Major donation helps Whitefish skateboard park

A $100,000 donation given in memory of David Olseth has pushed the Whitefish Skate Park into the realm of reality.

Olseth, 30, was an avid Whitefish skateboarder and mountain biker who was killed in August 2001 when he and his bicycle flipped over a rock wall on Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park. His parents, Dale and Nancy Olseth of Minnesota, are making the donation to the Whitefish Skate Park Association. In turn, the group will name the new skateboard park in Olseth's memory, association vice president Brendan Rohan said.

The crusade to build a skateboard park in Whitefish spans nearly a decade, but the project is finally on the brink of happening.

The Whitefish Park Board looks at a construction agreement Tuesday, Rohan said, and the City Council will act on the project April 18.

City property has been set aside for the skate park east of the Roy Duff Memorial Armory. The association will oversee construction of the park, and once it's finished, it will be owned and maintained by the city of Whitefish.

Skateboard-park promoters have been raising money for a facility for several years, and have about $85,000 in addition to the Olseth donation. Total project cost is $325,000.

Construction is scheduled to begin July 1. Dreamland Skate Parks of Lincoln City, Ore., the firm that built the Kalispell skate park, will build the Whitefish park. Dreamland president Mark Scott is overseeing the Whitefish project, and visits Whitefish often because his wife's family lives in Whitefish, Rohan said.

"He's the best in the world," he said about Scott.

Design features haven't been nailed down exactly because the fund raising isn't completed.

It was 1996 when Pam Robinson began her quest for a skateboard park in Whitefish. At the time, she had three young sons who loved skateboarding, but like other youths had nowhere to skateboard. The downtown area and most private parking lots are off-limits to skaters, and skateboarders routinely have had their skateboards confiscated or gotten citations.

Robinson is still active with the association and serves as president.

Several sites have been considered for a skate park through the years, including Mountain Trails Park and city property near Central School. Once the city acquired the armory property, however, city officials decided that site seemed like an ideal spot for a skate park.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com