Skate Park Pros Pitch Radical ‘Concrete Playground'

Final Design yet to be settled upon, but will cater to skaters from all skill levels and ages.

Nate Hinkel, Staff Writer (The Times of North Little Rock, North Little Rock, AR) -- 2/26/2004

The city plans on building something stinky and sticky at Riverview Park –and that’s a good thing.

That’s according to a spokesman for the Oregon-based company that has won the bid to build the first phase of what could some day be a $500,000 skaters’ paradise in Riverview Park, the little green space that sits just east of Big Rock Quarry along River Road.

“When it comes to the design of the skate park, we sor of live off the motto that it should be stinky and sticky,” Kent Dahlgren, a spokesman for Dreamland Skateparks, said Tuesday in a phone interview from Mexico where he was on vacation.

“It should be stinky in that it attracts a lot of skaters on a consistent basis, and it should be sticky in that it keeps them around for a while.”

And judging by his company’s track record of designing and building nearly 40 successful skate parks around the world, Dahlgren is confident that North Little Rock’s first-ever permanent, concrete based skate park will draw skaters of all ages and skill levels and also withstand the test of time there along the city’s riverfront.

And skaters are ready.

Just as the prospect of the city building a free-flowing, professionally designed skate park drew more than 40 local skaters to a public hearing at the community center a couple of weeks ago to suggest what particular features the park should have, and they were quick to voice opinions and offer up advice as to just what Dreamland should include in their conceptual designs.

“It’s obvious that skaters [in central Arkansas] have been deprived of a good place to skate for a long time,” Dahlgren said. “We got the impression that they were very highly skills, street oriented skaters that were interested in incorporating street-type obstacles into the design, so we took that into consideration.”

Dreamland officials will be back in town this Saturday for another public hearing, where they were unveil two clay park models for the skaters to choose from based on the input they provided at the last hearing.

“Clay is jut a lot better to use in these situations than 3-D designs or drawings,” Dahlgren said. “It gives everyone a better idea of what we’re dealing with and we can also just push it around to make changes.”

Dreamland is working with a $175,000 budget, which Dahlgren says will be plenty to provide “one heck of a park.” The Parks Department has already secured $100,000 for the project, but it still awaiting word on a $75,000 community development block grant it expects to get since Riverview Park lies near the Baring Cross neighborhood of predominantly low-income families and few public projects, important qualifiers for such federal help.

Parks Director Bob Rhodes has said he would like to develop a program with nearby Boone Park Elementary students that would get them involved with the skate park by providing them training courses, complete with helmets and boards kids than keep once they’ve completed their lessons.

On addition to designing the park, Dreamland will also construct the facility.

“We’re all skaters and we like to talk to the kids who will be using it so we’re all on the same playing field," says Dahlgren. We’re known for our professionally endorsed parks and we want to make sure everything is done to our satisfaction to live up to our reputation.”

John Crow, the Parks Department’s program director, said the city still hopes to eventually invest about $400,000 more into the skate park, and Dahlgren said the final design of this first phase will leave open the possibility for expansion down the line.

“We could start moving dirt as soon as next week,” said Crow. “Dreamland has been great to work with – they like to take care of business and make sure they do it right.”

Saturday’s meeting will be held at 9:30 a.m. on the first floor of the North Little Rock Community Center.