Officials propose skateboard facility at Coonskin: Parks commission set aside $50,000 for youth project

DAILY MAIL STAFF

County officials want to get skateboarders off the streets andsidewalks.

Their plan: Build a skate park at Coonskin Park.

Kanawha County Parks and Recreation Commission officials arescheduled to discuss the matter Tuesday during a 6 p.m. publichearing at Outdoor Extremes, which is located on MacCorkle Avenuenext to Budget Tapes and Records.

"We have decided a skate park is a project we want to pursue,"said Stephen Zoeller, the Kanawha County Parks and RecreationCommission director. "We are actively and aggressively making plansto put one in."

Their next step will be accepting recommendations and proposalsfrom organizations and businesses, Zoeller said.

"When we get them, we will decide what we think is best," he said.

Officials have set aside $50,000 for the project, which they wantto build next to the park's family center. They want to attract 12-to 18-year-old skaters, Zoeller said.

"We want to try to provide activities for a group that we think isunderserved," Zoeller said.

The only legal option for local skateboarders is Outdoor Extremes,a Kanawha City bicycle shop where they can practice their tricks andperfect their skills in the store's indoor skate park.

About 30 teenagers and young adults pack the cinderblock basementeach day to skate its quarter pipes, half pipe, bank ramp, roll-in,fun box and rail, Owner Chad Hall said.

Another skate park project failed last year.

Charleston City Council members in March 2001 approved donatingspace for an outdoor skate park at the North Charleston CommunityCenter. The plan called for a local nonprofit group, Skaters forSkaters, to take legal responsibility for the land and pay to buildthe network of ramps and banks. But that project has yet to happen,reportedly from a lack of funds.

There was no legal option for years. Outdoor Extremes closed itsindoor skateboard park in 1999, then reopened in 2001 after Hallovercame a series of bureaucratic battles with city officials.

Haddad Riverfront Park, Town Center Mall and Laidley Towerreplaced Outdoor Extremes during its two-year hiatus, asskateboarders did what they always had done when there were no skateparks here. They took to the city's streets. And its parking garages.And its sidewalks. And its hand rails. And its steps. And its parkbenches. Anywhere they could hand plant and tail spin.

Ramps and rails at Coonskin Park will not get all the daredevilsoff the streets, Hall said.

"Us building the indoor park, it didn't solve the problem," hesaid. "Them building an outdoor park, it won't solve the problem.There are always going to be kids who want more difficult challenges.They want their tricks to be bigger and better. They want to push thelimit."

There will be fewer opportunities to do so at Coonskin Park,Zoeller said.

"We will have to follow certain guidelines for insurance andcertain parameters for safety," he said. "But it will still be a funpark.

"We don't want to build something kids look at and say, 'Whatever.I'm not interested.' We want them to look at it and say, 'Cool. Iwant to get on that.' That's our goal."

Writer Jacob Messer can be reached at 348-7939 or by e-mail atjacobmesser@dailymail.com.