Bee in Turlock: City hires skate park designer

If it’s designed right, one backer said, the city’s new skate park could produce a world-class competitor.

The Turlock City Council voted 5-0 on Tuesday night for a $28,800 contract with Wormhoudt Inc. of Santa Cruz to design the attraction at Donnelly Park. It will replace a skate park that was built in 2004 at the old police headquarters, which is being sold to the Turlock Irrigation District.

Turlock resident Zach Wagner, who has been involved in skateboarding for several years, said the new park ideally will have tall jumps and other features that test users.

“We’re not just going to get a cookie-cutter skate park like we already have,” he told the council. “The prefab stuff gets us by, but it ain’t going to create the next Tony Hawk.”

Hawk, for those unfamiliar with the name, is a skateboarding legend.

The $2.6 million property sale to TID also was on the agenda and passed 5-0. The site is on and near Palm Street, just north of the Canal Drive offices of the district, which plans to use it for water and power operations. Police moved to the city’s new Public Safety Center on Broadway in 2013.

About a dozen teenagers were using the current skate park a few hours before the council met. A few of them had heard about the move to Donnelly, about half a mile to the northwest.

Jacob Sammuli, 16, who was riding a scooter, said he worried that young children at Donnelly might wander into the skating features.

“When you’re riding, you don’t want to hit them,” he said. “That’s one of the main concerns. But aside from that, I think it would be a good change.”

Benny Perez, 15, said he would like to see more lights at the new skate park, along with features that are dug into the ground rather than just rising from the surface. He also noted a well-known nuisance at Donnelly – a lake that draws geese that leave plenty of droppings.

The design firm will hold public meetings to gather ideas for the project. It will include slicing out some of the current features and hauling them to Donnelly.

Wagner praised the choice of Wormhoudt. “He has made all the great parks up in the Northern California area,” he said.

The estimated $240,000 total cost of the Donnelly project will be covered by some of the proceeds from the sale to TID.

Donnelly, a 40-acre expanse at Hawkeye Avenue and Del’s Lane, also has shaded picnic tables and an elaborate play structure for children.

The original site is the Brandon Koch Memorial Skate Park, named for a former skater who died of cancer. The name will remain. The park was built with the help of a state grant that stipulated it must remain until Aug. 25 of this year.

This story was originally published April 29, 2015 at 2:32 PM with the headline "Bee in Turlock: City hires skate park designer."