By DEBBIE ROSEN
Matt Achstatter was ready to roll. Ryan Gitt jumped onto his skateboard, literally airborne as he slid across a grinding pipe set up in his friend's driveway. The two ninth grade boys were among half a dozen high school age skateboarders cruising up and down the street on Franklin Place in Oceanside.
But Matt's mom looked on with fear, yelling out for the kids to be careful each and every time a car passed by. Her quest is to find a safe place for them to practice what is clearly their passion.. skateboarding. As of now they have nowhere else to play. And so Matt's mom, Nancy, is now a mom on a mission. And she hopes by making every effort to find a place where these kids can roll, she won't just be spinning her wheels.
They can't skateboard at the schools and they get thrown out of parking lots, said Achstatter. Then they get angry because there's just nowhere for them to go. Well now I'm angry. My son skateboards in the street or in parking lots where cars ride by and back up. It's dangerous. Is it going to take one of these kids to get killed by a car before someone does something?
Achstatter's son was one of two children recently suspended from Oceanside High School for skateboarding on school property, even though it was after school hours. Superintendent Dr. Herb Brown said students were told not to skateboard many times by their principal, Jess Resnick. Skateboarding is not permitted on any Oceanside school property. With people coming in and out of school, it's dangerous and school property is not a rink, Brown said.
But Brown sympathized with the children and agreed they do need a safe place to play. Last week, he sent a letter out to Senator Dean Skelos, Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg and Town Councilman Anthony Santino, asking them to find funding and to construct an area for skateboarders at Oceanside Park.
Meanwhile, Achstatter had approached Santino at his last public meeting hold at the middle school, requesting a portion of the park be set aside for the skateboarders.
At Councilman Santino's suggestion, the town is investigating the issue by looking at other municipalities with skateboarding facilities, keeping an eye toward cost, size, liability and needed funding, said Mike McConnell, spokesperson for the Town of Hempstead. There are quite a few aspects that have to be considered, but the request is actively being considered.
High school students are not the only kids looking for a place to skate, recently middle school students voiced their need for a skateboard area, as well.
Twelve-year-old John Shannon lives in Rockville Centre and attends Oceanside schools. He, along with another RVC resident, George Formont, and Oceansiders Noel Collado and Nick Reilly took matters into their own hands. They sat down, wrote a petition and went door-to-door for signatures.
Most people agreed it was a good idea, John said of the more than 225 signatures the children have already acquired. They hope to have hundreds more before they take further action. We're going to try to get officials in the Town of Hempstead to build a skate park in Oceanside. And it wouldn't be under our control, but theirs, he added.
Matt's mom continued in her mission to help the youths and contacted Nassau County Legislator Jeff Toback. I agree with her, Toback said. I'm gathering information on how Long Beach built their facility and plan to make a presentation to the Town of Hempstead.
Both the high school and middle school kids said their needs in a skateboard park or area would not be monumental. We would need some grinding rails and a half pipe, said John. A three-foot mini-ramp, fun box, and a quarter pipe would suit ninth grader Daniel Malmud just fine. All we want to do is skate, said Zach Koenigsberg, as he picked up his skateboard and scooted off.
