Skate park efforts hit speed bump

While Havre has plenty of playing fields and facilities for kids to participate in sports like baseball, basketball and football, the city's skateboarders are still waiting for a place they can call their own - a skate park, complete with ramps and half-pipes, where they can perfect their skating skills.

"These kids are athletes, talented athletes," Lita Thisselle, secretary of the Havre Skateboard Association, said Wednesday. "Just like the kids playing basketball and baseball, skateboarders need a place to practice. A skate park would provide that."

Recognizing the community's growing need for a skateboarding facility, the city of Havre and the Havre Skateboard Association have put three years of work into making a skate park a reality. But the plans, so close to completion, have hit a roadblock.

Havre Mayor Bob Rice said the city sent a $15,700 check in January to Rec Ramps, a Canadian-based company that specializes in skateboarding products and equipment. The money was intended for a down payment on the skating facility's modular components - including ramps and rails. In June, Rice said the company initially quoted a total price of $32,000 for the equipment. But seven months after Rec Ramps received the down payment, the city is still waiting for equipment.

The down payment included both city funds and money raised by the association.

At Tuesday night's Havre City Council meeting, parks and recreation director Dave Wilson said a representative of Rec Ramps had told him the Canadian company has gone under.

"It's an extremely unfortunate situation," Wilson said. "But we're trying to deal with it in the best way we can. We're now working to draft a letter of demand to the company, for them to return our money."

Wilson said today that the company has already been notified several times that it needs to return the down payment. The letter of demand is just one more step.

Charlie Grant, treasurer of the Havre Skateboard Association, accused the city of misusing the funds for the skate park.

"We've been working to raise this money for three years, and now this," Grant said. "Our money's been taken and misused."

Thisselle disagrees with Grant. She said Wednesday that the association and the city have been working together and that both entities agreed to purchase the equipment from Rec Ramps.

"It was a joint decision. A representative from the company came down and gave us a presentation and everything," she said. "We didn't foresee this. We thought we were dealing with a reputable company."

Rice said the equipment issue is a setback for the skate park plans, but one the city will deal with.

"We're in a bad situation," he said Tuesday. "But we're trying to regroup and make the most out of it."

Rice, who's advocated for the construction of a city skate park since his candidacy in 2001, said kids will definitely have a place to skate by August.

"We're going to finish the park this summer," he said. "The kids won't have to wait another year. We're gonna get it done."

In June construction crews began pouring a concrete slab, which will provide the foundation for the park. Wilson said today that crews are working to construct a retaining wall, which will help ensure the facility provides a safe surface for skaters. The park is located at the base of the hill where Robert Patterson Memorial Park sits. The facility will sit between Patterson Park to the south and Ninth Street to the north.

Thisselle said the association's work with the city has been instrumental in getting the park to its final construction phase.

"We've been working with the city all along," Thisselle said. "In fact, Mayor Bob has worked harder than anyone to help raise the funds for the park."

The total cost of the skate park is estimated at $80,000. The money was raised through federal grants, the Tony Hawk Foundation, community events, and individual and business donations. In 2002 the city put forward $10,000 from its capital improvement program for the project. The Mayor's Ball fund-raiser also helped raise more than $12,000 for the park.

Wilson said that despite the uphill battle to make the park a reality, and the recent equipment setback, he's confident all the hard work will pay off in the end.

"Despite our recent troubles, all is not lost," he said. "We're going to get the park finished."