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Skate park denied grant, but advocates still on boardDec 29, 2008 (The Patriot-News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- A flat-footed economy has plans for a Lower Paxton Twp. skateboard park ramping down for now. But the group that plans to put the $550,000 facility in the township's George Park is not giving up. Township Supervisor Bill Hornung said the drive to build the facility has slowed, not stopped. "Right now, we are kind of holding off right now because of the economy," Hornung said. "The people we've talked to for donations, the bottom line, they said they might give us $100, now, but if the economy was good, they might give us $1,000." The skateboard park, supported by the Board of Supervisors, offered help in the shape of space in one of the township's 16 parks and applied for a $250,000 grant from the state Department of Community and Natural Resources. The idea was that the skateboard group would raise the remainder of the money through donations and fundraisers. But the agency denied the grant. Sue Windemaker, a member of the group that advocates for the park, said the group is moving forward anyway. "We're still plugging away, looking for other grants to apply for," Windemaker said. "One thing we're going to do, hopefully this month, selling tickets for a snowblower to raise funds for the park." Hornung is donating the machine from his hardware store. Windemaker said the group will likely hold another fundraiser in the spring, as they did this year. "We're not giving up," Windemaker said. "We were shooting for sometime in 2009, but now it looks more like 2010." The skate park idea began to take shape three years ago, when Brian Luetchford, the township's parks and recreation department director, knocked on the Windemakers' door and said he had noticed the family's homemade backyard skate park. "I thought, 'Uh-oh, busted,'" Windemaker said. "But he was interested and wanted to know about the interest in the sport in the area." Windemaker said there are 300 to 400 skateboarders in the area. One is her son, Dylan, 19, who has been skating since he was 10 and now skates competitively for Freedom Skateboards, a Christian ministry based in Harrisburg. Nathan Smoyer, 23, a student at Central Pennsylvania Business College at Summerdale, is a volunteer helping with the Lower Paxton skateboard park effort and another member of Freedom Skateboards. Primarily a BMX biker since the age of 15, Smoyer also is a skateboarder who has been involved in a number of skateboard projects. "It's sort of a deep passion of mine, helping give kids something I never had when I was coming up," he said. This year, Hornung brushed aside any concerns that the township might face liability risks over the proposed skateboard park. Statistically, skateboarding is safer than many of the more recognized sports, he said. Hornung noted skateboarding approaches soccer in popularity, but is not as well accepted. "There are 10 million kids who play soccer, and there are soccer fields all over the place. There are about 6 million kids who do skateboarding, but there is hardly any place for them," Hornung said in May. The proposed skateboard park is hardly alone in getting put on the backburner in the economic crunch. Even some major construction projects have entered a kind of suspended animation, waiting for an fiscal spring that might be awhile getting here. Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center has decided to hold off construction of a children's hospital in Derry Twp. Commercial real estate agents report a number of commercial real estate projects have slowed, and retail space at the Harrisburg Mall remains available as stores postpone planned openings. Still, Hornung, who said the skateboard park has been a dream of his for a dozen years, remains hopeful. "It is certainly something that would be a star in this township's hat. The problem for a lot of people right now is that their assets are half what they used to be. Everybody is struggling," he said. To see more of The Patriot-News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.patriot-news.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The Patriot-News, Harrisburg, Pa. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |