On Monday evening, the Portsmouth Town Council will discuss this year's Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) proposal, and one of the items listed is funding for improvements to the Island Park playground, including, according to a source familiar with the process, "playground improvements to include a skate area."

If you're a supporter of the skate area, please be there tomorrow to speak up for including this project in the grant request. If you can't be there in person, send a note to the council (e-mails below).

Opponents of the skate area have already been communicating with the Council, based on documents obtained by hard deadlines, and I would anticipate there will be a...uh...vigorous discussion.

Just to review a few facts: Funding for the skate area was included in last year's CDBG proposal, so this is nothing new. This is a competitive process, and the money comes from the Federal department of Housing and Urban development. While support would prioritize projects that impact housing (like Church Community Housing Corporation, who manage the senior housing facility, Anthony House, where the PCC have their meetings), improvements to a playground for a low-to-moderate income area such as Island Park are certainly within the scope of such grants.

Also, as a member of the ad-hoc committee which met last summer in a failed attempt to find an acceptable solution, I want to be very clear about what the committee decided. When we could not come to consensus on any of the solutions that were proposed — and supporters progressively backed down from the original design for an true skate park to a small asphalt surface with equipment that could be removed after a trial period — we agreed to table the question of the skate area. As an ad-hoc committee.

Let me say that again: As an ad-hoc committee, asked by the Council to meet, but with no official standing, we tabled consideration *by our committee* because we could not reach consensus.

This was not an official committee of the town, and it had no decision-making authority. There were no elected officials on the committee, and no open meetings requirements. This was not a decision-making body.

Any argument proceeding from the premise that the skate area is somehow "tabled" — which I have heard tossed around at subsequent meetings — misunderstands the role of advisory committees.

Can't be there? You can reach the Town Council at these e-mail addresses (hlittle@portsmouthri.com, dcanario@portsmouthri.com, kgleason@portsmouthri.com, khamilton@portsmouthri.com, jplumb@portsmouthri.com, jseveney@portsmouthri.com) and their phone numbers available on the Portsmouth Web site.

Previous coverage can be found here.

If you're on Facebook, check out the "Support the IP Skate Park" group.

Full disclosure: If it isn't completely clear from the above, I am a supporter of a skate area for our kids in Island Park, and was a member of the ad-hoc committee last summer.