A brief but rather awkward conversation took place at the Town Council meeting last night, Tuesday, January 4 at Town Hall. The awkwardness was in keeping with previous Town Council discussions — some of them downright uncomfortable — related to a proposed “skate park” here in Pagosa Springs.
“I think we can build a nice, plaza style park for the $80,000,” proposed Council member Shari Pierce at the beginning of the ten-minute conversation. Pierce had apparently taken it upon herself, in recent weeks, to negotiate a solution to a stalled recreational amenity: a promised downtown skate park to replace a decaying “temporary” skateboarding facility that was constructed on an outdoor basketball court in South Pagosa Park ten years ago.
 The theoretical $80,000 would consist of a $50,000 grant promised by the Archuleta County PROST (Parks, Recreation, Open Space & Trails) task force, derived from 1A property taxes — to be matched by $30,000 from the Town budget. (At one point, the Springs Resort had promised to donate some funding for a skate park, I believe the amount was $50,000 — but no mention was made of that promise at last night’s meeting.)
Now it was up to the Council members to approve Pierce’s cobbled-together alternative.
A coalition of local parents, kids and adult skateboarders — the Skaters Coalition for Concrete (SCC) — have been holding fundraisers here in Pagosa for the past five years or so, aiming to build a “bowl-type” skateboarding park similar to the popular parks found in numerous American communities — and the Town of Pagosa Springs has been teasing the coalition with promises of land and funding for those five long years.
The teasing has not been intentional. It was, rather, the type of teasing you might expect from a wealthy, attractive, blonde woman who has an innocent but infuriating tendency to change her mind at every turn. Needless to say, it has led to some awkward conversations at Town Council meetings.
The teasing began in earnest with the Town promising a site for the 8,500 square foot skateboarding facility in Town Park. The Town leaders had also promised to help fund the new park with GOCO (Great Outdoors Colorado) grant funding — funding that is available, I believe, only to governments.
A skate park had been included as a prioritized element in the award-winning regional parks plan produced by Greenways, Inc. in 2008.
The Town and the SCC had already conducted an extensive public comment process and had come up with an elegant, professionally-designed park layout — not at all a “cheap-and-dirty” design, but rather, something that any small rural community could truly be proud of — and that any beginning or expert skateboarder could truly enjoy. The Town had contributed $18,000 towards that design work — and it appeared the design would fit well in Town Park. For a few teasing moments, at least.
The advantages of the Town Park site were obvious. The park site would have access to existing restrooms, for one thing; had plenty of existing parking; was open and flat; was already owned by the Town; and would be adjacent to the newly opened Pagosa Springs Youth Center. The central downtown location would be convenient for the skateboarders — and easy to police, in case naughty behavior were to make itself apparent among the park users. Skateboarders, it seems, have a reputation for naughty behavior — even though some studies show a higher incidence of drug abuse among, say, high school football players and basketball stars.
Public outcry from members of the community, including downtown developer David Brown, caused the Town Council to withdraw the offer of a site in Town Park, however, and replace it with an offered site behind the U.S. Post Office on Hot Springs Boulevard.
As you can imagine, the withdrawal of the Town Park offer resulted in some awkward discussions between skate park proponents and Town Council members during several public meetings in Town Hall.
That hillside Post Office site soon proved to be much more problematic than the Town Park site, however, due to the requirements to build a massive retaining wall, plus the lack of restrooms and the lack of parking. The only advantage, it seemed, was that the skaters would be less visible to tourists and elements of the community who disliked the sight of skateboarders.
Cost concerns then caused the Town to begin looking at the new Yamaguchi Park at the end of South 5th Street — where a large open space was available.
Bids were solicited for the construction of the skate park at Yamaguchi, but for various reasons — including the complexity of the bid documents, perhaps, and the bonding requirements — the construction bids came in much higher than expected, and the Town decided that the skate park, as originally designed, was not feasible for the Yamaguchi Park location.
Instead of following through with its promise to seek GOCO grants for the skate park construction, the Town elected to apply instead for grants to build restrooms at Yamaguchi — essentially hanging the skaters coalition out to dry.
At last night’s Council meeting, Shari Pierce made her proposal — a proposal with which everyone in the room (except this reporter, perhaps) seemed already familiar.
The Town would put up $30,000, to be combined with the $50,000 from the County PROST committee — and a very modest “plaza style” park would be constructed at Yamaguchi Park. Unlike the “bowl style” park design that had resulted from the public comment process two years ago, a “plaza style” park is built entirely above ground. In fact, the park Pierce was proposing might look very much like the existing “temporary” ten-year-old skate facility at South Pagosa Park — except built of concrete instead of plywood.
But approval of Pierce’s proposal could not take place until a bit of awkward discussion could take place. Awkward discussions, it seems, are a requisite part of planning skate parks here in Pagosa.
Read Part Two... |