Cape council looks to approve skate park project

The Cape Girardeau City Council appears ready to roll ahead with construction of a multiuse skate park.

The council is set to approve a design-build contract today with American Ramp Co. of Joplin, Missouri. Under the agreement, negotiated by city staff, the maximum cost of the project would be slightly more than $252,000, city engineer Casey Brunke said in a council agenda letter.

Private fundraising efforts have generated about $60,000 toward the project, Brunke said. As a result, the city will kick in about $192,000 for the project.

Cape Girardeau furniture store owner Chris Hutson said he is �very thrilled� the skate park soon will be a reality.

�It is going to be fantastic,� said Hutson, a promoter of the skate park and a skate enthusiast.

He said he hopes the skate park will be open by summer.

Brunke said she doesn�t have a time frame for the project. It will be late April before the contract is finalized, she said.

Hutson said he is looking forward to using the skate park whenever it opens.

The concrete, triangle-shaped skate park will be built in Arena Park on land donated by the SEMO Fair Board, Hutson said Friday. The vacant ground near East Rodney Drive and Hawthorne Road has been used for overflow parking for the annual district fair.

Plans call for the skate park to be open from dawn to dusk. It will not be lit, Hutson said. The project will include parking, he said.

Hutson has been working for years to develop a skate park. The new skate park will serve skateboard, Rollerblade and BMX bicycle enthusiasts, he told the Southeast Missourian in 2016.

The city has a small skate park at Missouri Park, but it has limited skate features, making it less desirable, Hutson said.

Parks and recreation director Julia Jones said in 2016 that people find the existing site at Missouri Park �in rough shape right now.�

Hutson said in 2016 the new, precast concrete park would feature a variety of skating elements, including rails, steps and curved surfaces such as a bowl and a �halfpipe.�

The city�s share of the funding will come from revenue generated by the parks/stormwater tax approved by voters in 2008.

City manager Scott Meyer said the project initially was among several parks projects proposed to be funded with the sales tax. But a lack of funding put the project on the back burner while fundraising efforts continued.

In recent years, city staff determined surplus parks/stormwater sales tax revenue was available to fund additional projects. As a result, funding is now in place for the skate park, Meyer said.

The city did not advertise for bids for the project, Meyer said.

According to officials, the city doesn�t have to take bids because American Ramp Co. has a cooperative purchasing contract. Meyer said American Ramp and its competitors have listed prices that have been publicly bid nationally.

As a result, �you have competition� which allows for better prices than would be the case if a single city like Cape Girardeau would take bids for a project, Meyer said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641

Pertinent address:

Arena Park, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Missouri Park, Cape Girardeau, Mo.