Is Hockessin ready for a skate park?

On a late afternoon in Hockessin, the click-clack of skateboard wheels hitting pavement echoes in an empty parking lot. Follow the sound and you’ll likely see a small cluster of teenagers doing kickflips off a low curb.

To some, those teens and their sport call to mind images of graffiti marring the facades of Hockessin’s quiet shops. But others, like Barbara Miller, co-president of the Hockessin Community Club, think it’s time the community gave those skateboarders a chance and a place to call their own.

She wants to build a skate park in Hockessin so teens will have a safe place to practice their sport,

“I just have a feeling that something serious is going to happen in the way of accident,” said the lifelong Hockessin resident, wincing as she recalled kids jumping off the concrete benches outside the Hockessin Library.

Having their own place to skate would also eliminate trespassing on private property, a major complaint among business owners in town, she said.

But Miller, who has been researching the issue for five years, admits it could be difficult to gather community support for the project. Skateboarders get a bad reputation and, though she said it is often undeserved, it’s hard for a suburban town to shake the image of teenage skateboarders as criminals-in-training.

It would take a lot of commitment from the community to get a successful skate park off the ground, said Greater Hockessin Area Development Association President Fran Swift, and he is not sure the number of skateboarders justifies a dedicated park.

Swift a retired New Castle County police officer, said he had several unpleasant run-ins with skateboarders that he would not like to see duplicated in Hockessin. Giving teens a safe place to skateboard wouldn’t change the fact that they are still unsupervised, he said.

Moreover, it would be a huge liability issue for the community, he said, and the only public land in Hockessin big enough to accommodate a skate park -- Swift Park -- doesn’t have enough space because of its ball fields.

Finding space is a problem, but finding funding would be an even bigger challenge, said New Castle County Councilman Bill Tansey (R-Greenville), though he supports the idea.

The council saw the need for skate parks and included one in the plans for Glasgow Park in Bear. However, the park – and its proposed skate park – remain unfinished, he said. Tansey said he’d be glad to bring something to the council, but until the fiscal picture improves, support would be unlikely.

That bleak fiscal picture is shared by private sources of funding, like the Hockessin-Greenville Rotary Club, which decided not to make the skate park a club project when Miller presented the idea because the costs would outweigh the benefits, said Gary Bryde, rotary president.

“Hockessin has so many other activities for kids I don’t think it’s needed,” he said.

Despite its reputation, skateboarding is a healthy activity for kids – it helps improve balance and provides and excellent cardiovascular workout, said Augie Lankford, an instructor at the Kennett Area YMCA.

About 150 kids use the Kennett YMCA’s skate park each week, which is free to members and costs $5 for nonmembers, and Lankford said there has never been a problem with vandalism or rowdiness since the park opened in 2006. The Kennett skate park is staffed with CPR-trained YMCA employees, he said.

The park is a good service to the community and provides kids with a space to explore their own creativity safely, he said, away from the shopping center parking lots so often frequented by skateboarders.

But for teens in Hockessin, the wait for a hometown skate park could be a long one.