City ponders new skate park

After a recent push from local skaters and parents, the Rocklin Parks and Recreation Committee could be considering the possibility of installing a second skate park in the city, nearly 10 years after the skate park at Johnson-Springview Park was installed. The city has begun developing five community park projects, which prompted the extreme sports community to express a need for a second skate park. On Sept. 26, Leslie Kelley and 20 other citizens took their concerns to the Council. Kelley spoke on behalf of the majority in attendance. Kelley and her husband Dave, who is a devoted skater, own Ronin Skateshop in Rocklin. "I wanted to let the Council know that Rocklin has a strong skate community," Kelley said.Kelley and 300 of her customers signed a petition in support of a second skate park in Rocklin. The youngsters who enter her shop on a daily basis complain that the single skate park is not adequate."Signs are everywhere that say 'no skating,'" Kelley said. "The kids are saying we just want a place to skate. The skate park we do have is not adequate for the number of kids we have now."The following morning after the City Council meeting, city officials were busy addressing the issue. Director of Community Facilities and Services Mark Reimer said he will be meeting with Kelley and others to discuss building a second skate park."There hasn't been any plan to develop a second skate park because it hasn't been brought up," Reimer said. "People can always approach me about new facilities and I will take it through the process.""There's not a whole lot of problems with (Johnson-Springview Park); a fight or two maybe, but that is about it," said Lt. Steve Newman of the Rocklin Police Department.Newman noted the majority of problems in Rocklin come from kids skateboarding on private property. About a dozen citations have been given to kids for the offense and many more have been warned about it."I think another skate park is a good idea," Newman said. "Maybe over by (Rocklin High school) or Stanford Ranch."Since the skate park at Johnson-Springview was constructed in 1996, safety rules have been lightly enforced as part of the routine patrol duties for the Rocklin Police Department. The City Council decided not to put a staff person at the skate park because of budgeting concerns."We didn't have the money at the time to have a monitor at the park," Council member Peter Hill said. "As we've grown, we've got the bicyclists at the park and they weren't there originally. I think it is time to look at if we need another park."In the early 1990s, when the Council first considered building a skate park, prefabricated skate structures were not a viable option because of their poor quality. Hill said the Council might consider prefabricated structures now."A lot of those structures were made of wood and the weather we have here is hard on wood," Reimer said. "It wasn't a viable option then. But now, knowing the price of concrete ... we need to look at that as an option."Reimer said the next time the Recreation Committee could discuss a second skate park is during the Nov. 8 meeting. He also noted that if a skate park were to be passed on to the Council to consider, it would be a budget item for fiscal year 2007-2008.