City Manager Craig Martin is assembling a committee to look at potential sites for a skate park.
During a meeting with community skateboard, in-line skate and BMX enthusiasts, Jess Marsh, Ray Armijo and Tom Yeack agreed to serve on a committee with Martin and Kiwanians Jane Strom and Dean Kyle. Martin also plans to recruit youths to the committee as well so their concerns and criteria are considered. A member of the Parks Board, most likely Bill Marshall, also will serve on the siting committee.
The committee will develop criteria for rating sites then visit sites, both public and private, as well as talking to property owners about the possible use of different sites.
Among the criteria the committee will need to consider will be adjacent uses, visibility, noise buffering, access, zoning, infrastructure and costs, Martin said.
Involving youths will also allow them to “learn the concerns they’re going to be faced with,” Martin said.
Approximately $50,000 has been raised to spend on a skate park. Of that total, the city, in the past, budgeted $30,000. The Kiwanis and fund-raising efforts have raised another $20,000.
Martin met with interested adults and youths Wednesday night last week to discuss whether to use portable metal skate equipment or concrete to construct the park and to recruit volunteers for the siting committee.
Skaters listed a number of advantages to the portable equipment over concrete. Among them, the portable equipment is portable. If the park needs to be moved, it can be moved. It can also be rearranged. Making additions to the park is also easy through the purchase of new pieces.
Durability was listed as an advantage for both styles, but concrete makes less noise. Cost was also a factor. With $50,000, a park could be constructed sooner with the modular equipment.
In previous meetings, estimates for a concrete, in-ground park were upward of $250,000 to $350,000.
A decently sized park was listed in a SkateWave brochure at about $65,000. More elaborate parks were available at $90,000 and up. None of the company’s pre-constructed parks were more than $200,000.
Martin plans to set a meeting up between local skaters and SkateWave, which makes the portable equipment, next month. Skaters, who have had the opportunity to test out one of the ramps, will be able to determine what they want in a park and get an idea of the cost.
Some at the meeting talked about the idea of creating a hybrid with a concrete half-bowl at one end of the park and the modular equipment at the other end.
A group of adults agreed to head up fund-raising activities and seek public and private grants to help build the park. They will work with Strom. Kiwanian Jean McKinney reported that she had applied to the Tony Hawk Foundation for a $25,000 grant. Hawk is a renowned professional skater and the namesake for a popular series of video games.