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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

Specially-designed park to open

Complex in northwest part of city features safe skateboarding equipment

Skateboarders will have a safe haven later this month when Upper Cascades Park opens on Bloomington's neorthwest side.\nLawrence Moss and Associates is the Glendale, Calif.-based architecture firm that handled the design of the park. Also contributing to the project was Bloomington for Alternative Sports Training, a local organization made up of in-line skaters and skateboarders.\n"We don't use a cookie-cutter approach to crank out hundreds of copies of the same mediocre facility," according to the architectural landscape firm's Web site. "We design each park with extensive input from local skaters through a tested and true process of interactive public workshops and brainstorming sessions."\nCosting $312,592 as the initial bid, Bloomington Parks and Recreation reported an additional $292,558 is planned for finishing touches to Bloomington's first alternative sports complex.\nArea businesses catering to boarders may experience a boost in business because of the park's ability to attract business. Bloomington Parks and Recreation estimates almost 1,500 skateboarders and alternative sports enthusiasts live in Bloomington. \nSimilar facilities in Columbus and Indianapolis generate over 100 skaters or boarders each day. \nCurrently, The City of Bloomington park system has over 2,365 acres of park property, including Griffey Lake and Leonard Springs Nature Preserve. Among the amenities offered at the city parks and facilities are 28 basketball goals, six baseball fields, 11 softball fields, 12 tennis courts, a golf course, two swimming pools, a six-mile biking trail, rail trails, two gardening sites, and an ice arena. There are not, however, any alternative sports parks or facilities, said the department.

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