Debating the skate park renovation
Published on May 22nd, 2002
STONEHAM, MA - People are questioning the wisdom of replacing wood ramps with concrete fixtures at the Stoneham Skate Park.
“Why did we spend all that time arguing for wood when we opened the park, if we’re just going to say, ‘Do whatever you want,’ four years later?” asked Hancock Street resident and skate park supporter Don Hutcheson. Hutcheson does not skateboard; in fact, he must travel with an oxygen tank, but he helped organize concerned kids and parents when the town first discussed the skate park in the 1990s.
As a result the town installed wood ramps from Zero Gravity of Vermont at the Capen Street park, which is fenced in like a tennis court but closer to the size of a basketball court. The ramps deteriorated, and earlier this month the town bought $6,000 of prefabricated, concrete ramps from Skate Parks, Inc., a division of Scituate Concrete.
DPW Director Bob Grover said concrete is cheaper in the long run and safer if regular maintenance cannot be guaranteed. Kids and parents aren’t protesting. But Hutcheson said the lack of opposition is not a sign of approval, but apathy. And a local expert criticized the design of the new ramps.
“The prefabricated structures from Scituate Concrete have some poorly designed angles,” said Matt Roman, co-owner of the Coliseum, a nationally known skateboard shop in Melrose.
Steve Berlo of Skate Parks, Inc. said their ramps were designed by skateboarders, in-line skaters and BMX bikers.
“Some angles and radiuses are preferred by one or another,” Berlo said. “There are arguments between the three sports about what angles and spacing are best.”
Wood and concrete ramps cost roughly the same, Roman said. He estimated that $1,000 of maintenance per year could keep wooden ramps safe for 10 years.
“It’s all about replacing the ‘skate lite’ surface,” Roman said. Skate lite is a wood and fiber glass blend used as surface for wood ramps.
When Roman relocated his shop in Melrose two years ago, he donated a wood, indoor ramp to the Stoneham Skate Park, instructing the town to add a skate lite surface.
The town accepted the ramp, but didn’t surface it, and the ramp fell into disrepair within a year.
“Wooden ramps are smoother, and they have more give if you fall, but you have to maintain them,” Roman said.
“Unless you take them inside,” Berlo said, “wood ramps aren’t going to last.”
Grover said the town struggles to maintain parks and roads with a small DPW, and the manpower and budget to maintain a skateboarding park just isn’t there.
DPW workers placed the ramps in the skate park two weeks ago, but since these ramps are usually put in place before a surface is poured, the DPW will have to construct mini-grades to level the ramp bottoms with the skating surface.
“When we finish our work, these ramps will be safe and they will last,” Grover said.
Hutcheson said he hopes the kids will still use the park because he worries about the alternative.
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