Ames skateboarders are one step closer to having a legal place to board inside the city.

The Ames City Council approved the start of construction on a 10,425-square-foot skate park. Work on the project, which will cost $170,519, will begin this summer on the grassy area south of Sixth Street across from Brookside Park.

Ames Parks and Recreation Director Nancy Carroll said the skate park was something long overdue. She described it as a project that has “evolved” over several years.

“In the early ’90s, we as a department thought that skateboarding was a fad. We were wrong. This is a viable, long-term sporting activity,” she said.

The park will provide a place to skateboard legally, which Ames has not had in the past.

“The sad thing right now is that these kids are getting ticketed,” Carroll said. “There’s nowhere for them to go. Now they have somewhere they can go to do this activity.

“The next step is to get the kids together to create facility rules to govern safety.”

Carroll said the park was designed by architect and professional skateboarder Frank Hirata with input from children in the community.

“He asked kids the spots they wished they could legally skate in the community,” Carroll said. “The kids said places such as Parks Library, Durham Hall and the Ames Public Library.”

Hirata incorporated areas similar to those locations into the design, and kids then “tweaked” the plans, asking for intermediate skating areas out of the way of more advanced skaters.

Carroll said the city anticipated having only $150,000 for construction of the skate park, so they altered the plans to make a 5,800 square-foot park.

“Essentially they would just have cut the park in half and there would only have been one or two of the features needed,” Carroll said.

The city was able to approve the larger park after redirecting funds and extra money from a grant from Prairie Meadows, private contributions and funds raised by Ames high students.

Carroll said Ames students raised $1,000 more than their target and came up with the idea for the Prairie Meadows grant.

Ames high student Wally Neal participated in the fund raising and said he and fellow skateboarders are thankful the park is being built.

“I was amazed because you never expect the city to agree to something like this,” Neal said. “For the longest time nothing had happened, and then all of a sudden they just approved a bigger park.”

Because the city has “cracked down” on skateboarding in public places, Neal and his friends had been skating in the only place they could – in the barn Neal’s parents own.

He said he’s eagerly awaiting the park’s opening.

“If [the skate park] turns out the way it was drawn, it will be really fun,” Neal said.

“It has a lot of cool stuff to keep people coming back. There wouldn’t be any need to go on campus.”

The skate park’s varying levels of difficulty will help intermediate skaters, too, Neal said.

“If you’ve never done a giant kinked rail before you can warm up on smaller rails – which is good, so you don’t die.”