Mike Soltz goes for a spin at the skate park on Tuesday. A group of community members has banded together to make the skate park safer and more appealing. The City has recently made changes such as cutting back shrubbery, making the parking lot loading only, increasing patrols and installing surveillance cameras./Photo by Jennaye Derge

 

On a roll

‘State of the Skate’ group on mission to clean up skate park

by Missy Votel

 

It’s been eight years since the City of Durango unveiled its new $1.2 million skate park, and the popular local attraction is looking a little worse for the wear.

That’s what became immediately apparent to Karen Rowan, who frequents the park regularly with her teen-age grandson, Pat. She and Pat were at the park last fall, when they both came away with similar observations: to make the park more appealing, safer and in the words of Pat, “more fun.”

“He said, ‘I wish there was water and shade,’” Rowan recalls Pat telling her. As for Rowan, she saw a need for the park to be more welcoming, with spots for spectators to sit, as well as removing the more unsavory aspects that don’t necessarily have anything to do with skateboarding – notably drug and alcohol use.

As such, Rowan – a far cry from the stereotypical grandma – set about trying to make change.

“My grandson loves to skateboard, I love my grandson, so I love skateboarding,” said the energetic 59-year-old.

She soon enlisted the help of a small army of skateboarding advocates, from local skate shops and skaters to the Celebrating Healthy Communities Coalition and Southern Ute Community Action Programs. The group, operating under the name “State of the Skate” with SUCAP as its fiscal agent, came up with a plan to better the park and presented it to city officials last fall.

“We started a conversation with Cathy Metz of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department and the Durango Police Department,” Cody Goss, coordinator for Healthy Communities Coalition said. “There are some negative connotations with the skate park and parents won’t let their kids go there. We want to change the face and what is considered ‘normal’ there. We want it to be associated with a safe, healthy outlet for kids.”

The results of that first meeting were immediate, with city officials recognizing a need to clean up the park, which as city property is an alcohol- and drug-free zone. For starters, the overgrown brush around the park was trimmed back for better visibility and a surveillance camera was installed. “Ninety-nine percent of the kids at the skate park are awesome. It’s just a few that are doing things that are not appropriate,” said Metz. “It’s a deterrent if people realize their actions are being recorded.”

In addition, the park’s lower parking lot was turned into a loading zone only, in an effort to discourage loitering, and city park rangers as well as the Durango Police stepped up patrols. “The park rangers are there on a daily basis,” said Metz.

With the issue of safety being addressed, the group also set about trying to increase community involvement at the park. “Other than the Learn to Skate program and the Tear it Up for Tyler event on June 14, there’s nothing else that goes on,” said Rowan.

As a result, the group, along with three local business sponsors – Zumiez, the Boarding Haus and Inferno – have teamed up for weekly rail jams throughout the summer. Known as “Thrasher Thursdays,” the free events will feature prizes from local businesses. At the July 23 Thrasher Thursday, radio station 99X will simulcast and the Evening Rotary will provide a free barbecue.

“The idea is to include kids who think they might want to compete,” said Rowan.

Former competitive skater Pete Sakadinsky, who was contacted by Rowan, has also joined the cause. Sakadinsky, who grew up in Durango, started skating in 1984, when there were no dedicated areas for the pastime. “Most of the ‘no skateboarding’ signs you see are because of us,” joked Sakadinsky. “We would get tickets every day for skateboarding on the street.”

As a former co-owner of the Shred Shed, Sakadinsky was involved in the city’s earlier iterations of skate parks. “The first parks were just a lot of makeshift stuff,” he said, recalling a wooden half pipe donated from the Southern Ute Tribe as well as the old cloverleaf bowl.

As a pioneer of the sport in Durango – and a father himself – he said he is thrilled to see the sport come into the mainstream.

“I grew up skateboarding and will do anything I can to promote it,” said Sakadinsky. “It’s so exciting to bring a whole set of fresh eyes to the skate park. Every kid can’t be in organized sports. The park should have a little more appeal; those kids deserve it.”

In addition to hosting more events at the park, he also envisions a program whereby kids without the means to buy a board are given donated ones. Sakadinsky tells the story of a kid he saw at the park regularly, who would sit on the sidelines and watch. “Then one day, I came back and he had this ratty old board, and he was ripping it up better than anybody else out there,” he said. 

All agreed, however, that the park is about more than just ripping it up. Rowan and Goss say putting some TLC into the park shows kids that adults do care. And Sakadinsky points to the positive character attributes that come with the sport, including self-reliance, perseverance and motivation. “You see a kid try a trick a thousand times before he lands it,” he said. “It hurts to make a mistake but you have to get up and try again.”

Despite the recent improvements, there is still a ways to go with the park in Rowan’s mind, as far as the seating, water fountain and shade structures go. However, Metz noted there is no money in the 2015 Parks and Rec budget for the skate park, and with a number of new projects coming down the pike – from Lake Nighthorse and Cundiff Park to the newly procured Ewing Mesa – parks and rec funds will be in high demand for some time to come.

“We’ve already invested $2.5 million down there,” said Metz of the skate park. She estimated between drawings, plans and construction, the improvements could cost around $100,000. Any formal funding would first have to be approved by the City’s Parks and Rec Advisory Board.

But that isn’t stopping Rowan, who plans to launch a fund-raising effort for the water fountain, which will include a special spout for dogs. The idea is to bring even more community members to the park to watch or hang out and enjoy the scene. However, like many capital improvements, the price tag is not cheap at $20,000, which entails burrowing under Roosa Avenue to access the nearest water line.

“It’s ripe for opportunity,” Rowan said.  “It’s 2015 – we need to embrace everybody, even the skateboarders.”

She points to the example of Tyler Valencia, who died in 2006 and for which the annual “Tear it up for Tyler” event is named. Valencia was a strong skateboarding advocate, and he and his friends fought for years to have a new skate park built and foster a positive attitude toward skateboarders. He was killed in a car accident mere months before the new park was finished.

“I have two goals: to do something for the entire community and to show a kid if you get off your butt, you can make a difference in your community,” said Rowan, “just like Tyler did.”