By Sheila McLaughlin
The Cincinnati Enquirer

LOVELAND - Two years after citizens were told to develop a $60,000 skate park on their own, Sam Pack and his friends are skating at one another's houses and outside the city.

"We're just kind of out of luck like always," said the 16-year-old Loveland High School junior.

Despite working concession stands to raise money and pounding the pavement to gain support for the concept, Pack said he's nearly lost hope that a 7,500-square-foot skating facility will ever materialize on land the city promised at Lever Park.

Locally, communities are addressing the need for skate parks, with efforts under way in Mason and Delhi Township.

"It is time for the city to ante up," said Judy Leever, who has helped Tonya O'Brien and about a dozen skateboarders raise money and design the park. She and O'Brien intend to push for financial backing from the city after the holidays.

Leever said a state grant through the Department of Natural Resources is available, but it would require the city to pay a 25 percent match. With a Feb. 1 application deadline, the city needs to make a commitment soon, she said. She said the grant has been used by other communities to fund skate park construction.

"We really need an official buy-in from the city, and they are going to have to come up with some cash. I'm not critical of what they've done in the past. I think that was their approach, and now it's time to move on," Leever said.

At O'Brien's urging, council agreed to the skate park, promising unused land behind the tennis courts at Lever Park, but nothing more.

"City Council was pretty clear right from the start that it had to be a private fund-raising effort that was going to build the park - that the city was just going to provide the land," City Manager Fred Enderle said.

So far, O'Brien said she has spent more than 400 hours on the project. She tracked down equipment manufacturers, consulted with cities who had built them, worked with the teens to design the park and sought donations.

The group has secured thousands of dollars in services and materials, including concrete, excavation, wood, metal and welding, she said.

Some of the skateboarders raised $56 by selling lemonade at a stand in their neighborhood. The boys worked a concession stand at the Tour de Loveland bicycling event last year as a fund-raiser but were never paid for an unexplained reason, O'Brien said. Leever obtained a $3,000 grant from Cinergy, which the city is holding.

Councilmen Joe Schickel and Rob Weisgerber said the city should shell out some money for the park.

Weisgerber, whose three sons skateboard, said he will recommend that it be considered in next year's budget, which is up for discussion this week.

"I think it's unreasonable to ask a small group of private citizens to fund this entire effort," Weisgerber said.

E-mail smclaughlin@enquirer.com