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Kayden Hanks, 14, puts a dot sticker on a feature he would like to see for the Lehi skate park at the workshop Wednesday evening at city hall.

Cathy Allred, Daily Herald

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Julie Pettit watches as her son, Jacob Pettit, age 11, places a dot on an element he would like to see at the Lehi skate park. Nearly 25 young people participated in the Spohn Ranch workshop Wednesday night at city hall to help design the park.

Cathy Allred, Daily Herald

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Spohn Ranch designer Vince Onel came prepared for Lehi City’s skate park design workshop anticipating what most adults did not expect, more than 25 teenagers arriving with their skateboards.

Onel does about 30 design projects annually and it never gets old, he said.

“This is my dream job,” Onel said. “I was a kid sitting in this room 20 years ago when my town in Iowa was proposing to build a skate park. I was sitting in a chair at a city council meeting giving my input, so full circle.”

The meeting’s purpose was to get input from community members about what elements they would prefer in the skate park. The city approved The average age of the young participants at the Lehi City Hall meeting was 14 years old and unlike the adults, they arrived 15 minutes early for the meeting.

“I’m here because a friend told me about it,” said Dalton Allred, 13.

That friend, Grant Ingersol, 14, said he found out about the meeting on Instagram. 

The boys had parked their skateboards by their chairs and were standing looking at photos posted on a Lehi City wall of different elements a skate park could have.

“All my friends told me about it,” 15-year-old Ethan Sengpauth said. They currently go to the American Fork Skate Park to skateboard, he said.

Of the group, about one-fifth were second generation skateboarders. One or two of the adults remember helping with the earliest attempts to get a skate park.

Once it was time for the workshop to begin, Onel gave an introduction and a brief overview of what the kids could do to help and what they could expect, including a finish date.

“Pretty much we have to stop pouring concrete in October so our goal is to get it done by October,” Onel said.

Each person was to get bright red dot stickers to place on an element they wanted to see in the park.

“Skim over all the photos first, because if you don’t you will run out of dots before you are halfway through the photos,” he said.

The skateboarders chose a bank, bowls, a one-quarter pipe, stairs and rails, and a vert as preferred elements for the park. There isn’t a site yet for the proposed park, although the choices have been narrowed down between two sites. The locations of those two proposed sites have not been released yet.

Julie Pettit was at the workshop with her children, ages 5, 7, 10 and 11.

“I’m just so excited to see all these kids here,” she said. “We go to the skate park in Riverton. It’s worth driving to the best one.”  

The number of youth at the workshop drew attention and city staff stopped by to take a peek, including Mayor Bert Wilson.

“I am pleasantly surprised. This is a great turnout,” said Jason Walker, city administrator. “I’m glad so many kids came out because they are going to be the ones using the skate park.”

At public town hall meetings, he said sometimes half the amount of those at the workshop show up to participate. “This is really great,” he said.

The Lehi City Council unanimously approved $500,000 in funding for the new skate park in early March. 

More on the skate park can be found on Facebook at “Lehi Skate Park” where comments and photos of elements for the proposed design of the park may be shared.