Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Dirt has been turned on the Palouse skate park project.
After almost two years of wrangling for a site for the volunteer-driven and privately-funded project, Aaron Flansburg’s Palouse skate park committee put a sign up and broke ground July 22.
The work so far has been preliminary at the Whitman Street site donated for the park by owner Tony Kettle.
Flansburg got official permission from the city earlier in the month when the Palouse building inspector signed off on the critical areas checklist – which assures that any downtown project won’t affect the Palouse River.
In order to formally accept the donated land – which is behind the Palouse Community Center – and be official for the future, Flansburg and volunteers are now forming a non-profit, Palouse Skate Park, Inc.
“It’s in the works,” Flansburg said. “This is really what we wanted to do in the first place. To make this project happen on our own terms. This way we’re able to.”
The area is zoned as multi-use, high density. Because the site is privately owned, it will require an insurance coverage which is separated from the city’s public property coverage.
“The entire project is taken off the shoulders of the city,” Flansburg said. “If it was on city property, it would’ve been a whole different process.”
The plans are to build a “skate garden” on part of the plot, complete with fruit trees, a path and sitting areas. The vegetation will help mitigate noise from the park.
The skate area will be an estimated 10,000-square feet including using part of the hillside.
Flansburg is designing the park with Sam Gregg, another Palouse volunteer, who works at Design West in Pullman.
The skate park committee has $22,500 in the bank after the past two years of fundraising including selling their own pizzas and running a Haunted Palouse attraction.
The previous proposed sites included city-owned plots in Hayton Greene Park as well as near the sewer plant. If ultimately approved, the sites would have increased the city’s insurance less than $100 per year, according to Flansburg’s research.
For a private site, the cost is higher.
“I’ve had quotes of $1,200 annually,” Flansburg said.
For insurance as well as ongoing maintenance costs, Flansburg anticipates his volunteer group will continue with fundraisers.
For now, the main focus is paperwork and initial construction.
“I’m hoping all of the corporation filings go through and the ground is officially transferred to our corporation,” Flansburg said. “And hopefully next summer we’ll have at least a portion that’s useable.”
So far, what has been done is minimal.
“We put up a sign, cleared some weeds, put a shovel full of dirt in a shovel and took a picture,” said Flansburg. “That’s about it.”
He indicated that he and the other volunteers are happy with the site, part of a search which evaluated several city-owned sites.
“All the other options were eliminated,” Flansburg said. “It ended up being the direction that couldn’t be completed.”
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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