By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Local businesses may need to see what they’d get before donating to help build a downtown skate park.

“So that’s what we’re prepared to do,” said Pat Butler, co-chairman of SLAM, the Skate Lewiston Auburn Movement. “To a lot of people, this still seems like a pretty willy-nilly idea. But when we put something on paper, they should have a much better idea of what we’re doing.”

The group has hired Sam Batterson, a Providence, R.I., skate park designer, to draw up preliminary sketches for a 15,000-square-foot park in Kennedy Park, along Park Street and north of the public swimming pool. Batterson is expected to come back with a site plan and proposed budget in the next few weeks.

“We think that will show people what we’re talking about,” Butler said. “I think they’ll be really comfortable with what we’re doing.”

Organizers are hoping to build a $400,000 park, with 15,000 square feet of concrete ramps, stairs, half-pipes and landscaping, all of it paid for with donations and grants.

Butler said the group has raised $75,000 so far. That’s a long way to go if they hope to break ground this spring.

“But we’re taking it all in stride,” he said. It’s tough for people to imagine the park full of kids on skateboards and in-line skates when everything outside is covered in snow.

“So we think $70,000 so far is pretty good,” he said.

Butler, Batterson and other members of SLAM met with city staff Friday to discuss their options. The group did consider Marcotte Park after some parents said they didn’t like Kennedy Park’s reputation. But Marcotte Park is too small, has too few parking spaces and is too far removed from adult supervision to work.

Butler said he thinks parents will warm to Kennedy Park, however.

“The city has done a tremendous amount to change people’s impression of the downtown, and this may be part of it,” Butler said.

Organizers favor semi-recessed 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.

The park is the second planned for the Twin Cities. Auburn is expected to open its own skate park in the old tennis courts off Chestnut Street next spring. That would be a much less ambitious park, featuring pavement and portable ramps. The cost is estimated at about $76,000.