Group brings back proposal for skateboard park in borough
By: Matt Chiappardi
HIGHTSTOWN Skateboarding has come a long way in the past few decades. Gone are the days when skateboarders are criminalized on sight, and when local residents considered it a nuisance relegated to delinquents.
It’s come so far that a conceptual proposal for a skateboard park in Hightstown was met with enthusiastic support from Mayor Bob Patten and nothing but kind response from the Borough Council.
The idea, still in its preliminary stages, was presented by Planning Board member Richard Pratt, Parks and Recreation Commission member Stacey Judge and local activist Jill Johnston. The plan calls for the use of roughly 200 square feet square behind Hightstown High School on land owned by local businessman Matt Lucas, and according to Mr. Pratt, it would be designed to "resemble a city park."
Final designs will not be drafted until the group gets input from local skateboarders.
The cost of the park was estimated at $150,000 to $250,000, and if Mr. Pratt has his druthers none of that funding would come from the borough itself.
"Our intent is that the skate park will be funded privately and not by the taxpayers," he said.
The council seemed open to the idea at a well-attended meeting that included a few of the baggy-clothed skateboarders. No council member raised objections to the concept even though skateboarding is illegal on both the streets and sidewalks of the borough’s downtown area.
Mayor Patten said the plan has his "blessing" and that "as a former health and physical education teacher, I think this is a great idea to pursue. It has my support 100 percent."
Councilwoman Constance Harinxma, liaison to the Recreation Commission, echoed Mr. Patten’s sentiment.
"This provides a positive energy release and there’s not much I can see that could change my mind (about supporting it)," she said.
The idea for the skate park had its genesis with Mr. Pratt and Ms. Johnston separately. Mr. Pratt, who says he skated during his high school days, toyed with the idea back when he was a member of the Borough Council a few years ago, but no proposals ever got past the preliminary stages. Ms. Johnston, who eventually combined her idea with Mr. Pratt’s, runs a community organization called the Brian Foundation dedicated to the memory of her son who died of a drug overdose last year. Every week, about seven to 12 teens meet at Ms. Johnston’s home in what she calls a youth advisory committee.
"Getting kids something positive to do is the ultimate goal of all parents," she said, "The kids brought up the idea of building a skate park and we took it from there."
Ms. Johnston and her husband, Glenn, are also hoping to open a teen center in the Hightstown-East Windsor area.
Skate parks have become commonplace since the first ones were built in California in the early 1970s. Hamilton, Washington Township, and West Windsor already have parks, while Princeton Township is expected to begin construction on one before the end of the year. The skate park in Princeton Township will cost about $300,000 with much of that being funded by a grant from Mercer County, according to Theodore Ernst, the assistant program director for the joint recreation department for Princeton Township and Princeton Borough.
Washington Township and West Windsor parks each cost about $200,000. Washington Township paid for about half of the park’s cost, according to Recreation Director Chris Merios, while West Windsor paid for a large percentage of its park out of the Recreation Trust Fund, according to Recreation Manager Ken Jacobs.
The organizers here are looking for money, as Ms. Johnston puts it, "anywhere and everywhere." Currently they are seeking grants from the Tony Hawk Foundation, an organization started by the iconic skateboarder and dedicated to skate park development in local communities, and Athletes for Hope, a national philanthropic group that funds athletic endeavors. Ms. Johnston’s funding ideas also include an ambitious search for local and national corporate sponsors, the possibility of offering naming rights for the park, and car washes and bake sales that her youth advisory committee could organize as fundraisers.
The idea of a skate park has occasionally found its way into Hightstown politics. It was most recently broached during the 2003 campaign when unsuccessful GOP candidate Ann Blake made a skate park proposal part of her campaign.
Ms. Johnston refuses to be deterred by this issue’s history.
"I’m not giving up on this until (the skate park) is built," she said.
In other business at Monday’s meeting, the council unanimously voted to delay a vote on a parking ordinance for Leshin Lane. At issue is the curve that leads into Hightstown High School, where Police Chief James Eufemia said, "there should be no parking there, period."
However residents of Leshin Lane, led by Janice Mastriano, petitioned the council to delay its decision and consider resident permit parking as an alternative.
"This ordinance will push all of the cars that park on the curve up the street and will create much hardship for us," said Ms. Mastriano reading from a petition signed by several Leshin Lane residents. "It is extremely unfair to penalize us for this."
Mayor Patten said the council would take the petition "under advisement and revisit the issue at a future meeting."

