Milledgeville Skaters Seek Skate Spot Space
MILLEDGEVILLE, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Skateboarders in Milledgeville are asking city leaders to consider building a skate park. City ordinances prohibit skaters to skate on sidewalks or roads, so they hope the city will give them a safe place to call their own.
“Someone has said that skateboarders are basically outsiders who want to belong,” Ben Joiner with the Alliance for Milledgeville Progressive Sports said.
But these skaterboards feel like they have no where to go. They used to skate at an abandoned car lot until the city tore it down because it was unsafe. Now they are asking city leaders for a skate spot.
“It’s not an actual skate park. It’s smaller, it serves less people, and you can put small ones around your town that are cheap, easy to build, and they can be more accessible to children,” Joiner said.
Joiner says the plan is simple. He suggests the city build the concrete skate park in Central City Park. He drew up blueprints for the park which would have a quarter pipe, grind ledge, and a flat bar. Plus, there would be a lot of space for skaters to pop an ollie or grab some air.
“It’s the third most popular sport with American teenagers since 2004, so its mainstream,” Joiner said. “That means that its not just one walk of life. It’s not just one type of person. It’s a lot of types of people.”
Joiner hopes to break the skateboard stereotype. He says this park will keep kids off the streets and out of trouble. And the sport isn’t as dangerous as you may think.
“Safety is not really an issue. Skateboarding is statistically twice as safe as basketball, which amazed me even,” he said. Those statistics are according to “The Journal of Trauma: Injury, Infection, and Critical Car” published in 2002.
City councilman Phillip Joiner (no relation) is working with Ben to bridge the gap between skaters and city leaders.
“They’re going to skate somewhere and this is a spot where they can do it safely in an organized way and we can have something nice built,” Phillip Joiner said.
Joiner says the park would cost $5,000. He is scheduled to talk to city leaders during Tuesday night’s city council work session.
To be clear, the city of Milledgeville isn’t opposed to the idea of a skate spot. City Council wants to get more information before making a decision.
41NBC’s Amanda Castro will be at the work session. Watch 41NBC News at 11 Tuesday night for the latest.
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