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Skate park opens to cheers from local skaters

Skate park opens to cheers from local skaters

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, Holmes Beach.

HOLMES BEACH – After months of anticipation and a lot of help from the community, the city’s new Community Skate Park finally opened Feb. 15.
A cheer went up from community members and local skaters as the ribbon was cut, officially opening the park to the public. Mayor Judy Titsworth said the park was being called the Community Skate Park because, without the community, she said the park couldn’t have been built. For the ribbon-cutting, she called up Island residents David Zaccagnino and Tom Sanger to join the city and Manatee County elected officials and staff. Zaccagnino worked with city leaders to help secure the $100,000 in donations necessary to build the bowl section of the skate park. Sanger not only helped to raise funds, materials and labor, he also stepped up to create the concrete skate path from the bowl to the promenade section of the skate park.
“Tom poured his heart and soul into this skate park,” Titsworth said, thanking him for his contributions.
To thank the many local community members and businesses who contributed to the skate park, a banner was placed on the fencing lining the back of the park identifying the dozens of contributors.
“Take a look at this banner and when you see these people out in the community, tell them ‘thank you,’ ” Tokajer said of the skate park’s donors.
Dozens of skaters of all ages came out and took to the new skate park, trying out the ramps, rails, quarter pipe and other obstacles, though one of the most popular attractions was the skate bowl, which was newly opened for public use. Skaters lined up for their chance to skate through the bowl.
When they needed a break, staff from Poppo’s Taqueria and The Beach Bistro were on hand with tacos and hotdogs. City staff handed out drinks, along with T-shirts and baseball caps commemorating the occasion. The team from West Coast Surf Shop brought along a new skateboard, which was won by Ben Rigney Jr.
“It’s a great day,” Commissioner Kim Rash said, looking out at all of the people gathered to celebrate community in Holmes Beach.

Some skaters attempted tricks, like this one who practically flew on the quarter pipe. - Kristin Swain | Sun

Some skaters attempted tricks, like this one who practically flew on the quarter pipe. - Kristin Swain | Sun

Master mind behind the new Community Skate Park, Tito Porrata of Pivot joins elected officials for a celebratory photo. - Kristin Swain | Sun

Master mind behind the new Community Skate Park, Tito Porrata of Pivot joins elected officials for a celebratory photo. - Kristin Swain | Sun

Skaters raised their boards in salute, joining community members and elected officials as the ribbon was cut, officially opening the Community Skate Park. - Kristin Swain | Sun

Skaters raised their boards in salute, joining community members and elected officials as the ribbon was cut, officially opening the Community Skate Park. - Kristin Swain | Sun

Some skaters attempted tricks on the many obstacles throughout the skate park. - Kristin Swain | Sun

Some skaters attempted tricks on the many obstacles throughout the skate park. - Kristin Swain | Sun

Skaters of all ages took to the new Community Skate Park in Holmes Beach during the grand opening party Feb. 15. - Kristin Swain | Sun

Skaters of all ages took to the new Community Skate Park in Holmes Beach during the grand opening party Feb. 15. - Kristin Swain | Sun

Commissioner Kim Rash, with his puppy Lucy, Director of Development Services Eran Wasserman, HBPD Officer Josh Fleischer, Commissioner Carol Soustek, Code Compliance Officer Nate Brown and City Treasurer Lori Hill hang out at the opening of the city’s new skate park. - Kristin Swain | Sun

Commissioner Kim Rash, with his puppy Lucy, Director of Development Services Eran Wasserman, HBPD Officer Josh Fleischer, Commissioner Carol Soustek, Code Compliance Officer Nate Brown and City Treasurer Lori Hill hang out at the opening of the city’s new skate park. - Kristin Swain | Sun

Vendors including Poppo’s Taqueria, West Coast Surf Shop and The Beach Bistro came out to support the opening of the new skate park. - Kristin Swain | Sun

Vendors including Poppo’s Taqueria, West Coast Surf Shop and The Beach Bistro came out to support the opening of the new skate park. - Kristin Swain | Sun

Skaters glided down rails and jumped obstacles on the promenade skate area. - Kristin Swain | Sun

Skaters glided down rails and jumped obstacles on the promenade skate area. - Kristin Swain | Sun

Some of the people responsible for helping to get the skate park built, including designer Tito Porrata of Pivot, HBPD Chief Bill Tokajer, Mayor Judy Titsworth, City Engineer Lynn Burnett, Director of Development Services Eran Wasserman and Tom Sanger of Sanger Pool and Spa, celebrate in the skate bowl. - Kristin Swain | Sun

Some of the people responsible for helping to get the skate park built, including designer Tito Porrata of Pivot, HBPD Chief Bill Tokajer, Mayor Judy Titsworth, City Engineer Lynn Burnett, Director of Development Services Eran Wasserman and Tom Sanger of Sanger Pool and Spa, celebrate in the skate bowl. - Kristin Swain | Sun

One of the most popular parts of the skate park was the one that almost wasn’t built. Skaters lined up for the chance to skate the park’s bowl. - Kristin Swain | Sun

One of the most popular parts of the skate park was the one that almost wasn’t built. Skaters lined up for the chance to skate the park’s bowl. - Kristin Swain | Sun

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Construction moves forward at city field

Construction moves forward at city field

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, Holmes Beach.

HOLMES BEACH – Projects at the city field complex are underway and showing signs of significant progress, however, some residents are concerned about what the finished product will look like.

City Engineer Lynn Burnett presented plans for the expanded large dog park, multi-use field, walking track and skate park during the Nov. 19 city commission meeting.

Work is already underway in both the skate park and the dog park with drainage work completed in the dog park and elements already being installed at the site of the new skate park. The dog park is currently planned for a December or January grand opening while the skate park is planned to open to the public shortly after. Other openings, including for the multi-use field and tot lot playground are expected later in the new year. Rather than having a single grand opening for the park complex, each area is now expected to have its own public opening.

Workers break up the concrete pad that once housed the city’s tot lot playground equipment in preparation for the installation of the new skate park. – Kristin Swain | Sun

Though the construction is visibly moving forward now, there are some residents who are still concerned about what final product will be unveiled to the public, particularly in the dog park.

Though Burnett presented plans for the dog park, including the fencing, two double gates, a water fountain, seating area for patrons and a fire hydrant-style splash pad for dogs, several dog park users present at the meeting still had questions about what will be included in the park.

Resident Mary Miller said that she feels the overall message coming from city hall concerning the dog park is fear for users that decisions will be made without public knowledge. She said she doesn’t mind seating being moved from the old pavilion, which Development Services Director Eran Wasserman says is in no condition to be moved from the current dog park location, but that she wants to know about the alignment of the benches before they’re installed.

“We just want input,” she said.

Parks and beautification committee member Carol Hatz said she feels that using the old dugout area as seating is too far removed from the majority of the dog park and fears that people will not use it. Wasserman said that the intention is to put in U-shaped seating areas where park patrons can visit and can still have a good view of their pets.

Mayor Judy Titsworth said that her door is always open to residents concerned about the dog park or any other elements of city field. She invited the community to reach out and call either herself or Wasserman with any questions.

Drainage work is completed at the site of the new large Holmes Beach dog park. – Kristin Swain | Sun

For the majority of the elements of the dog park, including ground cover, Titsworth said that Burnett and her team are deferring to suggestions made previously by members of the city’s parks and beautification committee. The suggestions were formed over a period of a year with input from dog park users. She said that fencing in the dog park is expected to go up within the first 10 days of December with construction on the dugouts, turning them into welcoming pavilions for patrons, beginning soon as well.

Commissioner Carol Soustek said that while the plans for what will be taking place in the dog park are done for now, it doesn’t mean that they’re set in stone. She said she envisions the dog park as an evolving element of the city field complex and that changes and additional upgrades will be made as needed over time.

“I think the parks and beautification committee did a tremendous job,” she said.

Titsworth reemphasized how important she feels the dog park is to the city as a whole.

“It’s an important feature for our community and I want the dogs to love it,” she said.

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Funding received for skate park bowl

Funding received for skate park bowl

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, Holmes Beach.

HOLMES BEACH – A last-minute funding scare caused city leaders and staff to leap into action along with community members.

Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth said that though funds had been promised to help fund the bowl for the new city skate park, when it came time to tell the team from Pivot Custom, a division of American Ramp Company, whether or not the city would be commissioning the bowl, she discovered that only $28,000 of the $100,000 was available.

With only three days to raise the remaining $72,000, Titsworth, Police Chief Bill Tokajer, Code Compliance Officer James Thomas and resident David Zaccagnino took to the phones and social media to help raise the money for the bowl.

Local residents and contractors stepped up to donate funds, supplies and construction materials equaling enough funds to have Pivot build the bowl addition to the skate park, designed by Tito Porrata and his team. Construction to remove the bocce ball, shuffleboard and old tot lot and build the new promenade-style skate park with a Y-shaped, four-foot-deep bowl is already underway along Marina Drive at the city field.

“It was amazing to be a part of that team, to find that money and get it done,” Titsworth said of the fundraising effort during a Nov. 13 Coalition of Barrier Island Elected Officials meeting. “It was amazing the generosity of the citizens this time of year. I mean, it was beautiful.”

She added that additional funds of $30,000 also had been raised to purchase new playground equipment for the tot lot, planned to be relocated near the pavilion at city field. Landscaping also was donated for the city’s new dog park.

As a thank you to the residents and business owners who stepped up to donate to the bowl, Sean Murphy donated a $250 gift card to Beach Bistro and former commissioner Rick Hurst donated a $250 gift card to The Freckled Fin to be given to two of the donors in a drawing.

The dog park is planned to open in December with the skate park opening in January or February followed by the opening of the tot lot and multi-use field.

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Skate park design nears completion

Skate park design nears completion

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, Holmes Beach.

HOLMES BEACH – The preliminary designs are in for the city’s new cement skate park, but funds are still needed to construct the bowl addition.

Tito Porrata, lead designer and project manager with American Ramp Company, and City Engineer Lynn Burnett presented the preliminary designs for the promenade-style skate park and accompanying bowl.

Porrata said the skate park would be a beginner to intermediate street-style course featuring ramps, rails, stairs, triangles, banks, hips and a quarter pipe.

“All the basics within a modest size,” he said of the design.

The promenade section of the skate park is planned to be about 5,000 square feet.

Holmes Beach skate park bowl
Funding is still sought to build a Y-shaped skate bowl over a retention pond along Marina Drive. – Submitted

Though Porrata said the course is good as-is, he highly recommended adding the Y-shaped bowl he designed to accompany the skate park to make it “complete.” To build the bowl, the city is still seeking a donor or multiple donors to help raise the $100,000 additional funds needed for the structure. If the bowl is to be built, construction has to take place at the same time the rest of the skate park is built to keep the cost of the addition low.

If built, Porrata said the bowl would be about three and a half to four feet deep and stick out of the ground about three feet.

“If a donor happens, this bowl is ready,” he said.

Commissioners nodded their approval of the designs and Mayor Judy Titsworth took the opportunity to ask that anyone considering helping to fund the bowl contact her at city hall.

“I hope you guys like it,” Porrata said of the skate park designs. “It’s going to be really fun.”

Final design deliverables for the skate park are expected during the July 23 commission meeting.

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Holmes Beach year in review

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, Holmes Beach, Special Sections, Year in Review.

HOLMES BEACH – The year 2018 was filled with court cases, city renovations and a highly-contested election for city commissioner and mayoral seats. Here are some of the highlights from this past year.

Treehouse

  • The treehouse case, concerning a two-story treehouse built in an Australian pine with additional supports on the erosion control line in front of the Angelinos Sea Lodge, began the year with a refusal by the United States Supreme Court to hear the case. Though city leaders pushed to have the unpermitted structure removed, the treehouse ends the year still aloft in its perch overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. Owners Lynn Tran and Richard Hazen filed court documents in mid-December seeking a temporary injunction to prevent demolition of the treehouse. The case goes back to court in early January 2019.

Spring Lake

  • Pollution at Spring Lake in Holmes Beach has remained an issue not only for the residents surrounding the man-made lake but also for city leaders seeking ways to clean up the lake and prevent future pollution. Currently, the previously brackish lake is acidic and cannot support marine life. City Engineer Lynn Burnett is presenting commissioners with a survey determining the amount of solid pollutants in the water and options for removal to return the lake to a healthy saltwater or freshwater state.
Spring Lake
Brown water and silt fill the once-clear basin of Spring Lake in Holmes Beach. – Kristin Swain | Sun

Skate park

  • The city’s skate park has been closed for renovations throughout 2018. At the beginning of the year, city officials were considering rehabilitation of the current park. By the first of December, commissioners voted unanimously to move the skate park to run along Marina Drive with an enlarged concrete park design, costing a budgeted $150,000. If an additional $100,000 can be raised in the next eight months, a skate bowl will be added to the park.

Dog park

  • One of the most controversial conversations of the year concerned how to improve the city’s dog park. After nearly a year of deliberation between city leaders, dog park users and the city’s parks and beautification committee, a design was created that allows the small dog park to remain where it is and relocates the large dog park to a section of the baseball diamond, which will be repurposed as a part of larger plans to remodel the city field complex. Construction is set to begin in early 2019.

City Field

  • Plans to renovate city field underwent several renovations themselves. Now with a set rough layout for the park complex, renovations are expected to begin early in the new year. The tot lot is being relocated to the opposite side of the park, from near Marina Drive to adjacent to the existing park pavilion. The baseball diamond will be remodeled as part of the dog park renovations and pick up games can be played in the larger multi-use field. With the skate park being relocated, the staging area will be moved to the old skate park location near public works. The only hitch in Burnett’s plans for the park is the newly planted city Christmas tree, located in an area she’d planned as a grand entrance to the multi-use field. Mayor Judy Titsworth vowed to work around the tree to prevent moving and potentially killing the 10-year-old blue cypress.
Holmes Beach city field update map
After months of debate, Holmes Beach commissioners have agreed to a revised layout for the city field complex, as shown in this rendering by City Engineer Lynn Burnett. – Lynn Burnett | Submitted

Bert Harris

  • Holmes Beach received its first Bert Harris case win in court as the court upheld the city’s occupancy restrictions of six people or two per bedroom, whichever is greater, in short-term rental properties. More cases are set to be heard by Manatee County Circuit Court judges in 2019.

City manager

  • Over the summer, commissioners voted not to put a charter amendment on the ballot in 2019 to allow Holmes Beach voters to decide if they want a city manager or not. Instead, commissioners agreed to leave it up to the newly elected charter review committee to place on the ballot. If charter review members decide to not address the issue, commissioners agreed to reconsider before the deadline to submit charter amendments for the November ballot.

City election

  • The 2018 election brought several newcomers to the table, including Joshua Linney who challenged Judy Titsworth for the mayoral seat, and Kim Rash, who, along with Don Purvis, went head-to-head with incumbent Commissioner Pat Morton to claim one of two available seats on the city commission. Rash was elected with the highest number of votes, Morton was re-elected to another two-year term and Titsworth won a term as mayor in a landslide against Linney.

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Holmes Beach skate park concept new

Skate park plans move forward

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, Holmes Beach.

HOLMES BEACH – The city’s current skate park may be going away but a new one is in the works, one that includes a 5,000 square-foot plaza section and may even have a skating bowl if funds can be raised.

City engineer Lynn Burnett and American Ramp Company lead designer Tito Porrata appeared before commissioners Dec. 11 to present a concept design for the new Holmes Beach skate park. The design was met with overwhelming approval by city commissioners and the local skateboarding community.

“I’m pleasantly surprised by the quality of this design,” Commissioner Jim Kihm said.

Porrata presented a design for a 5,000 square-foot plaza with a quarter pipe, flat rails, pyramids and ledges for skaters to practice on. The plaza is set to be created primarily of cement with some different materials used for various skating elements. Rather than fencing in the park, he suggested using a natural fence created by landscaping that would allow police officers to see into the park from the road but also trap any wayward skateboards and help protect skaters from wayward vehicles that might find their way off the roadway. He also presented an idea for an additional skating area, a 2,000 square-foot, three to four feet deep skating bowl placed over the existing retention pond at the corner of Marina Drive near city hall.

Holmes Beach skate park Marina Drive
This view shows how the proposed layout for the new plaza-style skate park will look when gazing to the north down Marina Drive. – Submitted

While the design and construction of the plaza area are projected to cost $150,000, taking the city’s entire available budget for the skate park, the bowl would cost another $100,000. To install the additional section, Burnett said the city would either have to acquire the additional funds through grants or fundraising, ideally before construction is finished on the plaza section to eliminate additional mobilization costs. Construction on the plaza is expected to be complete by the end of 2019.

Local skateboarder Jack Coleman said he thinks the proposed new park will be amazing. “If the bowl is added,” he said, “I’ll have zero reason to leave the Island ever.”

Another local skateboarder Matt Bauer said he likes the bowl transition but if that doesn’t come to fruition, he still approves of the new plaza design for the skate park. “It’s a great design,” he said. “I’m stoked. This is awesome.”

“I am stoked as well,” Mayor Judy Titsworth said, “and I’m not a skater.” She added that her nephews who are skaters are happy commissioners are considering the bowl addition.

Commissioners approved the plaza design along with the bowl design and gave Burnett the green light to move forward in the design phase with the caveat that construction of the bowl can be added at a later date if the funds are raised. Commissioner Kim Rash suggested pursuing grants, fundraising and also potential business or residential sponsorship of different park elements to help raise the additional $100,000 for the bowl.

With commission approval for the new park, Burnett said she would move forward with the demolition of the current skate park, which will become a staging area, move construction equipment from the current staging area by the small dog park and begin work on the dog park and skate park.

Kihm said that after all of the discussion, he’s “glad to see things moving to the implementation phase.”

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