BROOKINGS A redesign of the skate park near Brookings High School has taken a step closer to becoming a reality following a public open house on Tuesday night that attracted a crowd.
American Ramp Company of Joplin, Missouri, is handling the design process. Josh Bauman, assistant director of the Brookings Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department, said hes hopeful it will be ready no later than the end of April.
It just depends on how many once they get a design figured out, they push it out to the public again, how much feedback they get and changes theyd have to make, he told the Brookings Register on Wednesday.
Bauman said turnout was good, and that at its peak between 40 and 50 people were in attendance. The main attraction, of course, was discussion centered around planned renovations of the skatepark, but food was also offered, including pizza.
Most of it was gone, Bauman said. The last couple of stragglers ended up scoring a full pizza, but we went through most of it.
Thats because thinking requires energy especially when viewing multiple design options, including some from students along with a presentation from them which undoubtably comes from devouring a couple slices of delicious pepperoni pizza.
ARC representative Julia Brueckler was not only at the open house, but also at Monday nights meeting of the Brookings Park & Recreation Advisory Board, where she detailed some nuances related to the redesign. Among the points she made were:
Shes a professional skateboarder and a designer for ARC. Her credentials include taking part in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, where skateboarding was featured for the first time.
ARC has built thousands of parks in 45 countries, including skate parks, bike parks, dirt parks and pump tracks.
Really, all that you can use with wheels, this is what we do, she said. Were still in the preliminary design process. Every town is a little bit different, every customer is a little bit different, so theres not a one-way-fits-all kind of approach.
The three sample designs mentioned earlier showcase different kinds of skate parks and were presented at Tuesday nights open house. Brueckler said such parks can be designed in a billion different ways, but that theres always a need for some sort of starting point.
She said information gathered during the open house and from an online survey will be used to come up with a custom preliminary design for Brookings. It will be presented in an online form that people can provide feedback on. Following that will be a final design presentation, tentatively planned for late April.
Bauman said, depending on how booked out construction is, work could commence in the fall, with a project completion sometime in late spring next year.
Bigger, newer. We wont be going with metal; well be going with all concrete, he said of the renovations goals. Were going to expand upon the pad that is there, so itll definitely have a bigger footprint.
He noted that the project has $315,000 allocated for it. We want to use as much of those funds as possible to make sure that were providing what we can at that facility with what we have budgeted.
Bauman pointed out that ARC is contracted at the current time only for the design phase of the project. There isnt a contract in place at this time for the company to undertake the actual construction, but its a recommendation that will be made to the City Council once that phase of the project nears.
He said the firm has experience building out such projects. Theyre working on one in Spearfish this year, and theyve done some other ones around the area, Bauman explained. Weve been able to get references for them and talk to those and see the stuff that theyve done.
In closing, Brueckler made a couple of other observations at Monday nights meeting, including:
Few skate parks have shade structures included with them; she said her personal preference is that the money is better invested in the skate parks equipment.
I have seen a few parks that are covered, but its, I would say, not the norm just because those structures usually cost a lot of money, Brueckler said, adding that most cities would rather put that money into equipment as well.
Skateboarders are a hardy bunch who are invested in their sport even during the cold, snowy winter months.
It really depends on how much snow you get, Brueckler said. I have seen, and I have done it myself, people go out to skate parks and shovel them out. A lot of skateboarders are crazy because they really want to use their facilities. Of course, there is a limit. If it gets down below zero, its going to be just unbearable to be outside. Usually if you dont have a whole lot of snow, youre going to have users almost year-round.
Contact Mondell Keck at [email protected].
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