KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted unanimously to approve the final plans for the Kelseyville Skate Park and award the construction bid, putting the project on track to be under construction next month.
The concrete skate park is to be built at the three-acre Kelseyville County Park, located at 5270 State St.
It will be the first skate park in the unincorporated county and the second one in Lake County overall. Clearlake has had its own park for more than a decade.
In addition to approving the final plans, which can be seen below, the board approved awarding the construction contract to California Landscape and Design for $273,945.75, followed up by approving a deductive change order to reduce the cost by $8,051.75, and authorized the interim Public Services director to issue a notice to proceed once the Community Development Department reviews and approves the plans.
In December 2013, Supervisor Rob Brown had gone to the board to ask for support in reallocating the $377,475 that has been set aside for developing a park in the Clear Lake Riviera to the development of a skate park, as Lake County News has reported.
The Riviera park plan had stalled and had too many obstacles – specifically, “it was finally determined that the cost of water to the site was prohibitive and that it had some leach field challenges that were also going to be expensive to alleviate,” Deputy County Administrative Officer Jeff Rein told Lake County News this week.
Altogether, the board agreed to use $300,000 for the skate park, according to Rein.
In March 2014, the board approved a design and engineering agreement – not to exceed $45,100 – with California Skateparks of Upland for the facility.
The following month, the county invited skaters and BMX riders to meet with California Skateparks representatives to begin participating in the design process.
The design was completed in September 2014, according to the California Skateparks Web site.
“The design we created for the Kelseyville Skate and BMX Park in Lake County is intended to be a mix of both street and transition style elements, catering to riders of all different ability levels,” the company stated on its Web site. “The park features a variety of different transition features including bowl corners, hips, rolled edges and extensions as well as an abundance of street style stairs, ledges, and rails.”
Rein clarified that the conceptual design was done by September 2014, but the actual detailed drawings for the plan were not completed until June 2015.
Since, then, however, the project has lagged, which has frustrated Brown and community members.
Rein said a contributing factor to the delay was that, in the middle of the project, California Skateparks lost the services of the civil engineer that they had subcontracted with for the site drainage plans. That meant a new civil had to be brought on board and up to speed.
There also were other components that needed to be completed, including geotechnical evaluations, Rein said.
On Tuesday, Rein told the board, “It has taken far longer than we anticipated.” He added, “Staff is very excited to present the construction contract and the final plans for the Kelseyville Skate Park for your consideration.”
He said the low bid had come in higher than the project budget allowed, so county staff worked with the prospective contractor to reduce costs and improve the design, resulting in the change order to drop the costs.
Rein said the contractor was committed to the project and had reiterated that to him that morning before the meeting.
Construction is set to begin no later than May 9, Rein said.
“I know it has taken a long time,” said Brown, adding, “I'm looking forward to having this in the park there as originally planned.”
Rein explained during the meeting that the previous designer had been spread too thin and hadn't factored in Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, which had added to the delays.
“There were a lot of frustrations on our side, that's for sure,” said Brown.
Rein said it had taken time to get the budget within range, and that as a result some funds are still set aside and available.
Brown passed the gavel to Supervisor Jeff Smith to he could separately make the four motions to finalize the project – approval of the skate park plans, the construction bid, the deductive change order and authorization for the interim Public Service director to issue the notice to proceed once Community Development finalizes the plans.
Brown told Lake County News that the skate park will be located next to the BMX track that he and a number of young people worked together to build at the park several years ago.
He said the skate park will be about the same size as the BMX track, which he added is used all the time.
Brown said some community members had been upset because they hadn't heard anything for some time about the skate park's status and therefore assumed nothing was happening.
“The kids were getting impatient,” he said.
The skate park project is anticipated to be built by the end of summer, Brown said.
He said he's looking forward to having the new facility available in Kelseyville, saying he believes it will be a draw for the community.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
Supervisors approve final Kelseyville Skate Park plans, agreement with builder
- Elizabeth Larson
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