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Skate park remains off limits
Facility will open in June
By LINDA N. WELLER
The Telegraph
ALTON -- Two connected "quarter-pipes," an "H" pipe, ramps and stairs are the shapes of fun to come at Hellrung Park.
But although a crew set the heavy-duty concrete equipment in place on Monday, skateboarders will have to just look and dream from bordering streets until renovations are completed at the now-closed park.
Sometime around June 30, skateboarders should be able to perform their daring twists, jumps and other acrobatic stunts in a proper, designated area, park officials say.
"There is construction going on, with construction materials and piles of dirt and gravel," said Mike Drake, executive director of the Alton Park and Recreation Department. "If we allowed them in there, it would be dangerous."
Bright orange "warning" fencing surrounds the skateboard park to discourage trespassers.
Monday afternoon and into the evening, an Alton police cadet was posted in the park to keep out anyone wanting to be among the first to try out the equipment.
Later into the night, police were checking out the site as they drove their patrols.
Rhonda Lewis, deputy director of the Alton Park and Recreation Department, said a 150-ton crane lifted into place heavy equipment that had filled three tractor-trailer trucks. The unloading and installation process took more than seven hours, she said.
Among the other parts that the crane placed on concrete pads are landings, which are raised squares, and a 12- to 14-foot vertical wall. Lewis said two more handrails and a grinding rail have to be installed.
"It is better than what I anticipated," she said of the nearly finished skate park.
A couple dozen youths, many living in the nearby Weed and Seed neighborhood revitalization strategy areas, met 12 to 15 times to design the park and select its features, she said.
The group continues to meet to discuss its operations.
"It’s a good bunch of kids," Lewis said.
The skateboard park portion of the Hellrung improvement project should run slightly more than $90,000, Drake said.
He said the city still needs to bid out a job to fence the skateboard area, but he had not determined how tall the fencing would be. The area will be locked at night after the park reopens.
Officials for several years have said the idea behind installing a skate park in Alton is to provide an area where skateboarders won’t damage others’ property or risk injuring pedestrians or themselves as they might if they continued to race along city sidewalks or streets.
Businesses owners and Hayner Public Library District officials have complained for years that skateboarders have damaged concrete benches, sides of buildings and landscaping, particularly Downtown.
Hellrung Park, bounded by Central Avenue, Union, Brown and East Seventh streets in the Mexico neighborhood, had much of its subgrade "bowl" filled a few years ago. The city also demolished some houses at its perimeter to aid in its visibility.
An asphalt basketball court already is down, with the posts, backboards and baskets yet to be installed. Sidewalks and lighting also will be put in, grass seeded and trees planted in pavement wells.
Other features slated to be added to Hellrung in the next three months are a pavilion, keystone-block wall, playground and 40-foot diameter circular community garden.
Four organizations, Weed and Seed neighborhood revitalization strategy, Sierra Club, Pride Inc. and the Alton Clean City and Beautification Committee, are working with neighbors to plan, plant and maintain the community garden.
The state’s Open Space Land Acquisition and Development is providing $228,000 in 50/50 matching funds for the entire $450,000 to $500,000 park renovation project. OSLAD requires work to be done by June 30, but Drake said the winter’s wet weather slowdown might prompt him to ask for an extension.
The city is providing $90,000 as in-kind work and $100,000 is coming from the Metro-East Park and Recreation District. The Siedlund Co. of St. Louis, developer of nearby Hampton Place and Hampton Place Extension in-fill housing developments, also provided $20,000 for park improvements, with possibly another $20,000 on the way after its next set of homes are occupied, Drake said.
OSLAD also is committed to another $20,000 grant, he said. Consultant Wayne Freeman and the Tony Hawk Foundation, both of St. Louis, each gave $5,000, and the Bank of Edwardsville donated $2,500 last year, Drake said.
The Illinois Department of National Resources’ Urban Forestry program gave $5,000 in fiscal year 2004-05 for tree purchases for the park; Lewis said the city got an extension on its deadline to have to buy the trees.
lnweller@hotmail.com
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