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Van Buren City Council approves $1.2 million contract for skate park

THOMAS SACCENTE

VAN BUREN — River Valley residents have another opportunity for outdoor recreation heading their way.

The City Council approved a $1.2 million contract with the Joplin, Mo. based American Ramp Co. to build a skate park at its meeting Monday. The park will be at Dr. Louis Peer Memorial Park, otherwise known as City Park, at 1764 City Park Road.

Mayor Joe Hurst said Thursday he felt it was a “day to celebrate” as the city continues to improve its quality of place, recreational opportunities and the beautification of the area.

“It’s a day to also celebrate the great partnership that we have with Leadership Crawford County and the group who worked with us and worked with American Ramp Co. to really get the ball rolling on this plan,” Hurst said.

“The way you really improve a community is not just one group doing all the work. It’s engaging the entire community, and having the city working with the Chamber of Commerce and private business and private citizens. That’s how this came across, and we were able to put the plan together.”

Hurst has said the city completed a parks and recreation plan in 2015 after multiple community input meetings that called for a skate park at City Park.

Evan Moss, action sports development specialist for American Ramp Co., said Monday the park will be “just shy of 20,000 square feet” in size. Construction is expected to begin this summer and take about three to four months to complete.

Moss provided the City Council a rundown of the work that went into a feasibility study and concept design for the skate park project. The design process involved working with the city to solicit input from the community by way of in-person meetings and an online survey to figure out what residents would want to see in a skate park.

The online survey also solicited information about the participants themselves, such as their skill level in their activities of choice, when and how often they believe they would use the park and how they would primarily access it. It asked residents to select a specific age group they fall into and provide their ZIP code as well, among other things. The survey had 453 participants.

Moss said the concept American Ramp Co. created from this community engagement incorporates an approximately even amount of street and transition skating elements.

“You’ve got two main disciplines of skate parks,” Moss said. “There’s street and transition. Street kind of mimics an urban environment with stairs, rails, ledges, things like that, and then transition to more like bowl skating.”

Moss said although a pump track was originally considered for inclusion, it was decided it would make more sense to go with bowls

due to them fitting in better. A pump track can also be built at a later time.

In addition to building the skate park, American Ramp Co. will be responsible for finalizing the conceptual design and necessary construction documents for the project, according to its contract with Van Buren.

The City Council also voted 5-1 Monday to provide the Almost Home Shelter and Rescue $93,000 in American Rescue Plan money from its general fund for a remodel of the shelter’s facility. Matt Dodson, who holds the Ward 2, Position 1 seat on the council, voted against the agreement.

Almost Home is a Van Buren-based nonprofit group dedicated to the care and placement of dogs, according to its website. It was established in March 2017.

Connie Martin, secretary of the shelter’s board, has said the remodel would entail two additions at each end of the organization’s facility at 3390 Pointer Trail East. One addition would be 30 feet by 30 feet in size while the other would be 15 feet by 20 feet. The building, formerly the city pound, is 30 feet by 40 feet.

Martin told the City Council at its Dec. 19 meeting Almost Home needs the expansion not necessarily so it can take in more dogs, but to allow its volunteers to work safely and create a safer environment for the dogs it holds.

Almost Home has an agreement with Van Buren in which the city owns the shelter property and pays for utilities while the nonprofit group takes care of, and tries to find homes for, dogs Van Buren Animal Control brings to it, according to Martin. The organization, which is comprised of volunteers with no paid employees, can only accept dogs through the city.

Almost Home’s facility has the space to hold about 25 to 30 dogs, according to the organization.

River Valley Democrat Gazette

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2023-01-30T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-01-30T08:00:00.0000000Z

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