Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
After eight years, a project to build a skate park in Palouse has re-started. The effort went cold in 2004 when a push led by Aaron Flansburg, then a WSU student, stalled out.
Now the married father of two, Flansburg is back farming with his dad, living in Palouse and working to resurrect the project.
“We really didn’t get very far back then,” said Flansburg. “I wasn’t living in Palouse then. Now I have a couple of daughters and am starting to think about the future generation.”
Flansburg grew up in Palouse and graduated from Garfield/Palouse High School in 1998.
He said he would like to see a park built with concrete on a site as small as 8,000 square feet.
“We could possibly build a smaller, yet high-quality but challenging park,” said Flansburg. “Not big, but quality.”
Flansburg, who still skateboards, just returned from a trip to Southern California, where he visited several skate parks, including those at Palm Springs, San Bernardino and Lake Forest in south Orange County.
“That one inspired me,” Flansburg said. The park had a full-time city employee staffing it.
He said it was the biggest park he’d ever been to, but it wasn’t so much the scale that impressed him.
“Just the level of support from the city for the project, from funding to maintenance to improvements,” he said.
The Palouse Skate Park Committee has $1,480 in a bank account remaining from the previous effort. The money was raised by such means as hot dogs at Haunted Palouse and raffles from 2003-04.
Flansburg said the city park in Palouse would be the natural place for a skate park. He also has considered the Brownsfield site.
“The first thing to do is establish a site, and then we can direct this from there,” he said. “From grant applications to fundraising. Realistically I think it’s going to be a long-term effort.”
Mayor Michael Echanove, who was in office back when Flansburg launched the project, continues to support the effort.
“Aaron is right on target,” Echanove said. “I’m very supportive of his work. I can’t think of a better person in Palouse for it than Aaron. Skateboarding is a passion for him.”
Flansburg hopes to bring in a construction company which specializes in skate parks. Grindline of Seattle or Dreamland, Lincoln City, Ore., are two he mentioned.
The construction process of a skate park involves specialized form pours to create the quarter-pipe shapes. Materials needed include cement, gravel, re-bar and wood to make forms. Steel tubing is used for the coping, which is a bull-nose shape similar to edge of a counter or swimming pool.
Flansburg said the costs range from $12 to $25 per square foot for this type of construction.
“It’s substantial, for even something small,” he said.
His plan for now is to continue evaluating sites, talking to city council members and then he’ll conduct a public meeting to formally re-launch the effort.
“I’m the committee now, essentially,” said Flansburg. “The little bit I’ve done so far, I’ve gotten really positive feedback. My big ask is for the city to dedicate land from the city for the site. I think they’re pretty receptive to that. At this point it’s a matter of where.”
Flansburg began skateboarding at age 18, after playing baseball, basketball and football at Garfield/Palouse.
He earned a degree in ag technology from WSU.
He plans to remain in Palouse with wife Nicole, formerly Nicole Schneider of LaCrosse, and farm. They are now residing in a house next to the high school.
“At this point I’ve put so much work into the house I can’t imagine leaving it,” he said.
Flansburg believes a Palouse skateboard park will appeal to the younger set at Garfield and Palouse.
“There’s only so much a kid can do that’s not into sports on the organized level,” Flansburg said. “There needs to be things for kids to do to keep busy in positive ways.”
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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