Finally, something for kids to do in Darrington

Published 10:52 pm Thursday, April 1, 2010

DARRINGTON — A bicycle motocross track and skate park are in the works in this town where officials have heard for years from teens who say they need something else to do.

“While some people may doubt these kids, we need to pay attention,” Mayor Joyce Jones said. “They have worked hard to come up with ideas, they keep asking, and we need to support them.”

Darrington High School freshman Kaleb Wyatt, 14, likes the sound of that attitude.

“Lots of us ride,” Kaleb said. “And we want this bad enough that the town can count on us for sure to keep a BMX racetrack clean and maintained.”

While the location of the BMX track and skate park isn’t certain, most likely it will be built on town property on the east side of the Mountain Loop Highway.

Kaleb and his friends — middle school and high school boys and girls — hope to construct a BMX park with berms, jumps and turns. Their bikes, which look like the Stingrays that some of their parents rode in the late 1970s, are ready to go. The skate park probably will come later, Kaleb said.

Kaleb said the BMX crowd is getting adult help from Bridget Wisniewski, who works at the Darrington Ranger Station. Wisniewski also is a substitute teacher at the school in the winter and knows many of the teens.

“I’d heard the complaining about nothing to do, so I decided to push these kids along so they can realize their dreams,” she said. “Right now they are improvising, and I hate to see them jumping out into the highway.”

Wisniewski’s pushing is encouraging to Kaleb, who said he believes the track can be built before summer. His proposed BMX track design is similar to a track he visited in Mount Vernon.

Offers of fill dirt are coming in for the BMX track, and an anonymous donor has pledged $1,000 for the skate park in exchange for work done by the skaters riders, Wisniewski said. The work includes picking up trash and weeding around town, she said.

The Town Council plans to hear again from the teens at its meeting this month, Jones said.

“We need to give them a place to ride,” she said. “These kids are our future.”

Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.