The Leisure Services staff gets a scolding after the council votes to spend $70,000 more on the project.
By CARRIE JOHNSON
Published September 3, 2003
ST. PETERSBURG - Since June, the brightly colored ramps at Fossil Park have attracted more than 650 skateboarders, inline skaters and BMX bikers.
But the popular skate park is more expensive than predicted. Originally budgeted at $150,000, the park will now cost the city an additional $70,000 to cover fencing, signs, sewer line relocation and other necessities.
On Tuesday, the City Council grudgingly voted to pay the extra money, but not without scolding Leisure Services employees for failing to budget enough in the first place.
"This is a big jump from what we originally thought it would cost," said council member James Bennett.
The council voted unanimously at a workshop Tuesday to provide the funding. Members will hold a formal vote at their next meeting Thursday.
Fossil Skate Park at the Willis S. Johns Recreation Center, 6635 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N, is the result of a petition drive started by a 13-year-old neighborhood skater. He took the petition to the City Council, which used money from the city's sale of the Weeki Wachee property to build the park.
The 13,000-square-foot park features several half-pipes, boxes and banks. City officials say they need more money to make the park usable year-round.
In addition to the fence and sign costs, Leisure Services director Lee Metzger asked City Council members for $12,000 for a shade structure and $34,157 for lighting.
Council member Richard Kriseman said it was in the best interest of the city to finish the project.
"If we're going to do this, we should do it right and have it be the world-class facility that we want it to be," he said.
But others said they feared the project was consuming more than its fair share of the Weeki Wachee fund, which is set aside for recreation projects.
The fund has already been used to create several of the city's dog parks. The council has also voted to use Weeki Wachee money for a 986-foot boardwalk along the downtown waterfront, and council member Virginia Littrell wants to use it to clean up the Mirror Lake recreation complex, the former social center of the city.
Bennett said large-scale projects like the skate park were using up too much of the fund.
"Some districts or council people aren't availing themselves of this money," he said.
After the $70,000 requested for the skate park, about $100,000 remains in this year's fund, Metzger said.
Council member John Bryan, who was a leading advocate for the skate park, said the project was worth the additional money, especially in light of his colleagues' concerns about children loitering downtown.
Said Bryan: "This is keeping some of the kids from wandering in the streets."
