Rathdrum Teens Get Skate Park Project Rolling

Coeur d’Alene has a skate park, Post Falls is working on one, and now some Rathdrum teenagers say it’s time their small city joined the ranks.

All they need is $1,000 to start.

Last fall, skateboarder and resident Jonathan Tevis brought up the idea at a meeting the city held to talk about ways to improve Rathdrum. People were interested, he said, but wanted more information.

He and about 25 other skaters came to the next meeting with a scale model made by Tevis, North Idaho College student Russ Kuhns and Lakeland High School sophomores Tom Kuhns and Alex Randles. Lakeland senior Dan Peterson plugged the model’s dimensions into a computer and solicited estimates from a concrete company on construction costs.

After that, the City Council made the teenagers a deal: Raise the first $1,000 and it would pitch in as much as $9,000 to build it, said Chuck Holt, city councilman.

Now, four Lakeland High School students are starting to raise money. “We’re thinking about having a marathon or even a skate-a-thon” as a fund-raiser, said Colleen Nave, a senior at Lakeland High School.

The city is examining two possible locations for the skate park: Stub Meyers Park where the shuffleboard courts are, and the tennis courts in the field by John Brown Elementary School. The city aims to start construction of the park this summer, Holt said.

How much the skate park costs to build will depend on the location. Jim Ochenkoski, a resident who has helped the students, estimates it will cost $10,000 to build at Stub Meyers Park, where the ground is unpaved, and that it could cost half that if it’s located at the tennis courts by John Brown Elementary, where pavement already exists.

Regardless of the final price, he thinks students should have to work for it.

“They’ll be more likely to not trash it if they have something invested in it,” he said.

Ochenkoski is chairman of the Gem Community Advisory Committee, a citizens group whose goal it is to improve the Rathdrum area, particularly in business development and community involvement. Nave and three other students, senior Tara Carney, senior Beth Markham and junior Chase Williams, serve on a student advisory committee for the Gem Community Advisory Committee. They’re also in Lakeland’s student leadership class.

The skateboard park is the first project the student advisory committee has undertaken, and the students plan to regularly attend City Council meetings to give their opinions on city issues.

Skaters say they want a park badly enough to do the fund-raising.

“There’s a lot of kids that skate around here, and there’s no place to do it,” said Tom Kuhns, who skateboards. “I’ll go door to door if I have to.”

Tevis, who said his job has kept him from being very involved since the project’s inception, says there’s a large need for such a park.

“Not everyone makes the football team. Not everyone makes the basketball team, so they’re going to want other things to do,” he said.

The Parks and Recreation Commission hasn’t set a date for a public hearing on the skate park, but it will talk about it at its next meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Rathdrum City Hall.

“We just have big hopes for this,” Nave said.

What’s next Organizers are holding a meeting today at 3:15 p.m. at Lakeland Junior High School to solicit volunteers for fund-raising and stir interest in the park.