Rockwall city council addresses request to develop a skatepark in the city

Rockwall city council addresses request to develop a skatepark in the city

ROCKWALL, TX – June 22, 2021 — During last night’s meeting, the Rockwall city council welcomed local dad and skateboard enthusiast Paul Field to discuss and consider his request to develop a skatepark within the city.

Field, who works locally as a pediatric dentist, has taken the lead in the movement to bring a skatepark back to Rockwall since the original park at Harry Myers was torn down nearly 10 years ago. He and his three young children and wife found their love for skateboarding during the pandemic shelter-in-place last year. Ever since, he has noticed lots of benefits to his kids ranging from better balance and coordination to a boost in their mental health and stress relief.

Paul Field addresses the Rockwall city council about the benefits of developing a skatepark in the city.

Since the old skatepark was taken down at Harry Myers, Field and many other local skateboarders have found they have no where they can safely go within the city to do what they love.

“If you look around Rockwall, you’ll see all of these signs that say, ‘No skateboarding,’ Field said. “At The Harbor, there are people getting kicked out or getting tickets for this. Our plea is essentially that there are all of these places telling us where we can’t go, and we just want a place where we can safely go.”

Mayor Kevin Fowler agreed that while a skatepark would bring a lot of benefits to the city and its citizens, the two biggest challenges that would need to be addressed are land and money.





“What we’re tasked with is working within the process that we have. I think that we would all be more than happy to do that,” Fowler said.

Fowler asked Field the going rate for the other skateparks that were built in surrounding cities, and Field told him the skatepark that’s currently being constructed in Garland cost around $2 million.

“This is my own opinion, but I think a $2+ million price tag probably would be a bond election – that’s how you would pay for this,” Fowler said. “It would be the citizens deciding if they want to have their taxes raised to pay for this. At that point, it would be the citizens deciding how they want to spend their money.”

For next steps, Fowler said Field should work with the Parks and Recreation Department.

“That’s really the process, because it is a Parks product,” Fowler said. “It will come through the Parks Board to us as a recommendation.”

By Austin Wells, Blue Ribbon News.

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