PANAMA CITY — Panama City Leisure Services Director Keith Baker will bring prospective locations for a skate park to city commissioners at their Feb. 10 meeting.
The commissioners will be asked for their opinion on each site, but no action will be required at the meeting. Baker will present two locations at the meeting.
The first is the area behind the dog park that opened this summer on Balboa Avenue. The total area is 3.9 acres, but much of that already is in use. Baker said the park likely would be about the same size as the small-dog area. Besides being in a park-heavy area, with a walking park to the south, the area already is zoned recreational.
“If it were my choice, that would be my first reaction,” Baker said of the Balboa area.
While local skaters like Brock Taylor and Calvin Rifenbark think the Balboa location would be fine, their preferred spot is a piece of city-owned property south of Seventh Street between Mulberry and Oak avenues, the second of the preferred spots. Rifenbark’s reference point was the Dixie Window store located across the street. Currently there is an empty concrete lot, with a natural ledge about a foot-and-a-half above the ground. Rifenbark said this already is a skating haunt and he and his friends have placed ramps and rails during their skating sessions. The lot is zoned public institutional and much closer to downtown, the latter a worry for Baker.
Baker said he wants to lean on local skaters for input on the type of equipment in the park. Thus far he thinks a concrete bowl would be optimal but is not sure what other types of ramps or obstacles should be provided. Rifenbark wants more street obstacles: rails, stair sets, ledges and box ramps.
Taylor’s main opinion is that the city should contract with a skate park builder — Team Pain, for instance, which has built several parks in Florida — to actually do the work.
“We don’t want them to put something there and have it be ignored,” Taylor said.
Paying for it: Baker has a couple options for funding. One is $100,000 of rollover money from the 2013-14 leisure services budget. Leisure services has a capital outlay budget of $1,090,047 for the 2014-15 fiscal year, not including operating expenses. Baker expects the park to cost between $100,000 and $200,000.
Baker also wants to pursue a grant. One of the organizations that offers skate park grants is the Tony Hawk Foundation, bearing the name of the most famous skateboarder ever. The deadline for a Tony Hawk grant is June 17 and the city can receive a maximum grant of $25,000. To be eligible the city must have a plan ready.
Baker said he might request bed tax dollars, but then he would need to hold competitions at the facility and then likely would need to contract with a skate park builder. One area recreation worker said that may be a good idea.
“If you got the money and the time, that’s a good way to do it,” Niceville Youth Center Director Don Ory said.
Ory described Niceville’s 12-year-old park as successful but not professional quality. Niceville built its equipment itself and constructed the park for about $50,000.
The Niceville skate park can take on 30 to 50 skaters in the summer. The city also uses two part-time city employees to watch the park and operate a concession and sales area the four days a week the park is open.
Baker said Panama City is covered from a liability perspective for injuries, using the city’s risk management insurance. However, Ory heartily recommends maintaining a permanent presence at the park both because of potential injuries and to deter criminal behavior.
“It becomes a hangout,” Ory said. “You’ve got to be prepared for that.”