Henderson to get BMX park

By Jeremy Twitchell

Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2008 | 3:32 p.m.

Henderson will be getting its first BMX bicycle park next year, after the City Council approved a deal last Tuesday with the Clark County School District to build it at Robert Taylor Elementary School.

Designs for the BMX park and an adjoining skate park are under way, Henderson Park Planner Patricia Ayala said, and the project will likely be put up for a bid at the end of the year and begin construction shortly thereafter.

The two parks will replace the tennis courts at Taylor Elementary, located next to Morrell Park near Major Avenue and Burkholder Boulevard. According to a memo sent to the City Council, the courts receive little use because of the slope they are built on.

"There's a need for (a skate park) over on this side of town," Ayala said.

Henderson has three skate parks. The two busiest, located at Cactus Wren Park and Anthem Hills Park, draw 30 to 50 users on weekdays and significantly more on weekends, according to the Parks and Recreation Department.

"(The skate park) is in quite high demand," Ayala said. "We have a couple of skate parks and they were extremely well received by teens, preteens and the parents."

Ayala said the Taylor Elementary site is advantageous because it is right next to the Valley View Recreation Center, which makes it easier to monitor the BMX and skate parks and provide classes and other programs on them.

The city and the School District have a joint-use program called Open Schools, Open Doors, which allows for public use of school facilities after school hours. Henderson will pay for the parks' construction with a water conservation grant from the National Park Service.

The city also recently announced plans for a BMX course in a detention basin at the Arroyo Grande Sports Complex, located at Arroyo Grande Boulevard and American Pacific Drive. Ayala said the Arroyo Grande course will be drastically different from the Taylor Elementary site, because it will be a simple dirt track, compared with concrete jumps at Taylor.

The Arroyo Grande site will not have a skate park, either.

Ayala said the BMX and skate parks represent the city's commitment to meet the recreation needs of all of its citizens.

"Teens need their programs and sports too, and this happens to be a sport for them," she said.

Jeremy Twitchell can be reached at 990-8928 or jeremy.twitchell@hbcpub.com.