Construction set to start on skate park

Work has started at the 14,000-square-foot skate park at the Bonita Springs Recreation Complex off Pine Avenue. The first order of business is the relocation of water lines. After that, probably within a week, construction will begin on the skate park itself. The contractor is Quality Enterprises USA Inc.

The park, more than a year in the planning, was designed with the help of a consultant and input from local skateboard and bicycle enthusiasts. The park will include a dozen ramps and other features future users wanted and will include a wall on its south side to buffer noise. It will be located in front of the Bonita Springs Recreation Center building.

The plan is more elaborate than the $30,000 fenced-in concrete slab with a handful of jumps and pipes city leaders envisioned early on. The design evolved in a big way after hearing from teens who participate in the sport and know what it takes to make a skate park popular.

"We did something that's seldom done in modern-day government, and that is we changed what we intended to do because of what the users wanted to see," said City Councilman David Piper. "If we would have done something too small without enough features, the whole thing would have been wasted because they wouldn't have used it."

The budget for the park is $565,000, which includes not only the facility, but also the utility relocation, some work to the parking and entry road, and construction of the sound wall.

Once the park opens, two part-time parks and recreation positions will be filled to help operate it. Inside the recreation center, there will be skateboards, helmets, pads and other equipment for rent and for sale.

"It will be like a regular pro shop," said Parks and Recreation Director Jack Campbell.

The project did make it necessary for the Bonita Springs Lions Club Flea Market to relocate from Recreation Center property to Riverside Park on Old 41 Road, but it isn't expected to disrupt the use of the complex, said Daryl Walk, the city's public works director.

"I expect people will be able to go right on using the Recreation Center the way they always do while the skate park is being built," he said.

While the city worked hard to incorporate as many user-inspired features as possible, not all suggested amenities made it to the final design. City leaders passed, for example, on a foam-filled concrete bowl into which bikers could jump.

"There were a few things that for liability or safety reasons we just didn't think would be good to include," Piper said.