Made to Skate
The South Side Park Group has spent the past year getting donations from clubs and organizations, and holding yard sales to raise money to fix skateboard ramps at Father Marinaro Park in Butler.
Plans the volunteer, nonprofit group had to raise money this spring were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it looked like the group would have to continue looking anywhere they could for money to maintain the skate park.
The group's plans and focus changed after Butler City Council negotiated and approved the sale of the South Side playground, which is adjacent to Father Marinaro Park, to the Berean Bible Chapel for a new church.
The church will make an up-front payment of $50,000 and an annual payment of $2,500 for 10 years. The $2,500 payments will be spent on maintenance at Father Marinaro Park and the $50,000 will be used to match a $100,000 grant the city intends to apply for to purchase new playground equipment for the park.
When the group begins fundraising next year, the effort will focus on creating a playground for disabled children as well as maintaining the skate ramps.
“Now we can focus on the ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) part of the playground,” said Cindy Parker of the South Side Park Group. “Now we can say, 'Here's what we're going to do.'”
The existing playground at the park has only two swing sets.
City Councilman Jeff Smith, the director of parks, recreation and public property, commended the group for raising part of the money used to buy surveillance cameras that were installed after the park was vandalized with spray painted graffiti last fall, and for repairing the skate ramps.“If they want to raise money for an ADA playground, that certainly would be welcome. The city is always glad when people donate money to the city parks,” Smith said.He said the grant the city will apply for would pay for new playground equipment and there might be enough money left to enhance the park softball field.Replacing the pavilion at the park was another suggestion for the grant money.“It's pretty much guaranteed the list of needs will exceed the amount of money we will have. There's a lot of opportunities to make Father Marinaro Park a really great place for folks on the South Side,” Smith said.Parker and her family have been volunteering at the skate park since it was built in 2002. She was raised in the South Side, but now lives in Lyndora.“I helped build the park in 2002,” she said.She and her two oldest children — Rob, 34, and Andrew, 33 — helped build the skate ramps.“I was a teenager whenever we put the ramps in,” said Rob Parker, who was repairing one of the ramps Friday with his brothers and other volunteers.
His daughter, Rory, 9, and son, Gavin, 4, were playing during the work session. Rob Parker and his wife, Gabrielle, are expecting another daughter in a few weeks.“I'll have plenty of help down here in the future,” he said.He said he and his brothers and other volunteers work on the ramps on weekends when they aren't working.They helped build the ramps because there was no other proper place to ride skateboards. He said he was cited when he was younger for riding his skateboard on streets and sidewalks.“Once we got this place in, we spent all our time here. I don't want future kids to not have a place to ride,” Rob Parker said. “I know how much it meant to me when I was a kid.”The skate park also provides an activity that keeps kids out of trouble, he said.“Just trying to make the community better. That's what it's all about,” he said.Cindy Parker said the sale of South Side playground to the church is just what Father Marinaro Park and the residents who use it needed.“I can't see it bringing anything but positive change. This neighborhood deserves to see this grow and to have a nice playground,” she said.The park's need of attention sparked the creation of the nonprofit group. Vandals tore the roof off a pavilion, and the park was notorious for drug use, Cindy Parker said.After the city fixed the roof and painted the pavilion and concession stand, vandals spray painted the stand, skate ramps, fencing and concrete, causing more than $16,000 in damages.
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