WILL BONNERS FERRY GET A NEW SKATE PARK?
- Justus A.S. Clayfield
- Mar 1, 2025
- 12 min read
Updated: Aug 10, 2025
According to the website for the Boundary County Skatepark Alliance (BCSA), the BCSA are a passionate group of advocates who are dedicated to creating opportunities for skateboarders and wheeled sports enthusiasts in the local community of Bonners Ferry. In simpler terms, the BCSA is working towards building a 10,000 square foot skatepark to replace the much smaller one at the Boundary County Fairgrounds.
“What is the process involved in building a new skatepark?” I asked Jeffrey Phillips, who is a volunteer for the BCSA. Ironically enough, he was born on June 21st, which for those who don’t know, is Go Skateboarding Day. Yes, Go Skateboarding Day is an annual international event created by the International Association of Skateboard Companies in 2003. In one part of his interview, Jeffrey joked that he was born for it, referring to his involvement in helping to build a new skatepark for the community.
“Wow!” Jeffrey exclaimed before answering. “Well, we’re a little behind because things move a little slower in our town. They say it takes anywhere between two and five years to build a skatepark. The phases we went through already; we started the grassroots organization [and] we built up our initial nest. We [have], right now, about $14,000 in the bank of the $17,000 that we needed to get the designs for the park just [from] local donations. Everything’s been donated locally. [There’s been] a couple distant donations from people who lived here and were skaters who moved away. We still need the last three [thousand] to finish it off. That being said, we already got the basic drawings done. If you go to our website, we have the final design concept. I just yesterday got the numbers from the designer of the estimate for construction costs. We were all expecting it to be anywhere from $500,000 to $750,000 to build a park because it’s a lot of concrete and a lot of work. For the park we have designed right now, they were looking at about just short of $500,000. That’s a very doable number. It sounds extraordinary because we only have $14,000 in the bank, but that being said, that’s not really how it works. You don’t build a skatepark in a small town the size of ours by local donations. You build it by grants. So that’s the phase we’re moving into now, and that’s where I need volunteers. Now we’re getting to the time where we need people who can give us leads to corporations who have deep pockets; who like to give $50,000 here or $10,000 here. There is one really good grant that we’re hoping to get, which is a federal grant. Through national parks, it will match 80% of what we have in the bank.”
“My next question was going to be ‘What is required to make this happen?’, but I feel like you summed that up.” I told Jeffrey humorously.
“It’s not that complicated.” Jeffrey replied.
“On the BCSA’s website, it says ‘We strive to raise awareness of the importance of skateparks and advocate for their inclusion in our community’. So…” I paused before announcing my next question. “Why is it important for Bonners Ferry to have a skatepark?”
“There have been a number of studies that show the health and mental health benefits of having a skatepark locally.” Jeffrey stated. “From a more pragmatic standpoint (and those are real), getting kids out in real life and fresh air and [having] experiences is critical to human development.”
Interestingly enough, this relates to a perspective that is shared by some local business owners in Bonners Ferry who have privately shared with me personally that many professional encounters with families lead them to conclude that local children are not properly socially adjusted. During an appearance on Ted Ludlum’s podcast “Almost Paradise” released December 5th of last year, I addressed this personally.
“There are issues up here.” Ted told me during our conversation, prefacing his question. “What’s a particular issue that really burns you up here that’s going on?”
“I actually haven’t been on the record publicly talking about this.” I told Ted after he asked his question. “This’ll be the first time I’ve ever talked about this, no one’s really asked me about that. The biggest thing that bothers me is the apathy of some people who live here.”
“They take things for granted.” Ted jumped in.
“They take things for granted, and not only that, but the hiding mindset.” I agreed with Ted while expounding further. “A lot of people come here to hide. And that’s okay, you want your privacy, you want to do your thing, but a lot of people come here, they hide, and then they judge the world for not being different. I talk to a lot of locals, I get a lot of one-on-one with a lot of people. I’ll never name names, I’ll never mention specific conversations, but a general vibe I get from a lot of people is ‘Why aren’t things better?’, but then they don’t do anything at all.”
This is why when Jeffrey Phillips, volunteer of the Boundary County Skatepark Alliance, approached me at the Bonner’s Ferry Holiday Market on November 23rd of last year, I took immediate action in scheduling an interview with him so that I could help further the BCSA’s cause. Many locals have expressed that Bonners Ferry needs to accommodate its youth more as the population grows. With increasing teen theft from both the fairgrounds and local stores such as Super 1 Foods and Safeway, it’s become obvious to many that an idle mind is the devil’s playground. In a traditionally small town like Bonners Ferry, it’s easy to become idle when there’s not much to do. A new skatepark could help to fix this in part.
“We weren’t designed as a species to live behind a computer screen.” Jeffrey had said. “It’s simply not what we were designed for and even though we evolved as a niche filler (according to the evolutionary people), the human brain can’t adapt to that. It needs outlets, it needs different things; physical outlets. From the physical health and mental health perspective, there’s a great deal of research that goes behind that. From a community standpoint, though, a more pragmatic standpoint. If you don’t build a skatepark, you still have a skatepark. It’s called Main Street, it’s called the curbs, it’s called that cool parking lot with that really neat looking rail. It’s called whatever is available; that stairway in front of the business that the business people don’t want you on. So it can create a nuisance effect in which the kids feel they get chased off by the business owners or the police or whatever because they’re not supposed to be there. They oftentimes find themselves in harm’s way because they’re in a place [where] they can’t actually do the cool stuff without ending up in the street. [A new skatepark] creates a safe environment for that to happen. It also creates a local place to come together and do that same sport.”
Jeffrey went on to say that he’s compaigned for the installation of live cameras since day one of cooperation with the BCSA. According to him, the public will be able to access a live feed of these cameras online so that parents can monitor their children, friends can connect virtually, and the police can use this to take more preventive measures for ensuring the safety of the park.
“We want to involve kids in building the skatepark.” Jeffrey told me later on. “We want to have a place where they can go safely. We want to have a place where they go and enjoy each other and learn from each other. So I think that’s a pretty good step in the right direction.” He said, referring to building the skatepark. “It creates opportunities for learning a bigger, social, civil learning that they’re not getting from social media.”
“Why is this venture important to you personally?” I asked Jeffrey, focusing the conversation on him.
“Ah!” Jeffrey quipped animatedly. “Well, because I took it up as a challenge and I saw it as something that was good. Once I commit to a thing, I try to complete a thing, but I see it as a really good opportunity. On a more personal note, I had just moved to the area. I had only been here for a year and a half at that point and I wanted to get involved with the community in a positive manner. I can say that I’ve always volunteered. Since then, I’ve also joined the American Legion, and I’m a chaplain. So I do different things, I try to get involved in the community and serve different people, because again, it fills my heart. I guess you could call that selfish, but it’s a positive selfish I think.” Here, Jeffrey paused for a moment to orient his words. “There’s a certain sense of kismet, if you will, or fate. We moved here for a reason. We found Bonners Ferry by accident essentially. It was kind of like a whim that brought us here.”
“The website also says that the BCSA works with local businesses.” I started queuing up the next question. “So what businesses have the BCSA worked with?”
“Well, to date, only the ones to contribute, but we have had contributions during our fundraisings from different things.” Jeffrey answered honestly. “The way we intend to do that moving forward though… our list of to-do’s or our list of costs going forward in our budget they created for us. We’re going to need local concrete, so we’re going to be getting it from the local plant. That’s a $75,000 bill right there. We’re going to be getting the work done probably locally, but they have it in our proposal $40,000 for dirt work. Well, there are excavation companies that will be hired to do that work. So as a construction project, in and of itself, that’s going to be part of it. We’re also going to look at local businesses for what they call “for kind” contributions. Say they donate a tree to plant here, [or] they donate the yardwork to change the landscape.”
Jeffrey also said that he has a strong desire to connect with the Kootenai Tribe in hopes of obtaining permission to respectfully incorporate their sturgeon logo into construction of the park i.e. a mural painted by an artist of their choice.
“This park is going to be Bonners Ferry’s park.” Jeffrey said ultimately. “It’s not going to be Sandpoint 2.0, it’s not going to be like Troy’s or Coeur D’Alene’s. It’s going to be strictly ours, and that’s how we’ve designed it. So we want a lot of local business, plus it will help local business because it creates a place for people to go. A lot of people travel long distances to get to skate parks now. It’s become a travel industry, and they’ll take road trips to check out new skate parks. We’re in a beautiful position right now because, in a day, you can drive from Coeur D’Alene’s skatepark to Sandpoint’s to ours to Troy, Montana’s and continue on into Montana. They’re several beautiful parks over there. Go to Glacier National Park for the weekend, and then go south from there, and hit a bunch more parks; beautiful parks that Tony Hawks is big on down in Missoula.” Jeffrey gave a thumbs-up when referring to the famous skateboarder Tony Hawks. “You can do this entire loop (you can drive the loop in a day), but it would be skatepark tour, if you will, from a tourism standpoint. It’s becoming a thing! People are stocking up on experiences more than things nowadays. The younger generation, my kids and stuff, they want to have more fun and have more things to show on Facebook. They get to go to these skateparks, and say, ‘Hey, we did this road trip and went to all these different places!’ It’s something that I’m promoting, and I got people in Coeur D’Alene who are on fire with that idea.”
“What do you imagine that a skatepark community should look like in this area?” I asked Jeffrey, moving onto the next question.
“We incorporated that into the design actually.” Jeffrey informed me. “We did not want a skateboard-only park. We wanted a park that could handle skateboards, BMX kids bikes, little scooters, in-line skaters, and every kind of wheeled sport, up to and including wheelchair races. So we did not design it with a really aggressive bowl because they have a couple around here. Troy built a really aggressive bowl and Sandpoint recently added that in their second stage of development. So, having all [those] different things, they don’t really need that. We wanted something [to] appeal to a broader group of people and families. That’s the biggest thing we noticed. The very first time we had an outing, we had skaters, but we had skater’s families showing up. We had kids playing in the sandpit [and] little babies on the blanket with parents picnicking in the park! It was a super family event.”
Once again, Jeffrey outlines the benefits of building this skatepark for the community by sharing the positive impacts their efforts have thus far produced. Over fifty people were present for their fundraising event in 2022, and so far, they’ve raised $14,000. When asked how the community can help to make this skatepark a reality, Jeffrey answered by explaining that they’ve grown beyond raffles and community events. Now, he needs connections to people in industry such as the local lumber companies and Anheuser-Busch's Elk Mountain Farm (just for example) who could help to negotiate a noticeable contribution. He’s also on the lookout for someone with marketing experience who could volunteer in creating literature, both physical and digital, for the purpose of generating more awareness around the project.
“If we can get $300,000 in contributions, we’ll pretty much have it in the bag.” Jeffrey summed it up. “That makes it a more doable goal than $500,000.” Later on, he continued this by saying. “I’ve started a contact sheet, now I just need to distribute it to people and start filling in the blanks. So that’s why I get people who are willing to help or to email us or contact us via our website.”
Jeffrey envisions this skatepark to be both practical and modern with hopes that the park will have a solar charging port for cellphones. Hopefully, this would also serve as a Wifi modem providing free wireless internet to the park. According to the information he provided during our interview, there have been talks with EL Internet about installing fiber internet, furthering cable connections already present nearby.
“So we’re actually looking at getting high-speed internet, and then getting that dream I told you about [with] live cameras.” Jeffrey concluded concerning free internet for the park.
“What is your favorite part of the design?” I asked about the blueprints made publicly available on the BCSA’s website.
“Our design?” Jeffrey clarified.
“Yeah.” I answered quickly.
“I do like the pump track.” He eventually said after a sigh. “I had them add a couple rails to the pump track so that we have some more street effects. It’s still a little shy on street-effects, [but] we have some ideas on how to bump that up once we get the actual design built. We’ve got some concrete benches that are just square benches on the design drawing. We’re going to put coping on those so they’re actually nice little ledges for the kids to work off of. We already got stair rails and stuff like that. Honestly, it’s the fact that it’s a multi-area park and it’s got the focus on flow which is a thing in skateboarding. Our current park doesn’t have enough linear feet if you go corner-to-corner to start a trick, do the trick, nail the trick, and end it because you only have a certain amount of range. You [can’t] do any tricks in the skatepark we have now. Technically, it’s not a skatepark.” Jeffrey chuckled at this. “It’s what they call a ‘skate place’, in the industry. So it’s a fun place to be, but it’s not really a skatepark. So what I love is the fact that it offers all these opportunities. You got a kid area that’s a little flatter and easier, and you got the more advanced ramp on one side so you can get some altitude on that. The more advanced kids will enjoy it. That’s another thing I love about the whole skatepark phenomenon. Every park has its own flavor, and that’s one of the things that skaters love about it. Every park has its own character, its own flow, and that makes every skatepark unique. That’s one of the reasons that skate tour would be so much fun for a skater.”
Jeffrey Phillips was born in 1961 and has lived in Boundary County for close to four years. As a volunteer of the Boundary County Skatepark Alliance, he’s personally endeavored to raise awareness for this cause in hopes of improving Boundary County.
“What’s your favorite thing about Boundary County?” I had asked towards the beginning of our interview.
“It’s a quaint step back in time.” He responded.
“What do you mean by that?” I didn’t hesitate to engage my curiosity.
“Well, okay.” He started readying his answer. “There’s a book I rather adore called ‘A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century’ written by Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein. They’re both evolutionary biologists and they talk about the time we’re living in, how fast things are changing in the world, and [the] cure for that is to simplify life and go back [to] find a place that’s quaint [and] slower paced because the world changes around us on a daily basis. So, it mitigates that effect a little bit and it’s comforting. This feels like home. I was born in Lewiston, grew up in Walla Walla which isn’t exactly a small town but I’ve been around small-town people most of my life. After traveling around the world and being different places, this is where I’d rather be than anywhere else.”
If you’re interested in learning more about the Boundary County Skatepark Alliance, or to make a contribution, you can visit their website HERE.
Candidly,
JUSTUS A.S. CLAYFIELD
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