LEXINGTON — B.J. Price and Skate Ohio want to do for Lexington what the organization has already done for Shelby.
Namely, bring the community skate park back to life.
Lexington Village Council on Monday night helped move the project forward by voting unanimously to have Law Director John Studenmund draft a letter from the village in support of the non-profit’s efforts at Community Park.
Price, joined by a room full of supporters at council, left the meeting pleased and met with Richland Source outside village hall.
“We’re just looking for the written permission … some legal paper from the village to say, ‘Yep, you can start work.’ Because even before all of the fundraising gets (done), there’s a lot of stuff that we can do and try to make it look better than it does now,” Price said.
He said the group’s initial plan is to try to raise $80,000 to remove the current asphalt surface that the pipes and ramps and other objects rest on. Over the years, those obstacles have sunk into the asphalt in places, making them difficult for skateboarders to use.
Price said the plan is to replace the asphalt surface with concrete.
“We’ll start discussing it with some financial donors soon. We’ve got a couple that we’re hoping to meet with and we’ll be able to give you more (timeline) information soon.
“But I’d love to have it done this year. If we get fully funded and we have the money and all of the people doing the work in place, we can have it done quicker than we had Shelby done, which was 89 days,” Price said.
During the council meeting, the Mansfield resident reminded village lawmakers he had visited with them before about the project.
“We wanted to come tonight (as a group) and show what this (skateboard) community does look like,” Price said. “The skate park here in Lexington is very important to us.
“Most of us here, I’m sure, have memories of doing something there with friends, with the community, learning something from each other. And the reason we all showed up today is what we really need is permission to get started,” Price said.
He told council Skate Ohio has a potential financial backer, but he needs written permission from village council and the park board to proceed with the fundraising effort.
“There’s a lot of things we could do now. We can move the ramps so that they’re ready. We can start painting ramps, paint the fence, we can get the area ready to start pulling out the pavement.
“There’s a lot of things we can start that’ll make things go much quicker once we do have the funding that we need,” Price said.
He distributed copies of a similar letter the City of Shelby provided that allowed the organization to proceed with what is now Louis “Louie” Beach skate park.
Price said Shelby officials are pleased with the work Skate Ohio has done there after obtaining a $50,000 grant from ArcelorMittal to order new ramps, fix existing ramps, modify the current skate setup, fund general maintenance, cleaning and graffiti removal.
“We can do that here, too,” Price said, indicating the group had done everything the Village of Lexington had asked them to do over the last two years.
“I’m just waiting for that paper to say we can get started,” he said, indicating he had asked for the letter previously.
Mayor Bob Jarvis said his memory of the organization’s most recent visit with council was the village instructed the group to raise the funds it needed.
“We’ve gotten no (fundraising) updates,” he said. “I don’t think there is anybody here that doesn’t think this is a worthwhile project. We’re just looking for your fundraising effort.”
Price said fundraising was difficult to do without the official letter from the village endorsing the plan.
“We’ve also made partners with some other businesses such as Matern Metal (Works) … ArcelorMittal is excited to build some things that we can use there that saves us on cost. But we’re at $80,000 just to pull out the pavement, put a base down and put concrete in,” Price said.
“Moritz Concrete is giving us an an incredible discount on the concrete. They still want to partner with us on this. Harmon Quality Concrete still wants to do the work for us,” he said.
Councilman Keith Bacin said village officials want the project to succeed, but said he also didn’t recall a previous request for a letter.
“Mr. Price, I am one of your biggest fans. I have been before I started on council here. I’ve been been involved in every meeting that you’ve been to.
“(If this letter) is holding you up, I don’t see a big deal (in providing it). I think this is a very simple thing to correct,” Bacin said.
“I want you to know this village is behind this project 100 percent,” Bacin said.
Law Director John Studenmund examined the letter from the City of Shelby. He encouraged Price and Skate Ohio to work with the park board, as well.
“As long as everyone is on the same page, we can get something together. I don’t see a problem with that,” Studenmund said.