Skate park huge hit

On some mornings, 14-year-old Jake Billington wakes up before the sun does, puts on his skate shoes and travels five miles or so to the town of Fairfield.

There, at 6 a.m. with grain elevators and a tractor as his backdrop, Billington pulls off heel-flips, varials and plenty of ollies.

After skating for two hours, he heads back home to Waverly and goes back to sleep, avoiding the midday heat.

Like many of his peers, Billington uses the new Fairfield skate park almost every day.

The skate park in Thiel Park, was built in June after a five-year fundraising campaign. The all-ages park is open daily from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.

And it seems to be getting plenty of use, said Ann Cowley, one of the organizers of the fundraising.

“Ever since the first obstacle was barely built, it was well-used,” Cowley said, adding that many of the skaters come in the evening when it is cooler.

She said skaters have come from as far as Spokane Valley. But the usual mix of skaters comes from Waverly, Spangle and other neighboring towns.

“The kids seem to just love it,” Cowley said, “versus the curb and everyone telling them to get off the street.”

Before the park was built, Billington skated on stairs around town, but he’s been a supporter of the park since he started skating three years ago.

“It’s cool – I like it” sums it all up for Billington, a student at Liberty High School in Spangle. The park is the closest one to his home.

He said he helped with fundraising by selling kettle corn during parades.

“It took a long time,” he said, adding that a lot of skaters who started the fundraising efforts don’t skate anymore.

“Some started skating again because the park opened,” he said.

Billington’s classmate, Trevor Curry, 13, shows up at the park wearing a T-shirt that reads “Fairfield Skatepark” on the front and “It’s Gonna Happen” on the back. He and his sister, Faith, 11, who live down the street, were a part of the fundraising efforts.

“Carwashes, raffle tickets, kettle corn, ice cream cones – a lot of stuff,” he said about what he did to help raise funds.

Trevor said he goes to the park every day and has been skating for three years. Faith just started learning to skate and goes to the park occasionally.

“I can’t do the big ramp, but I can do that small one,” she said before slowly making her way to a ramp and skating down it.

They watch as Bryson Andregg, 13, flips over an empty recycling bin and uses it as an obstacle for jumping. After a few attempts, he glides over the bin and lands securely on the concrete.

“I ollied it straight up,” he said. He also has been skating for three years.

At one point, one side of a ramp was set up about half an inch too high, the skaters said. People would launch off of it, but it was fixed right away.

“It was cool when people did it though,” Andregg said.

Shelly Wood, town clerk, said the park has been operating smoothly. The only issue is that some skaters are not willing to wear helmets or protective gear.

“Other than warning them, it’s kind of hard to enforce that type of thing,” she said.

Otherwise, the park has been well-received. One fear was that the noise of the boards against the ramps would be too loud. But this hasn’t been the case.

“They’re real sturdy and not too noisy,” she said of the ramps, which are made of material that makes for easy cleanup if graffiti is painted on them.

Besides money set aside for maintenance, there’s a little money left over from fundraising, said Cowley, who is a neighbor of the Curry family. She says it would be a good idea to add a bench in the shade for parents to sit on and watch.

“It’s nice to see families use” the skate park, said Cowley, who has seen parents skating with the kids.

Kim Billington, Jake’s mom, said her husband will skate with Jake at the park sometimes.

“We were definitely all for it,” she said. Billington and her husband were involved with building the park as well.

Billington helped with fundraising; her husband, who owns an excavation company, donated all the excavation work for the project. The couple also called in some favors and got friends to give a good price for the cement.

“The kids just love it,” she said of the park. “It’s way more popular than baseball or any of those other sports.”

The park, which paved over a small basketball court, already has been the site of a few birthday parties. Billington and her two younger sons, who just started skating, have been invited out on several “skate dates.”

“They all go out with their skateboard and helmets,” she said.

The park is used not only by skateboarders, Billington added. Other kids ride two-wheel scooters and bicycles on the ramps. But skating seems to be the most popular.

“I’ve heard a lot of the younger kids are doing chores for money to buy their own equipment,” she said. “Everybody wants to skateboard now.”