Romain Playground to get new skate park

A new skate park is coming to Romain Playground in central Fresno.

It’s another sign that the Parks Department’s best friend is the people it serves.

The City Council on Thursday approved a deal with two nonprofits to build a permanent skate park on the west edge of Romain.

There’s a skate park there now. It was to be a temporary answer to neighborhood demand among skateboarders. Ten years later, the thing is worn and battered.

Come this winter, a more substantial and challenging skate park will take over.

“Romain is in an underserved community,” Parks Director Manuel Mollinedo says. “The skate park is going to enhance the recreational programs for kids living around there.”

Council Member Clint Olivier, who represents the area, calls the skate park “a fantastic addition” to this part of District 7.

Three threads tie this tale together.

The first is the deal.

The money comes from a $340,000 grant from The California Endowment to Fresno Building Healthy Communities. BHC will team with the Street League Skateboarding Foundation (the nonprofits in the contract) to design and build the skate park.

California Skateparks will help with these tasks.

BHC, the project’s driving force, will donate the skate park to the city. Parks and BHC will work together on special programming at the site. Parks will keep things maintained.

Mollinedo says a new skate park will be easier to maintain, saving taxpayer money.

The second is the vision.

BHC manager Sandra Celedon-Castro says central Fresno often is shortchanged on recreational opportunities. BHC and The California Endowment talked. BHC and City Hall talked. Everyone was soon on the same page.

“This gives us a chance to reinvest in one of the city’s oldest parks,” Celedon-Castro says.

Celedon-Castro says nearly 200 youngsters and young adults gathered at the Romain gymnasium in April to discuss the design. They did the same thing in May, refining ideas and conforming dreams to fiscal realities.

The ribbon-cutting could come in December or January.

The third is the commitment.

City Hall counted on volunteers to help maintain parks during the financial crisis. The budget is better these days, but city officials still look to nonprofits to run some community centers.

Mayor Ashley Swearengin and community leaders in August gathered in southwest Fresno to celebrate the opening of Almy Street Playground, a slice of green space in a challenged neighborhood made possible by the work and money of residents, the private sector, foundations and nonprofits.

And now comes the partnership that is delivering a new skate park to central Fresno.

The skate park, Mollinedo says, “is going be a major plus for the Romain community.”

This story was originally published September 13, 2015 at 3:45 PM with the headline "Romain Playground to get new skate park."