Resident seeks skateboard park improvements

His timing could have been better, but Monroe Street resident Rett Young urged the Hutchinson City Council on Tuesday to consider future investments to improve the city’s skateboard park in Tartan Park.

On the same night that the council was dealing with closing a projected 2009 deficit in its proposed 2009 budget, Young said the park is in need of about $50,000 worth of improvements.

“It is a nice skateboard park, but it is by no means complete,” he said. The park lacks lights, benches or bleachers and even basic restroom facilities.

“We are sitting on about a $75,000 skateboard park that cost about $50,000 because of volunteers and donations,” Young said. “The city paid about $9,000 of it. We need about $50,000 more, but we’ve been unable to get financial help. The kids really recognize this as a sport, though others may not.”

The park has about 3,200 square feet of obstacles and jumps on a 3,200-square-foot concrete slab. Young said the original plan called for 6,000 square feet.

“Then, I think, we’d be able to meet the needs of these kids,” he said.

(Terry Davis is a Hutchinson Leader staff writer. E-mail him at davis@hutchinsonleader.com.)