to the plate.

BC Hydro viewed this as a good project and provided light standards and lights which allow the track to operate at night. The Knights of Columbus, the Courtenay Rotary Club, Kiwanis, the Royston Lions Club and the Masonic Lodge also assist by providing funding to help in the facility's maintenance and operation.

In the spring of 2001 an army of volunteers young and old helped clear the land and construct the park.

Coal Hills BMX became the third official track on Vancouver Island (after Nanimo and Victoria).

The initial history of BMX has kids, armed with shovels, heading off into the forest to construct jumps and berms that they can ride without being caught and thus avoid having all their hard earned labours destroyed.

"BMX" stands for bicycle motocross-a trend which began in California in the early 1970s. Kids too young for a motorcycle built dirt courses and jumps in their backyards and vacant fields and used bicycles instead of the motorcycles to gain speed, jump, flip and land.

Do you remember E.T? BMX bikes were well used for trips to the moon

I see BMX parks and especially Cumberland's Coal Hills park as Earth Art-the art of altering the natural environment to create earthworks.

Coal Hills BMX also benefits from good design, dedication and goodwill. A place to camp, compete and celebrate with others and experience what it is to be alive.

An experience that is shared by many. Today BMX racing attracts more than 200,000 riders of all ages racing in organized events at permanent tracks all across North America. The growth of the sport has been particularly strong in BC in the past few years. This year it will be an Olympic event in Beijing.

Since 2003 Cumberland has played host to a National Event called the Canadian Invitationals. These events involve 400 to 500 racers and draw upwards of 1,5000 spectators.

But that is only one aspect of the park. On any given day a visitor to the park will find children and their parents wheeling around the park sharing an opportunity for fun and bonding. The background ambience of birdsongs, the clanking of horseshoes, the cracking of baseball bats and the joys of children throughout the park can also be heard.

What will we have taught our children if we allow sacred hard earned public space to be shaped and destroyed by a developer and a complicit council?

We often hear our youth denigrated by accusations of vandalism. The proposed destruction of Coal Hills BMX-via a road- is corporate sponsored vandalism.

I urge all Cumberlanders to do their bests to make sure Coal Hills BMX Park and Village Park remains as is. If it ain't broke - don't fix it.

Thanks

Grant Shilling