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What if we treated all athletes like skateboarders?
A TV commercial in the early 90s depicted two joggers casually running down a neighborhood street. As a car approached, one smacked the other on the leg and said "cop." The pair immediately stopped jogging and began to walk. A few moments later, after the police car was out of sight, they resumed their jog with a sigh of relief.
A subsequent caption read, "What if we treated all athletes like skateboarders."
Skateboarding opponents may logically argue the differences between the sport and other activities, but both sides would likely agree the message from the commercial holds true, most people do not view skateboarders in the same light as they do other athletes.
A group of McCook skateboarders and their parents have been organizing support for the construction of a public skate park and hope the McCook City Council will take steps during Monday's meeting, Aug. 5, to assist them financially.
"As we have worked on this over the past year we have really appreciated the hundreds of people who have voiced support for the project. It has the potential to add a great sport to the choices available to our young people in the area. It would be helpful if folks would back the kids as they present their request to the City Council on Monday," said Rex Nelson on behalf of the group, "Build McCook a Skate Park."
The group, led by Nelson and co-president Christian Olson, has certainly approached the project in an organized manner and should serve as a template for how similar public projects are pursued in the future. The skate park supporters have organized regular meetings; researched and made progress in applying for grants to assist their project; enlisted the help of experienced volunteers to provide input on the design process; appeared before the city council and parks advisory board to inform them of their goal and solicit input; as well as coordinated and staffed parade floats and booths during local events to recruit supporters and donations.
Despite their enthusiastic efforts, the skate park project has not avoided the prejudices referenced in the 90s commercial.
Mayor Dennis Berry has repeatedly pitted support for a skate park project against any type of improvements at the McCook city pool.
"Just today people were telling me they would rather have enhancements at the pool," said Berry most recently, during Monday's city council meeting.
It is certainly understandable that the number of projects the city can lend financial support to is limited, however, Berry's comments serve not only to rally supporters of pool improvements against the skate park project, but also raise questions when comparing the organized support of the two projects.
Citizens have not organized meetings in support of improvements at the city pool. There is no recent history of previous unrelated groups raising funds for pool improvements, yet there have been previous groups which raised funds for a skate park and ultimately failed to get the project off the ground.
Volunteers have already begun grant research and design work for a skate park, yet neither have been worked on for a pool project, aside from any preliminary efforts put in by city staff.
The pool project was originally budgeted for $180,000 in funds to build a water slide, which appeared to draw broad support. It has since been downgraded to something akin to the "splash pad" installed in Cambridge recently, due to the slide expense being higher than anticipated.
The comparison does not indicate whether Mayor Berry would be more or less supportive of a parks project driven by athletes from a different sport, but it is fair to say the support and efforts of local skate park supporters hold little value when compared to a water project with no organized support.
The seemingly unenthusiastic reaction to the project was shared by at least one parks advisory board member as well. The board member raised concerns in August 2012 that the proposed site location would cause parking issues in an area utilized by the McCook YMCA and McCook High School students, while also questioning whether there was enough youth support for a skate park. The concerns pertaining to usage were raised despite skate park representatives informing the parks board they had obtained more than 700 signatures within a few short weeks in support of the project.
During a followup meeting with the parks board in May 2013, skate park representatives were asked to provide detailed information supporting their anticipated usage of the skate park. The request seems like a logical approach at first glance, however, it raises additional questions as to whether the skate park project is being treated like other projects, given that usage studies have not been mentioned in other recent parks board meetings during conversations relating to park projects and expenditures.
During Monday's city council budget meeting, City Manager Jeff Hancock recommended city staff and parks advisory members take a step back and review the community's recreational assets as well as long term recreational needs.
"I really think the parks board and council should look at what our recreational needs are and see where we are short or heavy," said Hancock, adding that the addition of a couple of baseball fields could qualify McCook to host more tournaments.
Hancock's suggestion appears grounded in both logic and common-sense. For organized supporters of a new skate park, however, it will likely be difficult to see it as anything other than a delay in their project and leave them wondering where the supporters for every other competing project have been over the past several years.