MOUNT VERNON — Area youth are flocking to and rocking the city’s skate park, and one local business is getting in on the action.
Putt N’ Around is on Mount Vernon Avenue, near Memorial Park, and offers batting cages and a putt-putt course. Responding to the demands of local youth who visit the city’s skate park in droves, owner Mark Fiorelli said he now has a smaller business in the same building called Extreme Sports, which specializes in skateboarding equipment.
“The skate park has been a true success as far as giving kids something to do,” he said. “About 50 to 60 of them visit the skate park each day. Many more kids are doing it.”
Fiorelli said skate park-goers rarely, if ever, cause any trouble; they all get along and have fun together. He said he started carrying skateboards last August, but has since expanded the amount of related equipment.
“There is no one else in town that specializes in skateboard equipment,” he said. “A lot of them buy [the equipment] online.”
Fiorilli said he has printed, brand-name skateboards, blank skateboards, axles and wheels, as well as a catalogue with a wide variety of skateboarding equipment from which young people can order. He said he plans to further expand his selection.
Chris Collins, a 23-year-old skater from Mount Vernon, said he hits the skate park just about every day. He said he was one of the high school students who went to meetings where plans for the skate park were discussed, adding that it’s easy to get motivated enough to go to a City Council meeting when you’re in high school.
“I think it would be cool to add on to [the skate park],” Collins said. “Everyone wants a half-pipe.”
He said young people from Newark, Mansfield, and even Cleveland and Columbus visit Mount Vernon’s skate park, because those cities don’t really have anything like it.
Mount Vernon Mayor Richard Mavis said he is pleased and encouraged by the success of the skate park, and has always been impressed by the young people who worked on it.
“The skate park has been well-used from day one,” he said.
The mayor said construction on the skate park, which is in Memorial Park, began in 1998.
“Shortly after I became mayor in 1996, I noticed some young people coming skating down the east side of the square to the west side. They would ricochet off the monument,” he said. “I went over and asked them not to do that, and in the course of the conversation, I got acquainted with some of them.”
Mavis said some of the young skaters said there was nowhere for them to skateboard. Some had been skateboarding behind The Station Break building on South Main Street, and police had been called there on a number of occasions. Skate park proponents spoke before Mount Vernon City Council; 60 to 70 students and their parents came to the meeting.
“The parents said, ‘This is our kid’s sport. In many cases, our kids don’t play baseball and football,’” said Mavis.
All told, he said, with city as well as community foundation funds, about $80,000 has been poured into the skate park, and new equipment has been added over the years. In recent years, high school students have made upgrades and repairs, such as painting and resealing the concrete floor of the park.
Mavis said there has been a request for a half-pipe; that request is still on the table, although he said that at this point there haven’t been sufficient funds to build it. He added that the city encourages the use of safety equipment when skate boarding.
Fiorelli said his goal with the putt-putt course, the batting cages and the game room inside the building, as well as the line of skateboards, is to help give young people something to do at a reasonable price.
“No one is going to make a million dollars,” he said.
