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Skaters get chance to rock and roll
Bruce Matlock photo
T.J. Dillard (right) measures the distance between the supports of a skateboard ramp while Ryan Dillard secures them with screws Thursday.
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Published: July 3, 2009
Statesville is getting a skate park.
Sort of.
A temporary skate park, set up by Haven Skate Shop in the back parking lot of Signal Hill Mall today from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., will give skateboarders, who are no longer allowed to skate downtown, a chance to grab some major air on a half pipe, rails and ramps.
Haven co-owner Jason Martin said the idea was kept under wraps until the Signal Hill Mall Merchant's Association and the mall's owners, CMJ Associates, gave the final OK earlier this week.
"We didn't want a bunch of disappointed kids," Martin said.
Holding the free event is an important step in rebuilding the relationship between the city and the skateboarding community, he said.
"We want to still foster this skate park idea for the city," Martin said.
Skateboarders and city officials have had a love-hate relationship.
The skaters have petitioned Statesville City Council for funding for a skate park on several occasions, but were rejected in February 2008.
The Downhillbillies Dixie Cup and Downhill Skateboard Racing bring a lot of skaters from near and far downtown.
However, the number of skateboarders breaking the 6 p.m. curfew and disturbing businesses downtown led the City Council to pass an ordinance banning skateboarding in the business district.
Martin and Frankie Adkins, the mall's marketing director, see today's event as a chance to see how things go.
"It will give the kids and the skateboard shop an opportunity to prove their side of it," she said. "We are going to try it and see where it goes.
"It won't be a permanent thing."
Skateboarders and their parents will have to sign legal liability waivers before they grind on the 20-foot half pipe ramp or any of the rails and ramps Haven borrowed from Landmark Church of God.
Haven is footing the bill for the event and will give away boards and discount cards. It will also hold contests with WSIC 1400 AM after the normal mall Independence Day events start at 5 p.m.
Adkins said the event seemed like a good opportunity to get children and teenagers away from the TV or the computer.
"It seems to be a healthy activity," Adkins said. "If you are going to have kids, you are going to have to have something for them to do."
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