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Politics & Government

Low Turnout at Inaugural 'Skate Annandale' Event

Despite the community buzz about the event, only a few skaters showed up Saturday morning to enjoy the first skate park in downtown Annandale.

A handful of skaters of various ages and local officials helped welcome a skate exhibition Saturday, advertised as “Skate Annandale", in downtown Annandale.

Hosted by the Annandale Volunteer Fire Department (AVFD) and sponsored by American Inline and Mason District Supervisor Penny Gross’s office, the event was part of a growing effort to accommodate local area skaters.

"This is the first step in warming up the city of Annandale to the idea of a skate park," said American Inline Founder Greg Keim about the temporary setup at the AVFD.

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Despite the excitement surrounding the event, only a few skaters were on the course throughout the day. Gross attributed the low turnout to the weather and the long holiday weekend. However, Gross said that the low numbers would not affect plans to further investigate the feasibility of another skating venue in town.

Annandale already has a permanent skate park in Wakefield Park, but Gross and others are exploring demand and viability for a different kind of setting that would be more accessible on foot for the majority of Annandale skaters. Wakefield is a few minutes from downtown Annandale by car, but many skaters are teenagers without access to automobiles. The lack of accessibility to the Wakefield facility raises safety concerns for many residents.

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"You want a 'skate spot', a place where kids can walk to the location and have an hour of fun, rather than having Mom and Dad drive them to the skate park,” Gross said. “We're still dealing with the conceptual idea of a skate spot, and what that might look like with the redevelopment of downtown Annandale.”

Gross said there is at least one specific location which could be used for a skate park.

When asked if they would attend a city skate spot like the one arranged at the event rather than the permanent park at Wakefield, the skaters said they'd pick the permanent facility because of the more forgiving surface.

"They all have their ups and downs, but the surface is the most important thing," said local skater Adam Starr of Lake Barcroft.

Douglas Nguyen, a college student from Annandale and instructor for American Inline, agreed that surface was important to all skaters.

"If you look at the Duke Street skate park down in Alexandria, that's just a nice concrete surface, and then they have the ramps on top of that. It's pretty simple, but it works well,” said Nguyen.

Flippin' Pizza, located just outside of Annandale’s borders in the Pinecrest Shopping Center, provided food for the event.

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