With two organizational meetings already held and a preliminary plan drawn up, the Bowling Green skate park is rapidly becoming a reality.

While local skaters are busy planning training sessions to teach novices how to skate before they¹re standing at the top of a concrete ramp, city Commissioner Brian ³Slim² Nash, whose championing for the cause led the commission to allocate $850,000 for the park, is fielding questions from constituents. The locals¹ biggest fear? That the city is setting itself up to be sued, Nash said.

³I don¹t think this puts us in any more trouble than a water park or a basketball court,² he said. ³A lot (of the apprehension) plays back into stereotypes. When you really break it down, it¹s no different than any other sport there is a level of risk.²

A skate park, especially one designed by world-famous designer Wally Hollyday, is hardly any more dangerous than a playground, said Parks and Recreation Director Ernie Gouvas, and certainly no less dangerous than skating on the street. Plans for the Bowling Green skate park show areas for both beginning and advanced skaters, separated by a plaza to minimize the chance that someone might stumble into the wrong section.

³The last thing we want is for somebody to get hurt,² he said.

Although no final decision has been made on whether helmets and pads will be a requirement at the park, the city is working with attorneys to draw up signs recommending safety gear, Gouvas said. The ultimate goal is to make the park a family-friendly place and, to keep it that way, the city plans to install cameras to provide a live Web cast so parents and skaters can check who¹s at the park and what¹s going on.

While the Bowling Green Police Department is planning to be a presence in and near the park, Nash believes the skaters will police themselves, as well.

³The skaters that I¹ve talked to … they want this park so bad,² he said. ³I believe they¹re going to take care of this park.²

The city is pledging to take care of it, too, Nash said, with help from Hollyday. Once the plans are finalized and construction begins, Hollyday will come to Bowling Green to supervise. After it¹s built, he¹ll submit a maintenance plan, and come back in a year to check on it, Nash said.

Having a well-constructed and thought-out skate park may actually minimize the city¹s liability, Nash said, by ³taking skaters out of high-traffic areas and giving them a place to go that¹s safe and challenging.²

Bowling Green is certainly not the only Kentucky city to undertake such a project the state boasts many skate parks, ranging from simple wooden ramps to complex concrete masterpieces. Read on to find out how two other cities, Owensboro and Louisville, handled the construction and maintenance of their skate parks.

Louisville

The downtown Louisville Extreme Park, an outdoor concrete affair with one wooden vertical ramp, wasn¹t always the national draw it is now. In fact, the first Louisville skate park was rather unimpressive.

³We had a very inadequate skate park that was not well designed,² said Jason Cissell, spokesman for Louisville Metro Parks. ³It was done on the cheap, and didn¹t really offer the type of experience people wanted. They weren¹t using it.²

Since skating in public places was prohibited, and the current park was unsuitable, skaters began to push for a better area to do their thing, he said.

³The main rallying cry that we heard was, ŒIt¹s OK that you tell us we can¹t skate downtown (and) we can¹t skate in the parks, but you¹ve got to give us someplace where we can,¹ ² Cissell said. ³Along the way, there were people who said it wasn¹t a good idea, but it was mainly because those people and nobody in their family were going to use the park. … There will always be detractors because it doesn¹t appeal to them.²

The park draws roughly 20 percent of its skaters and BMX bikers from far beyond the 13-county Louisville Metro area, Cissell said. Once Louisville residents saw that skateboarding wasn¹t a flash-in-the-pan fad and learned the skate park had an economic impact on the area, they became more open to it as ³a reasonable investment,² he said.

A local ordinance requires helmets at the park and strongly recommends pads, wrist guards and other safety equipment, Cissell said. He declined to comment at length on a recent lawsuit involving the park, but said the settlement didn¹t involve an admission of liability by the city.

According to a Feb. 24 article in the Courier-Journal, the city paid $1.5 million to the family of a boy hurt when he fell off his bike at the park in 2002.

For the most part, skaters and bikers encourage each other to stay safe at the park, Cissell said.

³Our experience is, you can take all the stereotypes of skateboarders and BMX bikers and pretty much throw them out the window,² he said. ³We¹ve been pleasantly surprised that there is definitely an etiquette, that the older skateboarders … definitely look after the younger ones.²

The etiquette extends beyond fellow skaters, Cissell said.

³We¹ve seen a skateboarder in their 20s go in and pluck a 6-year-old kid out of the park, find their mom, and say, ŒWhat are you doing?¹ While that might sound a little harsh, that¹s someone who doesn¹t want to see a kid get hurt,² he said.

The free park is open 24 hours a day, Cissell said, which actually helps prevent vandalism. Even at 3 a.m., there¹s usually someone hanging out, and ³just the fact that there¹s almost always someone there keeps the park fairly safe,² he said. The park has a phone with a direct line to the 911 dispatch center, he said, but since many skaters carry cell phones, it¹s rarely used.

It¹s been interesting to see how differences have sorted themselves out over the years, Cissell said. When the park first opened, injuries abounded because no one was used to sharing their space. Now, everyone respects everyone else, and there are even unofficial ³family days² on which the older skaters stay away so parents can take their young children safely to the park.

³If we had to do it over, we would have prepared people better for the fact that there will be collisions and broken bones over the first few months,² Cissell said. ³It shouldn¹t be taken lightly, but I would recommend (Bowling Green) to expect a little of that until they learn how to use the park.²

Owensboro

Owensboro¹s Ozone skate park wasn¹t always the popular spot it is now.

When Michael Kenney, the skate park¹s manager, moved from Bowling Green to Owensboro in 2004, he knew there was a park somewhere in the city, but couldn¹t find it. Built in 1999, it was a pay-to-play park until 2005 problematic because skaters were snubbing the park in favor of free parks nearby, Kenney said in an e-mail. Attendance was practically zero.

To encourage more activity, the park, located at the Owensboro Family YMCA, quit charging admission last year, and the wooden ramps were rearranged to create a more rider-friendly atmosphere, Kenney said. Since then, attendance has been steady.

³When we opened it up free, we got just a great response from the community as far as coming in and using the park,² said Rob Cecil, program director at the Owensboro YMCA.

The park is open varying hours depending upon the season and temperature, but only in the afternoon, Cecil said. Because of insurance regulations, the city¹s unable to open the park 24 hours a day, he said, and a staff member is always on site to watch the park and call for help if need be.

So far, the city¹s avoided any legal issues as a result of park injuries, Cecil said. Skaters are required to wear pads and helmets while in the park.

³From all the records that I have, there¹s only one kid that has broken his arm, and there are minor injuries scrapes, bruises, cuts, that type of thing but not any serious, serious injury,² he said. ³Most people who ride or skate … they know their limitations and they know what to attempt and what not to attempt. Most of them don¹t try anything unless they know they can do it.²

Novices are typically the ³showboaters² of the skate park, he said, but an etiquette and camaraderie exists among the skaters there, too. The skaters care about the park, ³especially now that it¹s free they absolutely love having it,² Cecil said, and take care of it.

³In our park, we¹ve had basically no vandalism,² Cecil said. ³(Skaters) get a bad rap because of a few people that are that way, but the majority of them are not.²

The trick is to keep a park challenging for advanced skaters, but not so challenging that beginners will be discouraged, Cecil said.

³I think it¹s taken us a while to get there, but we¹re slowly but surely getting there,² he said.

Kenney, who designed Bowling Green¹s first skate park in Basil Griffin Park nearly eight years ago, has lofty goals for Owensboro, including a push for a concrete park like the one planned for Bowling Green. There¹s potential in the skaters in this state, he said they just need a place to nurture their talent.

³What has been hard for many city administrations and business owners to come to understand is, if any city can have facilities for other sports that go unused, then there needs to be at least one free facility for skateboarders, inline skaters and BMX riders,² he wrote in the e-mail. ³At the end of the day, what those in control need to come to understand is, if you don¹t provide a skate park, then your city becomes the skate park.²