Weekender Issue 12.12.07

Most people today might not remember when motorcycle riders were looked at as trouble, rebels or vagrants. Today, however, bike enthusiasts are easy to spot with the hordes of bike runs and bike nights. That’s not to say that today’s generation is without its own “rebels”: the tattooed, the pierced, and of course, skateboarders.

One group is out to change that perception: The NEPA Free Skate Park Association (NEPA FSA), fronted by Kevin Pizzano, James Gidosh and Mike Valentukonis. The FSA is not only looking to help skateboarders get rid of their bad rap, but it also is looking to open a 15,000-25,000-square-foot concrete skate/BMX park in Wilkes-Barre, a city it feels is the “heart of Luzerne County.”

“I think it would be an integral part of downtown Wilkes-Barre’s revitalization,” Gidosh, 29, said. “I think this would be a giant step toward making it a college town and changing the [perception] of Wilkes-Barre.”

“And changing it to a more vibrant, youth-oriented culture,” added Pizzano, 27. “I call it ‘getting with the times.’ That’s the whole point of revitalizing.”

Both men have been skating for years, Gidosh for 18 and Pizzano since 1998, after suffering an injury that ended his high school baseball and soccer careers.

“I feel I found myself skateboarding — it’s who I am,” he said. “It’s not even a sport, it’s a lifestyle. You can do it alone and feel the freedom of self-expression.”

“There’s camaraderie,” the soft-spoken Gidosh explained. “If you see a skateboarder, more than likely you’ll meet each other, and it’s almost like an instant friendship.” He said he and Pizzano met skateboarding nearly 10 years ago.

Their quest for a Wilkes-Barre skate park has been long, and when asked how hard it has been, Gidosh only answers, “Slow going,” with a small smile. The quest has taken them to city council meetings, and most recently, a much sought-after meeting with Luzerne County Commissioner Greg Skrepenak two weeks ago. While Skrepenak did not return Weekender calls, Gidosh said he was pleased with the meeting’s outcome.

“He had some good, positive things to say and wanted to hear the plans that we had in mind, and he’s going to look at those,” he said, adding that the commissioner is sending cost requests out to park designers. “City council is starting to entertain the idea of having this in Wilkes-Barre, and I think we’re slowly starting to sell the idea.”

So much so that council member Tony Thomas Jr. is planning to visit the Allentown and Binghamton, N.Y., skate parks with the NEPA FSA. Both parks are the closest to what the association hopes to see here.

“If we could put a skate park together somewhere and get the kids and adults into one area and let them have their fun, it could be a win-win for everyone,” Thomas said.

Though he supports the building of the park, the actuality of it being downtown is a stretch to him.

“I don’t think we have the space to do it,” he said.

An ideal location, according to Gidosh and Pizzano, would be the long-defunct Coal Street Park, but Thomas said that Coal Street is “definitely” not an option with the upcoming street-widening project.

“We’re losing a certain amount of space already, and we are going to have to move a bunch of fields around,” he said, saying that it might be feasible to have it located at recreation areas in Hanover or Forty Fort or even under the Market Street Bridge. But at this time, no location is definite.

Thomas has been in touch with two companies for proposals on estimates, one of which included the former Ice-A-Rama as an example space.

“If it comes out to be $250,000, where are we going to get that?” he asked. “If it comes in at $50,000 for a half-decent place where kids and adults could go and have a good time, then it’s well worth the money, but if it’s a quarter million or half million, that’s not going to happen.”

“Unfortunately, we’re running a city with no money,” said Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton. “It’s definitely something that would create activity and tourism in our area, but as far as getting it up and running, more important is finding the funding.”

And it would take much funding — Gidosh said that parks similar to what they are looking for can cost $250,000-$500,000, but the association is looking into getting non-tax dollars and how other towns made those parks a reality.

“We aren’t a nonprofit yet, and all the money that we’ve made is going to the park,” he said, adding that NEPA FSA is looking toward local foundations, Rotary and Lions clubs for support, as well as making money from fundraisers.

They are in the process of working on several fundraisers, including selling candy bars, a punk rock flea market and a CD compilation that includes such local acts as Lewis & Clarke, Strength for a Reason, Ethereal Collapse and others. The latter two have tentative dates of January and February.

The FSA also hopes to someday receive a grant from the Tony Hawk Foundation, which is given out twice a year and can range from $1,000 to $25,000.

While the FSA’s business plan isn’t ready to submit for that grant, the association was recently in the running for funds from a contest via straightfromthehip.net, a Web site dedicated to promoting the progression of public skate parks. The contest saw more than 12,000 votes, with the Paines Park Project in Philadelphia winning.

As an attraction In June, Carbondale opened its own skate park at a cost of “around $75,000,” which is sided by homes, a street, a business and a creek. While in the beginning there was some opposition, Mayor Justin Taylor sees residents accepting of the park’s place in the community.

The park is nowhere near the size the NEPA FSA is hoping for Wilkes-Barre, but Taylor is happy about what the park has added to Carbondale, namely tourism and the fact that the skateboarders are taking care of it themselves.

“They had an event, like a skills competition, and people drove four hours to come to Carbondale,” Taylor said, adding that he sees kids getting off buses outside city hall with skateboards coming from Throop, Dickson City and Scranton.

The first two weeks of the park being opened did see some problems: administration thought the park would take care of itself, and there were some fights.

“We found the skaters absolutely phenomenal, no problems whatsoever. They were truly there to skate and enjoy their sport,” Taylor said. “We found that to non-skaters, it was a hangout and a hotspot, and those were the incidents.”

The park had set hours of 8 a.m.-8 p.m., but in the summer, with it still light at 8 p.m., the police were lenient until it got dark, Taylor explained. Once night fell, police went to make sure the park was vacated.

“For two weeks, it was a little touch and go, and there were rumors circulating that we were going to close the park,” Taylor recalled, “but that was never, ever a thought of mine. We wanted to make this work, and our administration was dedicated to doing that.”

Upon hearing the rumor, skateboarders came to pick up the grounds, as well as nearby streets. They would sweep and even put mulch back into place, something that isn’t shocking to Gidosh and Pizzano.

“What people don’t understand is that the average age is like 14,” Pizzano said of the bad rap skateboarders have. “You’re making them feel that they’re not wanted. They’re not necessarily bad; some of them are troubled youth that don’t fit in with most people. To make them stop doing what they like or love doing, they go on to do something bad because they’re called bad kids.”

Gidosh seconded that.

“Skateboarding put me in the right direction and made me who I am today,” he said. “I don’t smoke, drink or do drugs, I don’t go to the bars, and I’m 29.”

Taylor has a suggestion for any area considering a skate park.

“It’s not a basketball court. You can’t just build it and let it sit there with no involvement,” he said. “If it’s secluded and not near houses, it’s an easy haven for kids to get in trouble if there’s no supervision and the wrong element shows up.”

He added that Carbondale was lucky with its location, though it did bust two kids, one for having beer and one for trying to sell drugs.

“I would say 100 percent do it, but do it somewhere where it won’t be a haven for the wrong element,” Taylor said.

Thomas hopes for the skate park to get the skateboarders out of the downtown.

“I back these guys up,” Thomas said. “They’ve been coming to meetings, and I think it’s a great thing for a community because it’s gets the people off the square and out of the businesses, parking lots and the truck ramps and into their own space.”

“If this park comes into effect the way we want it, it’s going to bring everyone’s mindset to ours, and it will be in a Wilkes-Barre brochure — that’s what we want to see,” said Pizzano.