What: a 15,000-square-foot skate area surrounded by landscaping and spectator seating

Cost: $400,000, hopefully raised through donations and corporate sponsorships

When: Sometime in 2005

Where: Downtown Lewiston

Who: The Skate Lewiston-Auburn Movement. More information may be obtained by calling Joshua Nagine, of Twin City Boarders, at 782-7757.

The group is planning a public meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 2, at Lewiston High School

Ready to roll
Group wants $400,000 skate park in Lewiston

LEWISTON – It started as a way to give kids a simple, safe place to skate. It’s grown into a $400,000 capital campaign.

A group of local parents and a skateboard shop owner have turned a planned skate park into a full-blown attraction. The group calls itself SLAM, the Skate Lewiston-Auburn Movement. It has picked up plans to build a downtown skate park where the city of Lewiston left off.

And not just any park.

The group’s plan is much grander than the one envisioned by city councilors earlier this year when they agreed to donate a portion of Kennedy Park.

Rather than paving over a flat area and hauling in ramps and rails, SLAM hopes to build a $400,000 masterpiece, with 15,000 square feet of concrete ramps, stairs, half-pipes and landscaping.

“Whatever we build, it will get used,” said Twin City Boarders owner Joshua Nagine, co-chairman of SLAM. “There’s a definite demand for it.”

Work could begin on the Lewiston park as early as next spring, according to SLAM co-Chairman Pat Butler. The group is interviewing architects and trying to raise money in hopes of paying for the entire park with donated money.

Lewiston Recreation Coordinator Maggie Chisholm reserved judgment on the group’s plans until she could discuss the project with them. Chisholm is scheduled to meet with SLAM members and other city officials on Tuesday, Nov. 30.

The group is planning a presentation on Thursday, Dec. 2, to the community to discuss their ideas. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. at Lewiston High School

There’s still a lot to be decided, Butler said. The group members aren’t even sure where they want the park built. City councilors agreed to set aside space in Kennedy Park, but Butler is not convinced that’s the best spot.

“We’ve considered there, Marcotte Park and some other places downtown,” he said. “The most important thing is that it needs to be downtown, in the center of the community. It needs to be easily accessible and visible.”

Organizers favor semirecessed designs similar to popular parks in Fitchburg, Mass., and Newberg, Ore. Those parks are recessed, like swimming pools. Builders add ramps, bowls and other features. Then everything is coated with concrete.

“You want concrete, both from the skaters’ point of view and the community’s,” Nagine said. “It’s smoother. It has a better skating surface. And it’s more durable, so it ends up costing less for the community in the long run.”

The parks that the group favors have wide-open spaces punctuated by ramps and jumps. Skaters can go from one end to the other without ever getting off their boards.

Safety first

SLAM’s effort began as a way to create a safe place for children to skate.

“These are my customers, and they’re going to skate,” said Nagine. Most skate in parking lots, along parks and anywhere else they can. Courthouse Plaza in Lewiston has become a popular place, but city leaders and local businesses don’t appreciate it.

“I’d just as soon they don’t skate in the street and get hit by cars,” Nagine said.

Auburn skateboarder Ryan Nolan agrees the area needs a skate park.

“It stinks going around town, getting kicked out of places and harassed by the cops,” he said. “We just want to skate, and have a good time.”

Nolan, 16, said he and his friends would try to put together a bottle drive to help raise money.

“This is a really good idea, and it should happen,” he said.

Auburn has a little-known skate park, behind Bonney Park in New Auburn. It’s isolated, which worries parents and encourages vandalism.

“I don’t want my kids there, where nobody can see them,” Butler said. “Being isolated, I think, encourages the wrong element. It’s not the skaters, but other people who cause problems.”

Local skaters make regular trips to skate parks in Rumford, Brunswick and the Portland area, Nagine said.

Butler and Fred Hall Jr. spent a couple of thousand dollars building a private half-pipe in an old warehouse north of downtown.

“There really is not a public place for kids to skate, so you do see those going up in people’s yards,” Nagine said. “You figure they spend $1,500 to $2,000 to do that. Now, we hope they’re willing to spend that much on a public park.”

Plans call for plenty of places for parents and spectators to watch. Organizers also hope businesses will contribute, possibly buying naming rights.

“This could become a statewide destination,” Butler said. “This could become something that people travel to use.”

The park would be the second planned for the Twin Cities.

Auburn is expected to open its own skate park, which will provide pavement and jumps in the old tennis courts off Chestnut Street, as soon as spring 2005. That would be a much less ambitious park, featuring pavement and portable ramps. The cost is estimated at about $76,000.

“It really doesn’t matter how many we build,” Nagine said. “They’ll both get used. I think we could build both and realize we still have the demand for another one.”