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Design work begins for new skateboard park
By Chris Fitzgerald
KP News
On a
stormy night in mid-November, two Peninsula High School
students met with Chuck West and Key Peninsula
Metropolitan Park District Director Scott Gallacher at
the Key Center fire station to begin laying out a
skateboard park design. With $100,000 in funding secured
from the county through Councilman Terry Lee’s office,
and $14,000 raised by West and peninsula youth through
fund-raisers held over many months, coupled with
approval from the parks board, the project is a “go.”
Making use
of what is now a multipurpose (non-netted) tennis court
at Volunteer Park, the new facility will take advantage
of existing asphalt and fencing. The above-ground park
design the workshop participants envision will
accommodate both beginners and medium level skaters.
Using composite materials and steel for the skating
structures, West hopes there will be funding enough to
also provide a cover for inclement-weather use.
Jake
Marrero and Andrew Fallon, the two students present at
the meeting, said a park of this size can handle 20 to
30 skaters at a time. They thought there were easily 200
skaters on the Key Peninsula. West said all skaters who
are interested in joining in these planning sessions are
welcome to attend future meetings. A second workshop is
planned after the holidays, sometime in January.
“We want
input from everybody,” West said. “The skaters need to
have a say in the design of the park.” He feels strongly
that if the people who will use the park are not
involved, it will be just another project that adults
(non-skaters) planned. Giving the kids a voice in design
of the skate park gives them ownership in it — and a
responsibility for helping maintain it, West believes.
That
attitude of inclusion resonated with Fallon. He offered
to provide scale models through his architectural design
class at PHS. Marrero looked carefully at the proposed
design, and said it would be great for skaters not to
have to go to Gig Harbor to practice their sport. When
asked if the skaters were part of a group or club, he
said, “We’re just kids raising money so we can have
somewhere to skate.”
Gallacher
and West hope the new park will be “open for business”
by mid-2007. They and Kurt Self, new president of the
Key Peninsula Little League, are negotiating a move of
batting cages from the tennis court to a grassy area now
being prepared. The remaining tennis court will remain
for the enjoyment of tennis buffs.
West said
he still hopes to build a skate park at the 360-acre
parcel that is in the process of being acquired by the
KPMPD, but since the development of that park is still
years away, he would like to get the smaller skate park
off the ground now.
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