Council approves bids and grant submission, tables skate park item

By Cory Smith | news@campcountynow.com

In a called meeting on Jan. 23, the Pittsburg City Council voted to award bids for administrative services and engineering services to Traylor and Associates and Hayes Engineering respectively for grant work relating to the submission of a Texas Community Block Grant Program. 

If the city is able to attain the grant, it will be used for a water infrastructure improvement project near Moore Park. 

The council also voted to table a proposed contract with American Ramp Company for the design of a skate park.

The council also approved the resolution to authorize the submission of the grant for the water infrastructure improvement project. The grant is for $275,000 and the city must match of $41,250 that covers grant administration and engineering fees. 

After discussing the aforementioned skate park contract, the council ultimately decided to table the item due to the desire to attain more information.

“We’ve talked about this for three or four years or so. Kids have been around town at churches and sidewalks and things like that. So, even back then, there was talk about coming up with a location for kids to be able to utilize skateboards rather than on private property. We looked at it, but nothing was really done. A few months ago, I received an email from a high school student wanting to get with the city and see about what we could do. We meet with several students at the high school and they got a petition together of people interested and have actually done a lot of the legwork. We’ve had multiple meetings with them so it’s kind of brought this back to the forefront,” said Mayor Shawn Kennington.

American Ramp Company has built skate parks across the country, including Texas. Some of their Texas projects include skate parks in Texarkana, Malakoff, San Marcos, Austin and Saginaw.

“There’s no doubt someone using this is going to get hurt. Where do we stand liability-wise on this?,” said Councilman David Abernathy.

“It’s no different than our splash park and regular park equipment. If there’s an issue, we’re covered by liability and they’d file on our insurance just like anyone swinging or jumping, playing on the splash pad, stuff like that,” said City Manager Clint Hardeman.

Rob Jones, a representative from American Ramp Co., said that in Texas, once a municipality calls their insurance provider, they normally never hear about the issue again because Texas has a specific code that covers skate parks.

After some other questions by Councilmen Abernathy and Kendal Burns about the warrant of the project, Hardeman said that if the council so desired, other projects could be explored.

“If we have some concerns about this, I definitely recommend coming up with some other ideas and projects…this one included before any money is spent.”

Councilmembers also expressed interest in fencing the skate park off and providing lighting to. Other concerns were made about overbuilding and people actually utilizing the park. 

“We always say, ‘what do the kids want?’ Well, how about the parents…what do they want?,” said Councilman Fred Cook. “When this was first brought up, we had parents come to us because their kids