Skateboarders and an Ames businessman are still in search of a location for a new skate park.

Barry Nadler, president of T-Galaxy, said there has been little progress in finding a location for the park.

“We’re still working on looking for a location,” he said.

“You’ve got to find an area where people will let you place a skate park of this size,” Nadler said.

Ames skateboarder Max Highland helped with choosing the items in the skate park. Highland said the new site of the Boys and Girls Club on South 5th St. was a prospective location for the park.

“It would have been positive,” Highland said. The park would have been built near the Boys and Girls club, Highland said, but the two businesses would have been separate entities.

“If we could have built there, we could have cut costs in building the park and shared in things like concessions,” Highland said.

Highland said the J-4 Rollaway on South Duff shows promise as a skate-park location.

Nadler and Highland, along with several area skateboarders, began scouting locations for the 100-feet by 50-feet park in April. The park is due to cost an estimated $10,000.

“I believe as soon as we find a location, we will be able to start raising the monies needed to build the park,” Nadler said.

The skate park was proposed to give skaters a place to skate other than area business fronts. Skaters would be charged for admission in order to pay for upkeep, insurance and additions.

“Currently, skaters and pedestrians are competing for the same areas,” Nadler said.

“Skateboarders and pedestrians just don’t go together.” Highland agrees. “Kids are hanging around in Campustown to skate. It’s just not a safe environment for middle school and high school kids.”

Nadler said the skate park would be run by Ames Skaters Unlimited, Inc., as a nonprofit organization.

Nadler, the skaters and other community members worked together to plan the park, with the skaters helping design the items in the park.

“The park would allow [the skaters] to improve and practice their sport with the appropriate equipment,” Nadler said. He said the park would give the skaters a safe environment in which to work.

Nadler said the items at the park will be for novices and intermediate skaters and additions for more experienced skaters would come after some time.