When Jim Vogt first began telling the people of Kellyville that he intended to build a skatepark for the town, a few of them waved him off.
“They’d heard it before,” Vogt says.
But unlike the others that had come along and said such things, Mayor Jim Vogt actually managed to get it done.
But why does the mayor of a town of 1200 want a skatepark?
It’s a vision that started at least 5 years ago.
“My youngest son was into skateboarding,” Vogt began, “and there’s no place around here really for them to go. They can’t skate at the schools or at the library.”
Neither do the parents appreciate it so much when the older kids hang around the younger ones at the towns playground, So he determined that he was going to get the town a skatepark, to give the older kids and skate enthusiasts a place to hang out. The park, located on Ash Street, just across the street from Vogt’s home, consists of a flat concrete pad with two ramps, a rail and a bench. It’s not much to look at yet, but there are the beginnings of something that could be great, and it’s still more than it had just a year ago.
The property had been privately owned until the city reportedly took possession of it after years of unpaid taxes. Overgrown with weeds and gnarly trees, the place looked more fit for a junkyard than a skatepark. But Jim Vogt saw potential.
In 2013, Jim Vogt got permission from the city to use the lot as a skatepark. Now came the hard part: getting the funds to make it happen.
More than a citizen
At the time, Vogt wasn’t even a city councilor, much less a mayor. His first steps toward getting the skatepark built were simply those of a citizen that wanted to improve the town he called home.
He came across an Owasso grant that was providing a brand new skatepark to it’s own citizens, built entirely out of concrete. Owasso was looking to sell their old ramps.
Dipping into his own pocket, Vogt brought the last two ramps and a bench from Owasso to Kellyville, and they sat in his backyard while he began raising money for the $5,000 concrete pad.
It would take over three years.
In the meantime Vogt’s youngest son and his friends made do by pulling the bench out into the street in front of the house. They’d put it back at the end of every evening.
By the time the money was available for the concrete, they were hit with another problem: the price had gone up and they weren’t going to be able to finish it out. Luckily, a pastor and his church stepped in and filled in the remaining gaps in funding. The park that the town had waited years for was finally going to happen.
A Family Place
While the starting point for the vision was a skatepark, Vogt says the ultimate goal is to make it more of a family place, where older kids can hang out and families can spend time together.
It’s not hard to imagine family being a central theme for this park. With 7 children, 13 grandchildren and one great-grandson, Jim and his wife Yvonne have family in spades.
Last summer, Vogt dug and installed four sets of horseshoe pits. They have a couple of concrete picnic tables waiting to be set up. He’s planning to meet with someone soon about possibly donating picnic-ready charcoal grills.
The next big-money item is a basketball court. Hopefully, the town will have more faith in the vision this time around, now that they’ve seen Vogt as a man who can see things through.
Mayor Vogt maintains that the biggest need right now is for the community or anyone else who’s interested to come together to make this next step happen, “for the good of the town and the people in it.”
For anyone interested in making a donation, an account has been set up with American Heritage Bank.
