Dave Nelson | SecretPenguin Blog

A while back I agreed to do an interview for former Mayor, Hal Daub about his support of Robert’s Skatepark for the upcoming election of Mayor.

I later found out that it was a bit controversial if he really supported it in the first place, and this concerned me since the reason I agreed to do it was because I’ve always vowed to help anyone out that has helped support skateboarding in Omaha… especially during a time when skateboarding wasn’t widely accepted.

I wanted to know the full story, so Hal invited me up to his office to talk about it. He was quick to give the credit to Marc Kraft, which was nice to see. We worked a lot with Marc, and the skatepark would not have happened without him.

Hal ended by basically saying it was passed while he was in office. If he was really against it, it wouldn’t have passed. He was very kind, very respectful and surprisingly down to earth when we met.
I was impressed.

His campaign talked with us at SecretPenguin about doing their design work, but they continued to want spec work and we decided to pull out. They then went with hiring an out of town agency.

This was a bit odd to me. Why hire a non-local agency for a local election? I’m not concerned that they didn’t hire us, I’m more concerned that they outsourced the work.

I later met up with my friend, Gary Di Silvestro. Without his help as well, there would be no skatepark in Omaha. He worked side by side with all the skateboarders, and helped organize us and get us in contact with the people of the city.

I found out he was helping with Jim Suttle’s campaign, and I had the opportunity to meet with Suttle and he was a very nice guy. I was impressed with his hard work on getting the venues to be able to stay open for people under 21 to enjoy live music.

Music is one of the many things that makes Omaha such a great place to live, and I really liked his approach on this issue.

Suttle already had branding and a website, but they needed some help on a separate website about Suttle’s vision for the future of Omaha and how the local election effects you, and after talking and learning more about what Jim Suttle is about, we were happy to work with them.

It just makes sense for a candidate for Mayor to hire local businesses for a local campaign. That’s something I can definitely support.

Jim Suttle, you have my vote.

Here’s the website we created, OmahaNext.com

The PLAY page is my favorite, with the skateboarder rolling across and doing a kickflip.

I just received the project schedule for the new public skatepark from Joan Baillon, Special Projects Coordinator of Omaha Parks, Recreation and Public Property…

• Wed 10/1/08 – Execute D/B Contract
• Fri 10/10/08 – Phase 1-Design 60%
• Mon  11/3/08 – Phase 2-Construction
• Thurs 1/15/09 – Winter Shut Down
• Wed 4/1/09 – Mobilize
• Thurs 4/2/09 – Grading
• Wed 4/15/09 – Utilities
• Thurs 4/23/09 – Footings/Foundation
• Mon 5/4/09 – Skate Bowls/Structures
• Mon 6/1/09 – Perimeter Flatwork
• Mon 6/15/09 – Landscaping
• Wed 6/24/09 – Punch list
• Fri 6/26/09 – Substantial Completion
• TBA – Grand Opening

Brad Siedlecki from Pillar Action Sports Development sent me the plans and said we’re limited on budget, but wanted to know if there’s any tweaks I think could be added.

I talked with Kelly McManus (a local skateboarder and friend) and we came up with a couple ideas. I wanted to consult with Jeff Chase too (he helped design the first park here as well, and helped with Cream City Skatepark), but he was out of town, and we needed to get this back to Brad asap.

Here’s the original plans with a few of our thoughts in red, plus a drawing for the new center piece along the strip:

Click to enlarge

Brad said he liked the ideas, and will incorporate them. I’m really excited for this park, and to be working with such a great skatepark designer. Huge thanks to the City of Omaha and to Pillar Action Sports Development!