More than two years ago, local teens approached the Nashville Town Council asking to have restrictions removed on skateboarding in town.
Less than a month later, in January 2017, Kids on Wheels was formed.
The group, then made up of three Brown County High School students, unveiled two goals: Opening up travel routes throughout town for skateboarders, and creating a skate park.
On April 15, one of those goals will be met when construction begins on a skate park at Deer Run Park. It is estimated to take six to eight weeks to build.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]The Brown County Parks and Recreation board approved the final location at a special meeting March 14. It will be built in the wooded area near the Deer Run Park office.
Local business All Things Green will donate its time to clear the construction site. The park will be built around the trees as much as possible, said KOW parent volunteer Colleen Smith. The shrubs that will be taken out will be replanted after construction is complete, she said.
Shields said the skate park could be available for use during Deer Run Park hours. Smith said the group also could look into getting lighting in that area.
Smith’s son, Isaiah, proposed building a skate park in Brown County to his high school principal when he was a junior in 2017. Even though the park did not get built in time for his graduation, he fulfilled his senior project requirements because of all the work he had done for it, including going to meetings and creating designs.
Isaiah is now project manager for the park. He said there were times he thought the project would never get to the groundbreaking stage.
“There were a lot of times where it was just kind of overwhelming, or it would just seem like all of our work wasn’t adding up. But I definitely wouldn’t have thought six months ago that it would be now that it was starting,” he said.
“Definitely, things went way better than planned, which is always a good thing.”
Since construction is beginning on April 15, the hope is the skate park will be finished in time for teens to enjoy it this summer.
Hunger Skate Parks will be responsible for building it.
Bart Smith is the project manager for Hunger Skate Parks. He is not related to Isaiah and Colleen Smith.
He said the company decided to take on the project because Kids on Wheels, Isaiah, and Hunger Skate Parks all share similar goals: A dedication to helping their communities along with making something happen.
“We feel like skate parks provide a place for individual artistic expression. You don’t need to rely on anyone but yourself, and you’re your own judge. You find your own style, your lines, your own pace that suits you best,” Bart said.
“On these skate parks, there’s so many different approaches on how to use it, whether it’s on a skateboard, bike, scooter, rollerblades, etc. It’s an open canvas. It’s pretty cool. You can use them in many different ways and you kind of decide what route you want to take.”
Hunger Skate Parks is based in Bloomington, but the company has built skate parks all over the world and the United States. They build an average of about four parks a year.
“Since this is close to us, we feel obligated to see that there are quality skate parks in our area and state. We’re really excited about that,” Bart said.
“For years, when I would drive through Nashville, I was always, like, hoping that someday there will be a skate park here, so it’s pretty cool.”
The kids who will be using it agree.
Brothers Evan and Kyle Roberson are members of KOW.
Evan is a fifth-grader at Brown County Intermediate School and loves visiting other skate parks, which is why he attended the KOW meeting with his mom.
“I would love to have one closer to home,” he said.
He rides a scooter and enjoys riding on ramps. “You can be creative on how to ride, and you don’t have to be good to have fun,” he said.
Kyle is a sophomore at Brown County High School. He has been skateboarding for four years and is looking forward to hanging out with his friends at the park and trying new stunts there.
“It gives the future of Brown County something to do,” he said about the skate park.
“It means I can have fun while doing something healthy for my body, hanging out with friends and riding around.”
KOW member Parker Scott is friends with Isaiah, which is how he found out about the project. “I enjoy skating a lot. The fact that you’re free and you can hang out with your friends, you can skate, you can show off your skills,” he said.
A high school senior, Scott also has been skateboarding for about four years.
“We all thought a skate park would be a great idea, because all of the kids can get together and they can skate. It’s in a nice location. I think it would be good for the community, because the parents and adults can come see how much fun the kids are having,” he said.
“It is better than on the streets, and hopefully it will let the parents and adults trust us more, like us more.”
‘Brown County feel’
Last September, Kids on Wheels raised $51,224 to get another $50,000 from the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority. Major donors included the Tony Hawk Foundation, South Central Indiana REMC’s Operation RoundUp, the Brown County Community Foundation and the Fabulous 50 Women’s Giving Circle.
Along with the skating area, the park will also feature a gaga pit (a circular, enclosed area for playing a dodgeball-like game), hammock swings and tire swings.
A member of KOW will build the hammock swing area and will submit a grant to fund it as his Eagle Scout project.
Isaiah also built picnic tables for his Eagle Scout project, and his brother, Elijah, raised $1,000 to build the gaga pit for his own Eagle Scout project.
The group is currently raising money to provide handicap-accessible features, like a wheelchair swing and a “wave” feature for the skate park which children in wheelchairs can ride on.
KOW recently applied for a $5,000 grant through the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs that would allow them to put skate-able art in the park. They also would etch colored leaves throughout the skate area.
“It would make it a totally unique park for Brown County. There’s no other park in the area. The closest park with skate-able art is in Louisville,” Colleen said.
An example of skate-able art would be a leaf sculpture. A curled-up leaf could become a ramp, or the stem could be a rail for skaters to grind and jump off, she said.
“We’re trying to locate the park where it would have woods pretty much all the way around it. We’re looking at leaving some trees in the center of it, so it has this Brown County feel to it, so it’s very different from other parks that are in wide open spaces,” Colleen said.
“It’s what we’re known for,” she added about incorporating the leaves.
The park itself will be a mixture of street-style skateboarding with ledges and rails, with a small pump track, or snake run, Bart said.
Isaiah said adding the skate-able art will help Brown County’s park stand out from the larger skate parks in Bloomington and Columbus.
“It will have something that will keep people coming back to it, or get people interested in it to go try it out in the first place. That’s what I’m really excited about,” he said.
The location of the skate park was originally envisioned for the field to the right of the first baseball field, as you’re coming down Deer Run Lane from Nashville. The parks and rec board decided to move the park near the parks office instead.
“I think they (the board) wanted it more towards the other playground area, so parents who have kids going over to the teen area are still visible from where they are watching the younger kids,” Colleen said.
Once completed, the park would be turned over to Brown County Parks and Recreation for ownership and maintenance. In the fall of 2017, the Brown County Council agreed to fund the maintenance if the park was built on county land.
Skate parks are protected under Indiana Code 34-13-3-3, which prevents a government entity from being liable if someone gets hurt using the property.
To ensure this, the skate park must be maintained, like fixing broken pieces, and signs need to be posted at the entrances that show the rules and warn of hazards associated with the extreme sport, the law says.
At the parks and rec board meeting March 14, Colleen said a sign will be in placed letting riders know that helmets are required and that they are riding at their own risk.
Isaiah said he hopes to help with building the skate park and plans to be one of the first people to skate on it once it’s done.
Colleen said that KOW will also be reaching out to other groups, like 4-H, to see if they want to help build the park. Bart said Hunger Skate Parks would love to have volunteers.
“That also helps with looking after the park. Whether it’s adults or kids, the people that kind of help out, or even if they help out on the design and they are a part of it along the way, they tend to look after the park when it’s finished. … They have pride in it because they were a part of creating it.
“That’s the really beautiful part of it all actually.”
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Kids on Wheels is raising money to provide handicap-accessible pieces for the skate park at Deer Run Park.
Those include a concrete path to each of the skate park’s features, two accessible parking spaces, an accessible picnic table, a swing for the hammock swing area, a gate for the gaga pit, a swing for the tire swing area, and a wheelchair swing.
The group is also raising funds for a “wave,” a skate park feature that children in wheelchairs can ride on in the park.
Smithville Telephone Company has donated $15,000 toward these items already, and PNC Bank has given $1,000. Case Construction will build the sidewalks and is providing a $5,000 discount on the installation. Shelby Materials is providing the concrete at a discounted rate, too.
To provide all of the above features, KOW still needs to raise a little over $15,000. Send checks or money to P.O. Box 384 Nashville, IN 47448.
Construction will begin on the skate park April 15. Hunger Skate Parks is building the park and encourages locals of all ages to help. Updates, work dates and project needs will be posted on the “Kids on Wheels Nashville IN” Facebook page.
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