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Wanted: land for a skate park Central Point forms youth committee to start search By Buffy Pollock CENTRAL POINT � After two years of waiting for a place to call their own, local skaters may finally see their patience and hard work pay off in the form of a skate park. Last Thursday, city council members voted to appoint four boys � Tony Drake, Phillip Fischer, Dain Lewis and Chaz Lytle � members of a Skate Park Youth Committee. Its mission is to help the Parks and Recreation Department find a suitable location for the proposed park. Mack Lewis, Dain�s father, said the four freshmen boys at Crater High began researching skate parks when they were seventh-graders at Scenic Middle School. He said they deserve to see their efforts pay off before they are "too old to use it." The four-member task force appeared before the Parks Commission earlier this month, armed with facts about skate parks. They found that the demand for skateboard parks is high and growing � there are more than 40 million skateboarders and in-line skaters in the United States, and 80 percent are under 18. The boys told the council that skaters are the only group in the city without a park for their sport. "Unlike other athletes, skaters don�t have a court or field to play on," said Dain. "In Central Point, there are tennis courts, basketball courts, soccer, football and baseball fields, but there are no facilities for skaters. When skaters are drawn away from streets into parks, it pleases business owners, police and residents." The presentation also noted the success of skate parks in Medford and Talent.Parks and Recreation Director Nancy Hanson agreed. "If it is youth driven, they will work to take care of it. They�ll feel like �this is my park.�" As a committee, the foursome will be responsible for helping design the park, providing volunteer labor, fund-raising, getting ideas from skaters and parents in the community and naming the park. Lewis said one possible fund-raiser would be to sell bricks bearing donors� names. One thing the boys won�t have to do is buy property for the park, city administrator Jim Bennett said." We have money to buy land. We just need to find some," Bennett said. But Mack Lewis said that, after two years of looking for an adequate site, he fears that is easier said than done." There�s an extreme lack of available sites in Central Point, and a lot of good ones that are not for sale," he said. Parks and Recreation Director Nancy Hanson said she is looking for a piece of land. "I�ve been out scouring the city high and low," she said. "There are two, maybe three possible pieces of land." The committee is trying to find at least 10,000 square feet to build a street-style park rather than a "bowl" design, Hanson said. "We just hope the project will go through soon enough they won�t be in college when they get it," said Hanson. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.