ViewFinder: Arnold Skate Park Is On A Roll

Arnold’s skate park at Ferd B. Lang Park was alive with the sounds of spinning wheels and clattering boards on Monday.

The park, on Old Lemay Ferry Road, south of Church Road,  is popular with skateboarders in Arnold and beyond for its variety of ramps and other features.

“It’s got a good style,” Garrett Dollar, 18, of Festus said. “The ramps are fun.”

Skateboarder Tom Reese, 19, of Arnold, said he prefers the park over some others because it’s local.

“It’s not as crowded, and people are nice around here,” Reese said. “I started skating it when it first got built and met a lot of people and friends. I can come here and just automatically know people.”

Jeff Davis, 17, of Festus, likes the park for its various elements.

“It has a little bit of everything,” he said.  “I try to get up here every day.”

Arnold Parks Superintendent David Crutchley said the skate park, designed with the input of local skateboarders, has lived up to the expectations of city parks officials and the Arnold Jaycees, which paid for the $100,000 facility.

“People come from quite a ways away to skate it, and that’s what we wanted,” Crutchley said. “We wanted it to be used, and there are kids down there all the time.”