Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
A design unveiling and silent auction for a skate park in Palouse will be next Wednesday, March 11, at the Palouse Community Center from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The open house, drop-by event will have live background music, a no-host bar with beer from Paradise Creek Brewery, wine from Merry Cellars and light appetizers.
Included will be the auction, along with a “shopping list” for giving a specified monetary gift. Children are welcome.
“There will be activities available to keep even the smallest supporters busy throughout their visit,” said event organizer Nicole Flansburg. “This is both a fun raiser and a fundraiser.”
During this final push before the start of the park’s construction, official plans for phase one of Tony Kettel Skate Gardens will be shown to the public.
The project is set to be built in a 26,000-square foot space across three lots on Whitman Street behind the Community Center. Former Palouse resident Tony Kettel donated the land on which it will be built.
Skate park committee leader Aaron Flansburg noted that their non-profit group will work on their own timeline, depending on weather, time availability and other factors.
“The project at this point is entirely privately-funded, on private ground, privately insured and privately maintained,” Flansburg said. “It’s not a city project, but will be open to the public.”
With construction expected to begin some time this summer, the committee hopes phase one will be completed this year.
“I see some of this project being done with volunteer labor as well as hired labor,” Flansburg said.
Phase one will include the forming of a pool-like bowl, a flowing plaza-like transitional area between elevations and a skate-able amphitheater with an outdoor stage and seating for more than 80 people.
“To the uninitiated, not knowing it’s a skate park, too, it will look like a little amphitheater,” said Aaron.
Phase two of the project may include partially enclosing an area for year-round use of the facility, and the construction of a band shell behind the stage area. There is also a planned, public “edible forest” with berries and fruit trees.
Near the skate park’s entrance, a concrete stem wall will be available for artists to submit ideas for rotational murals, selected and approved by an art committee for the Skate Gardens.
For the March 11 event, drop-in guests and those unable to attend or stay for the duration are welcome to participate in the silent auction by absentee bidding. Interested parties will be assigned a number and may communicate the maximum purchase price they would like to bid on specified items. This participation may be done in-person or communicated to the auction committee at http://www.palouseskatepark.com. If the absentee bid is the highest at the end of the silent auction closing, the party will be contacted the next day to arrange payment and delivery of the item.
So far 20 items are available to bidders.
“People said yes,” said Flansburg. “I was just blown away by what they have donated.”
Items include a one-week stay at a vacation home in Bend, Ore., over next year’s spring break, a one-week Montana timeshare, tickets to a Spokane Chiefs hockey game, gift baskets, a lunch with State Rep. Susan Fagan at the Green Frog Café, a photography package from Tevlin Photography, an autographed skateboard by Tony Hawk and other skateboarding namesakes. Items can be seen at http://www.palouseskatepark.com with the site updated as new items are named.
For anyone who would like to make a tax-deductible gift, a “shopping list” will be available to those who donate the cost of materials.
“It’s a way for people to donate the physical items needed for construction,” said Aaron. “We’re also seeking helpers. People can pledge their time in labor as well.”
Opportunities will range from purchasing $25 worth of gravel to $100 for two seating areas of the amphitheater.
For more information, call Nicole Flansburg at (509) 595-1197 or Connie Newman at (509) 595-1443.
The Palouse Skate Park effort has raised $33,000 for the project, with most of it in the past three years, including $9,000 from the 2014 Haunted Palouse.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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