Jackson takes bids to build skateboard park

Friday afternoon was just too good to waste.

Just days after Jackson City Hall received bids for a proposed skateboard park, Colt Lantz toted his board under his arm on Main Street, heading to meet about 12 pals coming from junior high.

The boys had heard about the skateboard park. One of them said he heard it was coming in June.

Actually, the city is planning a ceremony to open the skateboard park June 4 at the northern end of the city park.

The boys also said they had heard something about the skateboard park committee, but they hadn't seen the design yet.

After seeing it Friday, they weren't impressed.

"Is that it?" Garrett Seabaugh asked. "I think it probably needs more stuff. It'll probably get boring after a while."

Jackson park officials have heard this before.

Last year, Jackson's two Optimist clubs pledged a donation of $30,000 apiece for a new skateboard park. Also, Jackson High School's Family Career and Community Leaders of America group will donate another $1,681. With the help of parks director Shane West Anderson, the Optimists and the city came up with a park design.

When the design was first introduced at a city council meeting last spring, a throng of skateboarders bemoaned the design. The skateboarders who attended the meeting said steel objects like those proposed by the city wouldn't keep their attention. They wanted a concrete park like the one in Farmington, Mo. Parents and skateboarders alike said they'd help raise funds for the project.

So Jackson officials halted the park. The city formed a skateboard park committee in May. The committee included as many as 25 skateboarders.

But it didn't take long for the skateboarders to understand the problem. Sixty thousand dollars wasn't going to buy a concrete park.

The skateboarders resigned themselves to the steel objects. Then they helped come up with a different design.

The final design isn't that much different than the original. The skateboarders scrapped the design with the four separate quarter pipes. Instead, they squeezed the design, making room for wider ramps. And instead of having two separate islands with smaller ramps and rails, they combined the two and added features including stairs and a drop.

The skateboarders, however, didn't do any fund raising. And because of the rising cost of steel, the skateboarders are getting less equipment, in terms of area, than the original design, Anderson said.

The lowest bid for the new design came in at $56,713 That leaves roughly $5,000 left over for the manufacturer to add another piece to the park.

After a couple minutes of looking over the new design on Friday, several more boys, about 10 of them, appeared down the street. Lantz and the others waved them over.

The reaction was mixed. It wasn't exactly Farmington.

But when the situation was explained and when they learned that other skateboarders had a hand in the design, the outlook was a bit more positive.

"If that's the best we can get, then, yeah, it's good," said Sean Malone. "I'll skate it."

"Beggars can't be choosers," added Anthony Bartone.

They'll get their chance on June 4, when

Before they took off toward town, the boys were asked if they'd be skating at the skateboard park right now if it were in place.

"Yeah," Garrett Seabaugh said. "We'd probably go there every day."

bmiller@semissourian.com

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