BOULDER — When construction starts on a skateboard park later this summer, it won’t be the result of an impetuous decision.

In fact, it’s been eight years in discussion and planning.

That’s why Jason Craft, 18, who isn’t even a skateboarder, decided enough was enough.

“Some of my friends tried to build it eight years ago,” he said. “I’m just going to finish this and get it done.”

This time they’re seeing success.

“I’ve had good people on the committee,” he said, “and I’ve got land.”

So far, they’ve raised $9,500, including a recent $5,000 Tony Hawk Foundation grant. They have other grant applications in progress.

Saturday, they’re holding a pancake breakfast fundraiser from 8 to 10 a.m. in Boulder at Veterans Memorial Park, the site of the future skateboard park.

They’re planning to raise an additional $500, so they can apply for a $10,000 matching metal mines grant from the county.

That would put them well on their way to installing phase I of the park, an 85-by-75-foot concrete slab and a playground area.

They need to raise a total of $84,000 to complete the park, which will include steel skateboard ramps and an adjoining picnic and playground equipment.

Craft and his committee have been persistent. They attended eight council meetings before they got the council’s blessing to build the skateboard park on the site of the old ice skating rink near Veterans Park.

“Originally, there were a lot of people who didn’t like the idea of the skatepark,” he said.

Slowly the tide turned.

He thinks it has to do with all the meetings they attended and that they didn’t give up.

The committee also sought the support of the Chamber of Commerce, and 15 Chamber members wrote letters of support.

Business people, skateboarders and their parents spoke out before the council in support.

“The council decided it couldn’t go against it,” said committee member and former city council member Cheryl Haasakker.

Skateboarders have only one small place they can legally skateboard in Boulder, she said.

If they skateboard on the sidewalk, they get yelled at, said Justin Trautwein, 13, an avid skateboarder and committee member.

If they skateboard in the street, they’re too close to cars and have to deal with rocks.

The park will be a safer option, said Craft. And it will be in the center of the community.

Reporter Marga Lincoln:

447-4074 or marga.lincoln@helenair.com