Come on Wednesday and tell the designers of the future park inside McCormick Park what you think. They'll take away the ideas and come back in four to six weeks with a design and a three-dimensional model for the long-in-progress project. Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam will be there to put in his two cents, too.
"We want people to shoot high," said Chris Bacon, president of the Missoula Skatepark Association. "Give us your dream park. Then we'll go from there."
One thing's for sure, Bacon said: The park will be a multi-user-level area. It will have areas and features from beginners' to experts'.
"And everything in between," he said.
Tait Brink, recreation specialist with Missoula Parks and Recreation, which is a partner in the project, visualizes a Missoula kid starting out as a youth on the beginners' features and then returning as a pro skateboarder to the park's expert features years later.
The project grew out of need, Brink said. In the survey that the Parks and Rec department did before developing its master plan for McCormick Park, the public put a skatepark fourth in priority, just after indoor and outdoor pools, he said.
Members of the Missoula Redevelopment Agency board voted unanimously to give the Missoula Skatepark $100,000 after the Skatepark Association approached them for help with a very organized, sophisticated application, said Tod Gass, project manager at the MRA.
"It's time that skateboarding gets recognized just like soccer, softball and other sports," he said.
Ten or 15 years ago, people might have thought skateboarding was a fad, Bacon said.
"It's hard to turn on the TV without seeing a skateboarder in a commercial or a competition," he said.
The new park built in Great Falls has been getting "tons" of use, Bacon said, and is a destination park as Missoula's is expected to become.
The idea for the park began about five years ago when Bacon and some other skateboarders put up some ramps under the Higgins Avenue Bridge.
"It turns out we really weren't supposed to be there," he said. "So that brought up, 'Well, where are we supposed to be?' "
Bacon contacted Parks and Rec director Donna Gaukler, and she and the MRA staff helped start and plan the effort.
The city of Missoula dedicated the land in McCormick Park and committed to managing and operating the skatepark. In addition to the MRA's $100,000, Pearl Jam's Vitalogy Health Foundation pledged $50,000. The MRA money requires matching funds, and the Pearl Jam pledge meets half that requirement. The Missoula Skatepark Association will raise the remaining $50,000 and the rest of the money needed.
The Skatepark Association has already raised $38,000, Bacon said. Big Sky Brewery's summer concert series donated part of its proceeds, and the Board of Missoula (now the Edge of the World) raised money with video premieres.
A core of about five Skatepark Association members have sold T-shirts, and collection buckets on counters around town have also attracted donations.
The very broad cost range for the project is $300,000 to $460,000, said Gass. A budget can be made once the design is set.
"They're hoping to get major donations too from contractors for rebar, concrete, fencing, landscaping," he said. "These guys are hoping Missoula will step up to the plate and support the project."
Bacon hopes that in-line skaters attend Wednesday's design session, too. And BMX bicyclists are welcome, too. The park will not include BMX, but the meeting could give those who participate in that sport some ideas about leading their own effort for an area.
Ament himself has been skateboarding for 25 or so years, Bacon said. The area including Missoula, Frenchtown, Bonner and the Bitterroot probably has about 500 to 1,000 skateboarders, he said. That wide appeal will help the fund-raising for the park, he said.
"I feel really confident that once we get this (design), we can go out there and really hit it home," he said. "But that's up to Missoula."
To contribute
Contributions to the Missoula Skatepark may be sent to the nonprofit Missoula Skatepark Association, 618 S. Higgins Ave., Missoula, MT 59801. Donations may also be made on its Web site, www.missoulaskatepark.org. Donations are tax-deductible.
Proceeds from the recycling of aluminum cans at BFI can be donated at BFI's recycle center on West Broadway.
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