Tag: Recreation
Environment
Spring has Sprung
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• •Children, Pop culture, Public health
Jumpin’ Without Jesus: Get Air at the Silo to Open Soon in Grand Junction
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• •A controversy arose in Grand Junction last month after a parent complained about a video shown to Grand Mesa Middle School students that promoted Fellowship Church’s new youth indoctrination center, “4640.” The video boasted that 4640 had a foam pit, a ledge swing, a “spider jump center” and a delicious food court “filled with more junk food than you can imagine.” The only problem was that kids going to 4640 get pressured to become Christian.
But Fellowship Church is about to get some secular competition for the minds and bodies of local recreation-starved youth.
A trampoline and climbing amusement park called Get Air at the Silo is getting ready to open in the old Mesa Feed building at 715 S. 7th Street in LoJo (lower downtown Grand Junction). Word is the silo on the property is getting remade into a climbing course.
Attractions will include a foam pit, a series of pit trampolines that allow people to jump like rabbits from one to the next, dodge ball, gymnastics training, “Extreme Air Training,” an angled trampoline you can run up to do flips, “air jam basketball” (a tramp for slam-dunking basketballs into a hoop), a course for smaller kids and a snack and party room. The facility will be equipped with delayed-view recording cameras and a giant, flat-screen monitor that lets patrons and their friends review their jumps.
The facility is a franchise of Get Air Management, which operates large trampoline parks worldwide. Get Air has parks in Tucson, AZ, Kennewick, WA, Temecula, CA, Huntington Beach, CA, Kaysville, UT, Nicholasville, KY, Poway, CA, and has more parks set to open this summer in Oregon, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Washington and Maine.
A similar Get Air facility in Tucson, AZ charges $10 for one hour of jumping, but some cities in California charge up to $14/hour. The facility will be available for parties, and passes will be available. For the fee, patrons can jump all they want with zero pressure to become Christian.
Get Air Management requires users to sign legal waivers regarding injury and follow specific safety rules. Users of recreation facilities like foam pits and trampolines, whether they are in secular or religious facilities, need to be aware of the potential for serious injury from these activities.
Get Air Silo is located at 715 S. 7th Street in Grand Junction, near the Daily Sentinel building.
Consumer advocacy, Environment, politics, Public health
The Grand Valley Canals Double Message
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• •Updated September 8, 2016 – Author’s note: On September 5, 2016, The Daily Sentinel published a front page story about the possibility of opening up the Orchard Mesa canal banks to public recreational use. The story quoted former Colorado State Representative Tim Foster, now President of Colorado Mesa University, who called landowners’ claims that they fear legal liability from opening the canals to public recreation a “red herring.” Here’s the quote:
[Colorado Mesa University President] Tim Foster…served as a Colorado state representative between 1988 and 1996 and helped carry a bill in the early 1990s that would transfer liability of canal banks to the state, paving the way to combine trails with canals. The law was passed to help complete the current High Line Canal Trail in Denver that spans more than 70 miles, though that ditch doesn’t usually contain much water.
“The bill gave them protections from liability,” Foster said. “The liability argument is a complete red herring. Me and Tillie (Bishop) carried it, and it gives them immunity. At the end of the day, these guys got stuck on not letting anybody on the canals.”
Grand Junction, Colorado area citizens can often be seen walking dogs, running, biking and even cross-country skiing on the beautiful banks of the Grand Valley’s irrigation canals. The maintenance roads along the canals offer expansive vistas, blissful quiet and a feeling of safety for recreators because of the absence of motor vehicles. Newer subdivisions across the valley even have concrete pathways leading straight up onto the canal banks, beckoning residents to take peaceful walks there.
But at the same time signs posted along the canal roads warn that they are “No Trespassing” zones.
So, which is it? Are the canal roads off limits, or is it okay for the public to walk, run or bike on them?
The answer is both, and neither.