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Skate park on the up
By Rudi Maxwell
Outside the Nimbin skate park are (l to r) Otto Egan-Schulz, Marlon Maher, Charlotte Egan-Schulz, Jacob Charles, Cameron Lee and Megan Lee.
A protest by a group of Nimbin schoolboys has galvanised the Friends of Nimbin Skatepark (FONS) to come up with an unusual solution to noise.
The skate park, on Cullen Street, has been closed for more than two years because of noise complaints from residents but a few weeks ago some frustrated schoolboys moved the chain-link fence aside and had a skate.
Construction expert Klara Morasszeky is going to section off part of the park with hemp masonry and conduct before and after sound checks.
Ms Morasszeky said the hemp masonry would take about a week to dry and it was important that no-one touched it during that crucial time.
At a community meeting on Friday afternoon, local children, parents and FONS members discussed what their next move would be to get Lismore City Council to re-open the park.
FONS is going to put in an application to Council for a temporary permit.
Alex Charles, whose son Jacob was one of the boys involved in the skating protest, said he was pleased direct action had moved the process forward.
“I’m really proud of these kids,” Mr Charles said. “The worst thing that could happen for them would be to be squashed by a bureaucratic process.”
FONS spokesperson Elowyn Paitson said everyone had a responsibility to residents and that it wouldn’t be fair to impose one point of view on other people.
Marlon Maher, 13, said there wasn’t much to do in Nimbin for kids his age.
“I just want it to open,” Marlon said. “We just want to skate.”
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