BOONE, N.C.,None — Boone area skateboarders are on a mission — again.
"Boone needs a skatepark," said Chelsie Mitchell, group organizer and an Appalachian State University sophomore. "We have the Greenway and we have mountain biking."But no skatepark.
At least not since the skatepark closed in 2009 after various helmet and safety pad infraction tickets led to poor attendance.
"We're trying to start off on a fresh, clean slate," Mitchell said.
Mitchell, along with other area skaters, is in talks with town council members about bringing a new park to Boone.
Many hobbies are expensive: martial arts, lacrosse, horseback riding. "A lot of local families in Boone don't have a lot of money to supply their children with tons of gear," Mitchell said. "But skateboarding, it's something everyone can do. You don't have to have a lot of money."
The group, consisting so far of more than 50 community members, needs money, however. "Funding is the key thing," Mitchell said. "We're trying to figure out how to go about it."
Fellow organizer and pet salon owner Brian Wilde said the group has been in touch with the town of Boone and are hoping to present at January's meeting. He's hoping to avoid the problems the last park faced.
"It could have been prevented if there was supervision," he said.
He can still remember the elation he felt when that park opened in 2006. "We had a grand opening and everything, had a band play," he said. "We had more plans before the skatepark closed. We had plans to start up a recycling thing and there were a lot of us who tried to enforce the rules."
Now that there's no skatepark, it's hard to skate. Skateboarding on sidewalks breaks a town ordinance. Skateboarding is also prohibited on the streets of Boone and on ASU's campus. Violations can mean a $50 fine.
"Before the skatepark closed, I would say I skated three to four times a week," he said. "It's pretty hard to swallow not being able to skate."
And, now that he's a father, he's hoping a new skatepark will open in time for his young son to participate.
"I'd like to have a safe place for him to go and for me to go with him and bond with him over skateboarding," he said. "It's kind of hard when you get tickets for just rolling down the street."
He's hoping the powers-that-be will allow a half-acre of the Rocky Knob Bike Trail property for skateboarders.
"A half-acre out of 180 is nothing," he said.
Tourism Development Authority planning director Eric Woolridge, who spearheads Rocky Knob, said the park property may not be fully developed, but it is fully planned.
"(A skatepark) is not inside the plan," he said.
Woolridge said he had never been approached by anyone about putting a skatepark on the Rocky Knob property, but that he had heard from people wanting a skatepark in Watauga County.
"I've told them the county, I don't think, is in a position where they're going to go for it for awhile," he said.
County Commission Chairman Nathan Miller said he wouldn't form an opinion until the matter was brought before the county.
"I'm not a skater, so I don't have a lot of knowledge in that area," he said. "I would encourage those people, if they're talking about doing it in the town of Boone, to contact the town of Boone."
The town of Boone said Thursday there was nothing on the agenda for January, but that the deadline for agenda items had not passed.