Tuesday, August 10, 1999
Skating craze spawns demand for new parks
Petitioners try to bowl over Boone County
BY KRISTINA GOETZ
The Cincinnati Enquirer
In-line skating enthusiast Josh Solomon, 14, of Burlington, flies off a plywood ramp Monday in his neighborhood.
(Patrick Reddy photo)
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BURLINGTON — It's not unusual for Tristate young people to travel 30 to 45 minutes to a Middletown park to roll, twist and grind on in-line skates and skateboards.
But if more than two dozen young people, their parents and supporters get their way, Boone County leaders will include such a park in their recreation plan.
“Middletown is a half-hour away, and we go all the time and it's worth it,” said Drew Hamilton, 19, of Clifton. A closer location would bring his friends out, he said. “If it was good, I could see us going out there every day almost.”
He is among 32 million people ages 7 and up nationwide who have caught on to the skating craze. In-line skating has been the fastest-growing sport in the world for four years, according to the Aggressive Skaters Association in California. Ohio is among the top 10 in-line markets in the nation, and skateboarding maintains a steady following.
Some in Greater Cincinnati travel as far as Indianapolis to practice. But most drive to Middletown, where an estimated $500,000 state-of-the-art facility opened in June.
A closer skate park would give them a place to build friendships, form teams and compete against each other, supporters say. It would also keep in-line skaters and skateboarders out of parking lots and away from businesses and traffic.
David Solomon, whose 14-year-old son, Josh, wrote a letter to the Boone County Parks Department in June about building a skate park, said Middletown has a nice facility, but that it's too far to drive.
“I don't think it matters much where it is (in Boone County), just so one is put in,” Mr. Solomon said. “I think he (Josh) would use it three-quarters of the year. Even in the cold months, he would just bundle up and go. He loves it that much.”
The Boone County Parks Department received input from a group of more than 50 people Monday night including Josh, whose petition earlier this summer had about two dozen other skate enthusiasts' names on it. The group, along with supportive parents, is hoping that county leaders will find a way to make it happen.
Extreme enthusiasts
Denise Bolton, Middletown recreation administrator, said response to the park there has been phenomenal. It was funded in part by Baker Concrete Construction Inc. of Monroe, which offered to donate supplies and labor after skaters complained to city commissioners about having nowhere to go. The city and about 20 other businesses joined to build the park.
Planned as a small concrete skating area where in-line skaters and skateboarders could do twists and grinds on concrete edges, the park has evolved into a huge facility, covering more than a half-acre, featuring a variety of bowls, ramps, pyramids, rails, benches and other skater delights. It stretches 300 feet at the longest point and is 110 feet wide, with areas for beginners, intermediate and advanced skaters.
As word has spread across the region about the Middletown skate park's success, officials in cities from Louisville to Lebanon have called to ask how they can get their own built.
“They want to know what the requirements are,” Ms. Bolton said. “They wanted to respond to the needs of their communities, too.”
Parks planned within about a 100-mile radius of Cincinnati include:
• Louisville, which has a 4,500- square-foot facility in Breslin Park on the eastern edge of downtown. Partly because of the ESPN X-Trials held in the city during this year's Derby Festival, a 10,000-square-foot park is on the drawing board.
“The task force would like to open the park next summer, but there's no promise on that,” said Melanie Lilly of the Louisville/Jefferson County Parks Department. The city budgeted $330,000 for the project.
Aaron Durand, of Athens, Ohio, skates at the Baker Bowl Skate Park in Middletown's Smith Park.
(File photo)
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• Lexington, where adults and teens have been working for three years with city officials and a nonprofit group called the Triangle Foundation, which uses private money for public good. The nonprofit organization paid for the park, to open in September.
“If you have enough people and you're mature about it and do it the right way, they have to pay attention,” said Tony Connor, 23, who was instrumental in helping to bring the park to the city. “It works out good if you get business owners involved.”
That's the enthusiasm Northern Kentucky skateboarders and in-line skaters like to hear. They just want the message to get across to Boone County officials.
Even DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) Officer Christine Heckel of the Boone County Police Department is a supporter of the project.
“A lot of the young men, that's where we're seeing a lot of the aggressiveness,” she said. “They have a lot of energy and get bored easily. With that energy, they're going to find things to do, getting into trouble.”
At Monday night's workshop meeting for the county's recreation plan, many offered suggestions for what the park should look like and what it should include.
“We just want somewhere to skate,” said Josh Mahan, 18, of Hebron. “Whatever they tell us to do, we'll do.”
Ken Hund, Boone County parks and recreation director, said he hopes lots of residents fill out surveys to tell officials what they want the county's park system to include. The parks plan, which will guide officials in making recreation spending decisions, should be finished by November and will later be sent to the fiscal court.
“I don't want to emphasize skate parks over any others (projects),” Mr. Hund said. “Horse people want horse trails; ball players want more fields. Nothing is a front-runner yet.”
Just in case, skaters have sent him information about everything from how to build a skate park to how much it might cost and what companies design and construct them.
“We're listening,” he said. “We're not promising anybody anything, but we're listening.”
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