Young people bring enthusiasm, interest for Slidell proposal
By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – Anyone who thinks young people aren’t interested in city government affairs didn’t attend the meeting last week at the Municipal Auditorium to hear input about a proposed skate park for Slidell.
While the city allowed the St. Tammany Chamber to utilize the much larger main meeting hall in the Auditorium for a city election candidate’s forum, the skate park meeting was scheduled for one of the smaller conference rooms in the same building.
But the interest from locals about the skate park was so great that they not only filled their meeting room with over 100 people, forcing the city to bring in extra chairs to accommodate the crowd, but had a considerably larger turnout than the Chamber candidates forum.
Most of those in the audience were teenagers to 20-30 year old residents in the area who were very excited about the fact Slidell Mayor Greg Cromer received City Council approval to use $500,000 of last year’s supplemental budget to build a skate park. And they were equally happy that the city is looking to skaters and BMX bike riders for their opinions about exactly how the skate park should be built.
Cromer, along with City Engineer Blaine Clancy, were the main leaders of the gathering, along with other city officials on hand who came to hear the discussion. And it was clear there is a lot to decide on after Clancy showed pictures from several other regional skate parks.
“We went to a lot of other skate parks in the area—Hammond, Chalmette, Houma, Pelican Park—and it’s clear there are a lot of different ways to build the park,” Clancy said.
Whether he had done his homework enough or not, Cromer did a good job sounding like he knew a lot about the park design components, talking about things like “bowls, banks, ledges, rails, decks, pipes, kickers and wedges.”
Then it became clear to novices that skate parks can be built for three different kinds of users—actual skateboard riders, BMW bike riders or roller bladers. However, one of the skateboard leaders noted that the city has more than enough money to build a park that will make all different riders happy.
Clancy said the city has done other work to make sure the park becomes something very special, and while the city has allotted $500,000 so far, they hope to get more funds through grants they are seeking at the Drew Brees Foundation and the Tony Hawk Foundation. “We want to build something that receives a buzz for Slidell from the entire region,” Clancy said.
As for the crowd on hand that night, there were dozens of good comments and suggestions, including topics such as these:
“Concrete is better than wood or metal parts since wood and metal begins to break down from the use.”
“You should change days to allow skateboarders or BMW guys to use it.”
“It needs to be built so it can be enjoyable for novices and pros.”
“We always want something new to challenge us.”
“We should have community workdays so everyone can come there to keep it clean and nice.”
“Drainage in the bowls is very important.”
“Will there be security for younger kids who come there?”
Cromer said they are still deciding which city park it will be located at, but he is currently leaning to Fritchie Park due to lots of available space. He believes they can build something in the 10,000 to 18,000 square foot range.
As for drainage in the “bowls,” he said the park will not be built down in the ground due to the water table here in south Louisiana, something that should eliminate standing water at the bottom of the bowls.
Alex Conners is a 20-year-old Slidell resident who was as excited as anyone there since he had a hand in encouraging the mayor to finally get the park money approved.
“I ran into the mayor right after he was elected almost four years ago and we talked about the possibility of building one here,” Conners said.
To show the support, Conners began an online petition seeking signatures and now has over 2,500 of them.
“That shows there is a lot of interest in having a skate park here,” he said to The Slidell Independent. “And after the meeting, everyone was super excited that we are going to finally get it.”
Conners also runs a Slidell Instagram page about the skate park and added that “since the meeting people are blowing the page up with comments, and everyone is excited this is coming here. We have needed it for a long time.”
Other suggestions from the audience included the idea to have trees or some kind of shade near the park, especially considering the heat of the Louisiana summer, while others mentioned the possibility of having music playing or lights for nighttime use.
“The lights are a considerable additional expense and right now that is not in the budget,” Cromer answered. “But we will certainly be looking at ways to get that done down the road.”
Several people talked about issues with the parks being spray painted or having trash issues. But many of the attendees showed their willingness to have workdays to keep it clean. One young man said that he and his dad took it upon themselves to “caulk cracks and paint areas of a park where graffiti had been sprayed.”
“Most people who use skate parks know you have to be respectful and take care of it,” said Conners. “Once in a while you might have an issue between a skateboarder and BMX bike guy, but for the most part, people are respectful to wait their turn to use a bowl or something like that. It’s not really an issue much at all.”
The enthusiasm overall at the meeting couldn’t have been more positive with virtually no negative remarks. After many different individuals put in their two cents, the night was culminated when skateboarder Kyle Engeron stated, “I would be happy for anywhere here for us to ride.”
The city will have future meetings, but for now, are asking interested parties to e-mail comments to:
slidellskatepark@cityofslidell.org
Cromer said he is hoping the park will get built and be open “somewhere in the next 12 to 18 months.”