Skate, bike enthusiasts welcome Blairsville park
BLAIRSVILLE--Last October, Matt Dustin was riding his bicycle on Rt. 217 in Blairsville when he collided head-on with a sport utility vehicle going 40 miles per hour.
The 18-year-old suffered a grade three concussion and several other injuries.
"A bike axle went through my leg," he said.
Dustin is fine now, and, thanks to a new skate park in Blairsville, he'll be able to spend more time riding his bike away from the hazards of local highway traffic.
The park officially opened to bicyclists and skaters around noon Saturday.
The opening was delayed about an hour as workers put the finishing touches on the park elements, located behind the Blairsville Community Center. But the wait wasn't a big deal for kids who wanted to use the facility. The approximately 30 who showed up already had been waiting for years.
"I've been waiting for this forever," biker Austin Witchen, 14, said of the park. "I just want to ride it."
The skate park project had been talked about for several years in Blairsville, but it really started to take off in 2005. It became a priority when Tim Evans took over as director of Blairsville's recreation program, which operates the community center and adjacent park facilities.
While some initial fundraising had been carried out, the project became feasible when the Blairsville Rotary Club made a $40,000 donation, covering almost all of the skate park's $43,000 price tag.
Blend Skateparks, of Ohio, was chosen to design the park, which is located next to the community center's outdoor basketball courts.
Representing Blend at Saturday's grand opening were three of the company's main members--Aaron Bostrom, Matt Gibeaut and Ty Stuyvesant. They previously helped design parks used for the X-Games, but the Blairsville facility was the first they designed under the official company name.
"These guys did an awesome job," Evans said of the park designers. "They're riders themselves, which, in my opinion, is real important. We felt they needed to be riders, they needed to understand what's going on."
While they were installing the ramps that park users ascend and descend to execute trick moves, the trio from Blend took suggestions from bikers and skaters about what they would like to see in the park. They also noticed that the bikers greatly outnumbered the skateboarders, so the team made adjustments to their original plans to create ramps that would be more suited for bikers.
"Every day 20 or 30 bikers came," Bostrom said. "We changed it up for them. We asked them what they wanted."
Bikers also were predominant at Saturday's launch of the park, but skateboard enthusiasts also were well represented.
Youths from age 10 to 20 lined up on the basketball court and anxiously awaited the opening of the park. After the ribbon was cut, they immediately took to the ramps.
Ian Rouse and Zac Blick, both 19, were particularly anxious to try out the facility. Not only had they been waiting since third grade for a skate park in Blairsville, they had actually been waiting at the park all night. They arrived around midnight last Friday in anticipation of the opening.
"We didn't have anything to do, and we felt like being the first ones to skate," Rouse said.
The finished park consists of three different sections, each separated by a few yards of blacktop. Some of the features include a pyramid, stairs, a railing and a box that is about five or six feet long and elevated about a foot and a half off the ground that riders and skaters can jump onto and ride down.
Also included are quarter pipes--concave ramps that arc to a point perpendicular to the ground, resembling a partial cross-section of a large pipe. Bikers and riders can use the ramps to help launch themselves into the air.
"I think this is a really big improvement for Blairsville," said Zach Uss, 11. "This is what Blairsville has been waiting for. There's not a lot to do in Blairsville, but this will be fun for a lot of kids."
The park also should give them something safer to do than riding in the streets.
"We're hoping that as many kids as possible come here and ride and not ride on the streets and not ride on the park benches in town," Evans said. "This is where they're going to be. This is what we put it here for. They can come and enjoy this place."
Kyle Cecil, 16, believes area kids will take advantage of the park.
"With the skate park here, we really won't be on the sidewalk as much," he said.
If the park turns out to be a success, Evans said there is the possibility of expanding it in the future. Right now, the park takes up about one-third of a fenced concrete area that also includes two basketball courts.
Evans noted options for expanding the park will be dependent on raising additional funding: "We'll see how we do, money-wise."
An expansion also will depend on whether users treat the park with respect and don't let it fall victim to vandalism.
Bostrom agreed that the young enthusiasts the park was meant to serve must do their part to make sure no one writes graffiti or does other damage to the facility.
"It's up to these kids to keep the park in good shape," he said.
