Palouse considers skate park sites [Moscow-Pullman Daily News, Moscow, Idaho]

Oct. 21--About eight people, including two Palouse city councilors, spent an hour Saturday looking at two potential sites for the Palouse Skate Park.

Project leader and Palouse native Aaron Flansburg led the short walking tour, explaining pros and cons about each site to the small group of stakeholders and skateboarding enthusiasts.

The first site is located just across the street from the city park by the sewer treatment plant. While the site has plenty of room, Flansburg said the underground grid of water and sewer pipes could make any excavation difficult.

"There are impediments here to digging down, but it's not unusable," Flansburg said while standing on ground over a pipeline to give the group a visual of the available building space.

A nature path also cuts across the middle of the land, which belongs to the city and is technically zoned as a park. Flansburg and City Councilor Tim Jones both agreed the bark path could easily be moved to accommodate a skate park, which Flansburg said will ideally be at least 6,000 square feet.

The second site, a few blocks northeast of city park and just down the rocky hill from the fire station, is also city property already zoned for a park. The challenge with the second space, Flansburg said, is the city property is mixed together like puzzle pieces with some private property. In order to have enough space to build, Flansburg said the city will have to negotiate a small change in property boundaries.

"I think it has potential," Flansburg said.

Challenges like that are not unusual for Flansburg, a fifth-generation farmer who got into skateboarding in college. For the past decade, Flansburg has been trying off and on to get the skate park project underway, but has run into a number of issues, including funding and opposition from some Palouse residents.

In July, the Palouse City Council voted to approve a plan to develop a skate park in the city park, near the swimming pool and playground equipment, but that was later shot down, said Jones.

Jones said late in the game some residents objected to removing the grass in order to build a concrete skate park. Some also argued concrete would require more maintenance while others worried insurance companies might be wary of a skate park. Jones said Flansburg did his research on both issues and found neither to be a problem.

"So now we're trying to appease as many people as possible," Jones said.

Flansburg said he hopes to build a park that has a variety of elements to challenge skaters of all skill levels, so skateboarders don't have to travel to other parks in order to progress.

Right now, the Palouse Skate Park group has $6,000 in the bank, and Flansburg said he hopes to raise about $20,000. The group helps with Haunted Palouse and receives 25 percent of the proceeds to help fund the park. Flansburg said he has also received some unsolicited private donations.

Flansburg said there is a do-it-yourself ethic in the skateboarding community and the Palouse Skate Park group is no different. He said they plan to raise the money and help design and build the park themselves, with the help of a professional skate park developer like Grindline Skateparks, which has built many parks around the country, including the park in Lewiston.

"We're willing to do this on our own without going to taxpayers with our hat in our hands asking for a handout," Flansburg said.

Kerry Thurnau, a Pullman resident who attended the walking tour Saturday with her son, Brandon, 22, a very involved skateboarder and Washington State University student in Pullman, and her husband, Jim, said the skate park would be a great resource for local kids.

"Just a place that's their own to do what they love," Thurnau said.

To see some photos of the two potential sites, visit this shortened link to the walking tour event page on Facebook: http://goo.gl/9IlvG5.

Meredith Metsker can be reached at (208)883-4628 or via email at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at: @MeredithMetsker.

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