LP YOUTH PANEL A MODEL FOR OTHERS

Once a month, a group of La Grange Park teens get together as the village's appointed Youth Advisory Commission to discuss and debate and reach consensus on all of the same issues on the Village Board's agenda the very next day.

We think this is a great idea and one that should be explored and, hopefully, adopted by others: including the Village of La Grange, the Park and Library districts, perhaps even the schools.

Ever since the former Rich Port YMCA of La Grange closed its doors three years ago, a variety of youth activities -- such as the successful indoor inline skate park, basketball courts and a variety of water sports -- have been swept under the rug.

As a result, kids continue to use area park district facilities for organized and pick-up sports games, but unless they belong to a private swim club or get rides from parents and driving-age friends to visit skate parks in other suburbs miles away from here, they have few outlets to recreate.

So, they play basketball in parks after hours, hang out on the top floor of the parking garage or in area parks and school grounds, skateboard where they cannot legally do so or play in the new downtown fountain.

A few weeks back, we suggested in this space the formation of some kind of public effort, by the Park District of La Grange, the Village of La Grange and/or a local developer, to purchase and redevelop one of several vacant properties in town into a combination skate/water park. Maybe a joint venture can be established with La Grange Park or its Park District.

Land is available along the north side of Cossitt Avenue just east of the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad tracks or at the northwest corner of Ashland and Harris avenues -- which we previously mentioned would be an excellent site due to its proximity to a school, a senior home and senior center, the downtown business district and its virtual lack of many next-door neighbors.

The former funeral home property, site of a failed condominium development, is completely shielded on one side by a high-rise brick wall, courtesy of AT&T.

On this issue and many others, we need to just sit back and listen, to the kids in La Grange or La Grange Park, maybe those whom the YMCA first assembled a decade ago to determine what kind of skate park could be created there.

Maybe our youth can come up with a solution, that is if we listen to their input.

Recreational options, however, are just some of the myriad of issues we should be asking our youth for their input on.

Every community around here should establish its own youth advisory commission, not just to let them opine about where a skate or water park can be built but to hear what they have to say about all the issues of the day.

It might be nice to know what the teens of La Grange or other taxing districts think about the latest sales tax hike, whether a pawn shop should be a permitted use in a downtown, whether a liquor license is granted or what safety measures need to be implemented on area roads. After all, they are our present and future consumers, parents and taxpayers.

Let's give a shout out to the youth and give them a voice once and for all. Not just on teen official day, but every day.

Just ask La Grange Park. The idea seems to working just fine over there.