Even skateboard parks need grass, officials say

By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Central O'ahu Writer

Four boys on skateboards zip by a security guard standing behind an orange construction fence blocking the parking lot entrance to the best public skateboard park on O'ahu that no one can use.

Alika Virtudes, Matt Ramalho, Bronson Ambrocio and Chris Quihano, who all attend Pearl City High School, snuck into Manana Skate Park several months ago — before there was 24-hour security — and gave it a thumbs up. What's holding up the opening of the city's eighth skateboard facility has nothing to do with skateboarding.

It's all about grass.

PER Inc. project manager Waley Kwock said the skateboard facility was finished in March, but the city's Department of Design and Construction, acting on behalf of the Parks Department, refused to accept the $2 million project until the grass was in. The grass, especially on the Waimano Home Road side of the facility, has not been growing well and PER's subcontractor, Island Landscaping and Maintenance Inc., has been working on it daily for more than a month.

"The grass isn't filled in and there's far too many weeds and rocks," Parks & Recreation director Lester Chang said yesterday through city spokesman Mark Matsunaga. "We realize a lot of people are eager to use the park, but the contractors have not fulfilled the requirements. We cannot accept it until those requirements are met. Once we accept (the project), it becomes the city's responsibility."

Tomorrow is the last day of school at Pearl City High before summer vacation. It's also the opening day for "Lords of Dogtown," the summer skateboarding flick about the legendary Zephyr skateboarding team known as the Z-Boys. But there will be no skateboarding— yet — at Manana Park.

"It sucks," 15-year-old Quihano said. Seeing the completed park and knowing it can't be used, he said, is like "looking at a hamburger when you're hungry, knowing you have no money."

Ambrocio, 16, agreed. "It's really stupid because we're not going on the grass."

Virtudes, 16, is eager to get back into the park, which he said has more ramps and a railing "that's more challenging" than at other parks.

The city's other skateboarding facilities are at 'A'ala and Kamiloiki parks and in Mililani, Keolu Hills, Kane'ohe, Wahiawa and Makiki.

Cass Kasparovich, recreation director at Manana Community Park, said skateboarders from the North Shore, Kane'ohe and Mililani have come to Pearl City in hopes of using the new park, only to be turned away.

"One kid caught the bus from Waialua," Kasparovich said. "There's a lot of anticipation. We have a lot of places that don't allow skateboarding. In our area, you'll see a lot of skateboarders in the area between Pearl City District Park and Highlands Intermediate."

Officials are hopeful Manana Skate Park will open late this month or possibly sometime in July.

The Pearl City Neighborhood Board said in a statement that its position is to open the facility because "although we recognize the esthetic value of the surrounding landscaping, grass has no attributing contribution to the functional use of the skate park."

Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.