Polson skatepark ready to grow
<p>Chase Rhine, 20, of Polson, makes a jump at the the 7th Avenue Skate Park in Polson with the snow-capped mountains in the background. (Brenda Ahearn/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
<p>A view of the the 7th Avenue Skate Park in Polson on Tuesday, February 23. (Brenda Ahearn/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
<p>Chase Rhine, 20, of Polson skating in the 7th Avenue Skate Park on Tuesday, February 23. (Brenda Ahearn/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
If a warm Tuesday afternoon in February is any indication, the Seventh Avenue Skatepark in Polson could use a little more room.
Skaters swarmed the popular facility, taking to the concrete curves with skateboards and bikes. Earlier that afternoon a young man practiced maneuvers with his remote-controlled car at the skatepark.
The skatepark’s popularity has led to a proposed addition to the facility and fundraising is ready to commence, Polson City Manager Mark Shrives said.
Skaters and supporters throughout the Polson community intend to raise $220,000 in private donations for the expansion. No taxpayer money was used to build the skatepark in 2006, and no public money will be used this time around, either, said Jesse Vargas, a longtime skateboarder who is leading the expansion effort.
“All systems are go,” Vargas said about the project. “We’d like to get the expansion done by this fall.”
The city of Polson, which supplied the land and owns the skatepark, issued a request for qualifications last fall, outlining a 25-foot expansion in all directions for a total expanded area of 12,200 square feet.
“It will double the size of the park, creating a big loop around what’s already there,” Vargas said.
The expansion will feature more rails, pyramids, ledges and banks and will merge seamlessly with the original skatepark, the city’s proposal indicated. A street course for beginning skaters is planned.
Dreamland Skateparks, the Oregon skateboard construction company that built the Polson facility, has been approved by the city to develop a design for the expansion.
Vargas said he and members of a skatepark committee drew rough designs for the addition. Dreamland will convert the design into a three-dimensional model and will help promote the expansion project.
“We’re very excited for this project to continue forward,” he said. “In the summer [the skatepark] gets very busy.”
Skateboarding competitions held up to three times a year at the Polson skatepark draw as many as 40 competitors, Vargas added.
The Polson skatepark was considered a state-of-the-art facility when it opened a decade ago. Professional skateboarder Tony Hawk even made an unscheduled stop at the Polson skatepark shortly after it opened and donated $25,000 to the project.
The park is a multi-use facility where users can ride skateboards, bikes, in-line skates and scooters.
An anonymous donor helped make the Polson skatepark a reality in 2006. Once the community had raised $100,000, the generous donor made good on a two-for-one matching grant offer, pumping in $200,000.
Vargas, who has been skateboarding since he was 3, said various fundraisers will help bring in the money, from raffles to selling T-shirts.
Donations for the expansion may be sent to the city of Polson (with “skateboard expansion” noted in the check memo line), 106 First St. E., Polson, MT 59860.
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.