Site of skate park divides council

Oh, the trials and tribulations of skate park construction.

It's been three years since Boulder City Councilmen Mike Pacini and Bryan Nix first championed a city-owned skateboard park.

But an ongoing quarrel over where to lay the concrete may keep the project mired in discussion for some time.

After months of discussion and debate, the council agreed two weeks ago to commission a professional site-specific design for a small skate park at Adams Boulevard Community Park. The council had finally reached an agreement: A small concrete park would be built at ABC Park and a larger skate complex in the developing Veterans Memorial Park more than a mile south.

ABC Park, at the corner of Adams Boulevard and Georgia Avenue, was purchased from the state in 1997 after the Southern Nevada Children's Home closed.

One of the first uses developed for the 12-acre parcel was for a skate park.

As Boulder City Manager John Sullard put it, "A skateboard park has always been talked about as a use for the park."

But at Tuesday night's council meeting, Councilman Bill Smith is expected to seek a vote to reconsider the council's prior directive.

"I feel a full-blown skate park is a real mistake," Smith said. "I don't believe it's been totally thought out."

But the votes Smith needs to pick the issue up again may not be available.

"I'd be surprised if he gets the vote," Nix said. "I'll vigorously oppose reopening this."

At the council's May 9 meeting Smith made the motion to move the temporary park, located at ABC Park since March, to Veterans Memorial Park.

It was unanimously approved.

Then a motion was made to design and build a skate park at ABC Park to be geared toward younger riders. It too was unanimously approved, despite Sullard's admonition that it may be impossible to design a park that would appeal solely to young riders.

Smith said he went along with the vote because he "really didn't have the chance to think it through."

Now he's had two weeks to consider the proposal.

"I just think we've got the cart before the horse," he said. "If we aren't going to build a skate park there, then we shouldn't be designing one there."

Noise complaints about the temporary wooden skate park at ABC Park have spurred the city into moving the facility. But Patty Sullivan, the city's recreation program director who oversees the temporary park, said a concrete facility closer to the intersection could work.

"If it's designed properly it can work," Sullivan said. "So long as everyone knows that (noise) is an issue that could develop."

Duncan McCoy, director of the Boulder City Library District, said he wants a skateboard facility at ABC Park to help keep kids from skating at the 24,000-square-foot library scheduled to open in ABC Park in fall 2001.

"If there's no skate park there for them in ABC Park, they'll be inclined to go wherever they want," McCoy said. "I don't want kids skating past the entrance of the library because we have old people who use the library ... and if they fall and break their hip, that could kill them."

Meanwhile, recent budget figures are suggesting that the park won't be quite as grand as originally envisioned.

Sullard said the city's appropriation of $120,000 for the park was based on an original estimate of $10 per square foot. Information provided by developers recently has placed that figure closer to $25 per square foot.

"I think we're going to have a smaller park just because of the budget," Sullard said. "We'll see what we get. And it's going to be a while."

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