By John C. O'Connell
The village announced plans Saturday to open a skate park in Hendrickson Park this summer, after bids are accepted and construction is completed. Mayor Edward Cahill revealed the plan at a meeting in the park's administration building attended by close to 30 youngsters, half a dozen parents, Hempstead town and other village officials and two skate park developers.
"After more than a year of intensive research, the Village of Valley Stream will be soliciting bids for the development of a state-of-the-art skate park," Cahill said.
The skate park will be located on the former and still fenced-in volleyball courts, between the new bocce courts and the handball courts. As is the case with membership in the Valley Stream pool, only residents of the village or the Central High School District will be permitted to use the park, though members may bring guests.
There will be a pro shop at the park, selling skateboards and safety equipment.
"Skateboarding is a late entry into the recreational sports and activity for youngsters and teenagers yet has grown to become the number one recreational sport in America with 16 million participants," the mayor said. Little League baseball, established over a half century ago, has only six million participants, Cahill said.
"The village plans a supervised skate park because it creates a controlled recreational environment that is safe and enjoyable," he explained.
The village intends to enter into a public-private partnership with a professional skate-park-management company. "The independent company will provide everything from liability insurance and experienced skateboarders on staff to training for the novice and experienced skateboarder, maintenance of the skate park facility, scheduling, membership database, safety rules and regulations, youth programs and special events," Cahill said.
"The village will build the park with village employees to reduce costs and will seek bids from quality skate park equipment manufacturers," the mayor said.
Some of that equipment includes ramps in configurations called bowls, half-pipes and full-pipes, and perhaps even in shapes that mimic some of skateboarders' favorite obstacles: stairs, curbs and rails.
"The main goal of the village is to get our skateboarders off village streets, schools and municipal properties while giving them a safe and fun place to practice their sport," Cahill said.
The skateboarders in the audience seemed to greet the announcement with enthusiasm. "It's pretty cool," said Dan Robar, a student at Memorial Junior High School. "We'll have a place to skate and not get kicked out. I'm looking forward to this."
Fellow Memorial student Mike Castoro agreed. "It's great. It's better, so you don't get in trouble [for skating in unauthorized areas].
One parent present, Karin Waslo, with the Wheeler Avenue School PTA, said she's not opposed to the skate park but that proper controls must be used for every activity in Hendrickson Park, like requiring park users to show passes.
"It seems like there could be a need for [a skate park] if it would get them off my bench at the Wheeler Avenue School that they've been skating on and destroying," Waslo said. "That's always been a complaint, from one generation to the next. Kids are always getting in trouble because they don't have places to hang out that are okay for them to hang out."
Waslo was concerned about how much this idea would cost the taxpayers and its impact on people's willingness to fund what the schools need. "Money is going to be a big issue this year especially," she said. "If we see money being spent at the village level and also at the schools, I don't want the school budget to feel a backlash."
Bob Fumagalli, deputy village clerk, said the village would bond the capital project of about $150,000 at a favorable interest rate of 4 to 5 percent, owing to the village's high credit rating. That total would cover the concrete surface and the equipment.
According to Fumagalli, while the village would pay out approximately $14,000 or 15,000 in each of the 15 years of the bond -- about 90 cents a year for every taxpayer -- the village stands to make between 7 and 10 percent of the revenues, including revenue from the pro shop -- approximately $30,000 per year, conservatively.
"So you're really paying [the bond] off and having money left over to reinvest in your recreational program," he said. "Most recreation departments across the country now are going into these public-private partnerships, like we do with the miniature golf, because that offsets your costs dramatically. You don't have to pay for the payroll costs, the benefits costs, the insurance, the maintenance, the utilities, all that."
Fumagalli said the village would pay no additional insurance premiums for the skate park. The park developer and management company would assume all liability. "We'd be an additional insured on [the private company's] policy," he said.
"Keep in mind," the deputy clerk said, "if we were to run this ourselves, it would cost the village about $140,000 [a year] in operational expenses. And keep in mind also that we're not the experts. One thing I've found, if you go out and find people that know the business, you're going to get a better job done than us trying to figure out how to do it."
Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray was at the announcement ceremony Saturday, and supported the village's plan. "The skate park in Baldwin has been a tremendous success," she said. "I like it anytime you can give kids a place for constructive recreation. In the Town of Hempstead we've found that kids will come to a place like this. They need an outlet for their sport. This is a great thing for Valley Stream and for the kids of Valley Stream. Right now there's no actual place to skate here that's supervised. You'll always have some of them going to their other places, but this will be a supervised, safe area. You'll reach the vast majority of kids."
The bids with specifications will be going out in April, according to Fumagalli.
"We're moving ahead in Valley Stream," Cahill told the audience. "This will be a great addition to the facilities we already offer."
