Skateboard Park Appears Welcome In Neighborhood

Neighbors seem to favor the Park Department’s plan to build a skateboard park near Lewis and Clark High School.

Not everyone, however, is charmed by the little surfboards on wheels.

“My son broke his back on a skateboard,” said Judy Johnson, receptionist at The Cooper-George Retirement Community.

The Cooper-George is just around the corner from the planned skateboard park, which will be located beneath Interstate 90, between Third and Fourth, Bernard and McClellan.

Hospital staff at Deaconess Medical Center, 800 W. Fifth, encounter few skateboarders, either outside on the sidewalks or inside in the emergency room.

“We don’t see a lot of skateboard injuries, maybe five to 10 a year - nothing real serious, maybe a broken arm,” said Priscilla Gilkey, spokeswoman for Deaconess Medical Center.

At Westminster Congregational United Church of Christ, 411 S. Washington, Cal McCormick, a volunteer at the church said, “We’ve never had problems with skateboarders. The only time I complain is when they skateboard inside the church.”

The church has sponsored two concerts to help raise money for the skateboard park, McCormick said.

Chris McCandless, a student teacher at Lewis and Clark, said he has seen lots of youths skateboarding on the sidewalk near his lower South Hill home.

“It will give them someplace to go,” McCandless said.

Carol Baldwin, director of The Cooper-George Retirement Center said the center hasn’t had problems with sidewalk skateboarders, either.

“A lot of our residents like to watch the kids,” Baldwin said.

Although the Cooper-George won’t overlook the skateboard park, Baldwin’s face brightened when she heard the “boarders” would soon be surfing the concrete under I-90. “We’ll take the residents down there to watch them,” she said.

, DataTimes