4.3. SR 04-20-1998 - Laserfiche WebLink

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BU'y a briCk All of the evidence and the comments from youth point to the need for a space where young people can hang out with their friends after school hours. Most communities have some kind of center for their youth. Elk River needs to step uP and get involved with this effort to build a youth center in Lions Community Park and to bring in a Boys and Girls Club to program it. The plan is simple. By selling bricks for $25 apiece, the $800,000 can be reached. That's the amount needed to build the 12,000-square-foot building and to provide the $200,000 in operating funds for the Boys and Girls Club program. The Elk River Lions Club is committed to con- tributing $50,000 this year. It also has said it will contribute $50,000 for each of the next two years. This drive has good leadership, headed by an emerging, leader, Daryl Thompson who has given many hours to putting the plan together and mak- ing it work, even to the designing of promotional materials. In addition, businesses are donating materials and services. The city has donated a site in Lions Park, believed to be valued at $100,000. We're told the school census shows there are 9,000 youngsters from birth to age 18 in this school dis- trict. Sherburne and Wright County officials are bracing themselves for the number of juveniles who will come through the court system.Young people themselves are telling us they will go to a youth cen- ter that's properly managed and where they have some input. City government has gone as far as we can expect by building more baseball and softball diamonds and expanding the ice arena. Promoting a park bond issue with an outdoor pool in it is next on the agen- da. All of these measures to give every youngster a fighting chance in a fast-paced, changing society are better than paying to house them in more jails.-- Don Heinzman We~lnesdav. Aoril 15. 1998/Elk River Star News