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Central Point skate park shifts into gear A two-year-old project could finally get a start date by middle of April By BUFFY POLLOCK for the Mail Tribune CENTRAL POINT - Stalled by everything from land negotiations to ballot measures to BMX riders, the city's proposed skate park is back on the fast track. The City Council earlier this month voted down the last hurdle - a proposal to design the park for both bikers and skaters - clearing the way for a review of the project by the Parks Commission on April 18. The commission will look over the design and possibly set a schedule for the project. "We kind of expected it would take a long time for the whole process," said Darryl Lewis, designer of the park and co-owner of the Skate Asylum in Central Point. "I guess you've got to go through what you've got to go through. At least we're finally in the last phase. Now we just want to push it the rest of the way through." The project was proposed two years ago by eighth-graders at Scenic Middle School. They were appointed by the city to a Youth Skate Park Committee and were instrumental in finding a site for the park. The youths, now sophomores at Crater High School, had found a 3.7-acre site next to Central Point Elementary School a year before it was finally purchased from the school district by the city for $283,000 in January. Right on the heels of the vote to purchase the land came a proposal by the Southern Oregon Bicycle Freestyle Association to design a different type of park in which skaters and bikers would co-exist. Council members ultimately decided that since a compromise was not forthcoming between the two groups, the skaters' proposal would be accepted as planned. The bicycling organization was free to petition the city for its own park, they said. "These boys have waited so long and worked so hard," said council member Kay Harrison. "I think we all would hate seeing it slowed down any further. (The bicycling association) is always welcome to approach the city with ideas for their own park just like the skaters did, but the skate park has taken so long already." The third hurdle - two ballot measures that threatened to severely limit the city's ability to fund special projects with new fees or fee increases - was removed when city voters rejected the measures earlier this month. Skaters are hopeful there will be no more roadblocks. "I'm just glad it's finally starting to take off again," said Dain Lewis, a member of the Skate Committee and brother and business partner to Darryl. "It's been a long time. We're just glad they won't have bikes in the park to tear it up." Darryl Lewis said organizers hope that all or part of the park will be available to skaters by the summer. A proposed name is Joel Tanzi Memorial Skate Park, in memory of a local skater who died in a car accident in 1999. "He was around when it first got started and he influenced a lot of us to start skateboarding," Darryl Lewis said. "Since he wasn't around to make it happen, we felt like we could at least dedicate the park in his name." For more information about the park, call the Skate Asylum at 665-2168. Buffy Pollock is a free-lance writer living in Medford. E-mail her at [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.