How A Few Local Skaters Are Reshaping The Marietta Skate Park

MARIETTA, OH — Anyone who knows Marietta’s Indian Acres Park down by the baseball fields knows about the city’s skate park. But, most people don’t know the guys behind the skate park. About a decade ago, Aaron Reynolds, Zach Powell, Joseph Wartez, and friends of Skaters United Marietta Ohio (or SUMO) worked with the city to build what is truly an impressive skate park.

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It’s been more than a decade, and the first big change is coming to the skate park. Aaron Reynolds recently made a pitch to the Marietta City Council. He asked for $3,500 to make improvements to the park. The money will just be for building materials, rebar, concrete, wood, there won’t be any labor costs, it’ll be all-volunteer. Reynolds and his guys are going to pour days, up to a week, of their own time into this project. The city liked the pitch and gave them the green light.

Some might wonder why someone would sacrifice all the time and energy required to do a volunteer project like this. Reynolds said it’s because they’re skateboarders. “We care about the park down here. We care to keep it clean and maintenanced, but also it needs to have that essence of change to hold the energy it has.” The idea is that it’s their park and Reynolds wants to care for it as best as he can.

Since they have a limited amount of funding, these guys really have to stretch their dollar. Pioneer Masonry is helping out in a big way. “I’ve talked with them, they’re giving us discounts on the material, rebar, sand, sandbags.” He said the discount is purely because they’re doing a volunteer project to help out the community.

Shane Zoller is the manager at Pioneer Masonry, he says they were happy to help out. “We’re wanting to donate to the skate park, for the kids.” He said he knows funding is an issue, and they want to support outdoor activities where they can. “We’re helping the guys out to get them rolling.”

Marietta Safety-Service Director Steve Wetz said he’s glad to work with them too. He’s worked with these fellas on maintaining the skate park before. “They’re an energetic group of people. We really appreciate the work they do. It saves our city workers from having to do it.” Wetz says they took the initiative to make improvements to the park. “We could use a lot more guys like this.”

Reynolds is very pleased with how well Marietta has worked with the local skateboard community. “They’ve helped us with the lights. They’ve given us trash services here. Even when they mow, they mow so the grass doesn’t go into our ramp.”

A persistent problem is graffiti, but the city is there to help out. “It was simply a phone call, and the city had pressure washers here to use, and helped us acquire the chemical to spray on the graffiti to be able to remove it.” Reynolds is not a fan of the graffiti, and wants to find out who’s tagging the ramps. “It does make it look abused, and as if perhaps the people who use the park maybe don’t care for it, or are troubled individuals, that’s not the case.” He says they always try to be respectful.

As far as the project itself, currently, there is a one-foot concrete bump in the middle of the skate park bowl, and that’s going to go. “We’re going to do a 16-foot radius saw cut around it.” Where they cut out the concrete they’re going to put rebar in. “We’re going to stack sandbags on top and make it about 4-foot tall.” He said they are not going to have a round top. “We’re going to have a round-flat top.” He said it will pretty much be an island in the middle of the bowl.

He said they’re changing the bump in the middle of the bowl because it’s never been what they wanted it to be in the first place. Remember, Reynolds helped design and build the skate park. “What we were going to do was a replica of the mound at Mound Cemetery.” They had planned to do a tall bump, maybe 4-feet high, with a smaller bump making a ring around it. “So you could go up the first donut, rip around, maybe carve back out. Or you could launch from the bump in the center. Or you could go over all three of them.”

There was a problem. “The amount of flat bottom it would take with a 16-foot radius, the beltway wouldn’t be big enough for the transitions.” In other words, not enough space at the bottom of the bowl. “By quadrupling the height, because it’s a one-foot bump now, you’ll be able to maintain your speed by using it as a pump bump.”

Reynolds hopes to build on this project, and to at some point secure more funding for even more skate park improvements. He pointed to an empty area next to the skate park. “That’s extra area space that we’re ready to build onto.”

He said there is a need for expansion. “Quite honestly on many evenings this park is too small to cater to the amount of people using it.” He doesn’t like situations where the more experienced riders take over. “We try to use good courtesy in letting people take their turn.” But in these situations newer and less experienced riders might feel intimidated. “Even if you’re welcoming them and letting them take as much time as they’d like. We just need a bigger park to cater to that.”

Wetz said they’re hoping to get the project started by the first or second week of June, but right now, nothing’s set in concrete. There will be days that they need some extra hands, for skateboarders wanting to help out, Reynolds says just keep showing up. Anyone who wants to donate money to help Reynolds improve the skate park, they have an account set up at the Marietta Community Foundation.

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