Construction of Optimist Skate Park in Pocatello now complete

POCATELLO – Two people who worked to make it a reality stood at the top of an embankment and admired Pocatello’s new skate park.

It was Thursday morning when David Van Etten and Anne Butler presented the newly completed Optimist Skate Park to EastIdahoNews.com ahead of its 12:15 p.m. ribbon cutting on Friday, July 25. The way that Van Etten, founder of Skate Idaho, and Butler, director of Parks and Recreation, see it, the park will go on to have a generational impact on skateboarders in the community.

“Generationally, most of our parks have an impact, and this one definitely will. You all remember a park that you used to play in that you want to take your kids to,” Butler said. “This will be a moment for everyone that’s here (Friday), to say, ‘I was here when this opened. I skated this.’ And then they’ll tell their … nieces and nephews and their kids … ‘I was here that day.’ ”

In 2017, Van Etten founded Skate Idaho, also known as the Southeast Idaho Skate Park Association, to advocate for a new skate park for Pocatello. He realized this need when he went out to the aged and dilapidated skate park in Lower Ross Park after he moved to the area in 2015.

“My son and I went out to Ross Park, and I was like, ‘Wow, this is the skate park in (a) town of this size?’” Van Etten said.

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In 2023, Van Etten and Butler met at the skate park, allowing Butler to take stock of the status of the park, finding ramps that had grown old enough that gaps had opened up. Despite not being a skater herself, she began to work with Van Etten to find solutions for the park.

Van Etten put together a proposal to refurbish the park, which the city accepted and completed in September that year. Thanks to a variety of generous donations, the park received resurfaced ramps and concrete, making for a safer skating experience.

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But the goal of Skate Idaho, to get a new skate park built, remained.

The moment when Van Etten and Butler knew this would become a reality was in a July 2024 work session, when City Councilman Brent Nichols advocated for putting leftover funds from the American Rescue Plan Act towards what would become Optimist Skate Park. The rest of the council agreed and directed Butler to begin work on it, ultimately putting half a million dollars toward the project.

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Optimist Skate Park has a variety of features spread out over its between 7,000 to 8,000 square feet, including a quarter pipe and multiple ledges, rail features and banks. The park also has a feature shaped like the state of Idaho, which people can skate on.

Van Etten identified the skating bowl, which is 41 feet long and 6 feet deep, as the “highlight feature” of the park.

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“Everybody’s so excited for this, because there’s nothing else like this (in our area),” Van Etten said. “A lot of the skaters here have never gotten to skate a bowl, so there’s so many of them that are excited to learn.”

When the refurbishment of the Ross Park Skate Park was completed, a variety of people approached Van Etten to say that it had caused them to pick their skateboards up again. He thinks that the new park will bring even more energy to the skateboarding community.

“I don’t think there’s going to be a shortage of skaters. I think this park is packed at all times,” Van Etten said.

Butler and Van Etten estimate that the new skate park will last for at least two decades.

“As long as it’s maintained and things are fixed when issues arise, there’s no reason that it won’t last 20 to 30 years,” Van Etten said.

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As for what the future holds for Skate Idaho, Van Etten and Butler said there’s still plenty of room in Optimist Park to expand the skate park further.

“Is there room for a playground? What about a pump track? What about some flat work for street features?” Butler said. “But we’ll see what the demand looks like. If the demand is good, it’s easier to go find more relationships to keep adding (to the park). … But we’re thrilled with what we have. Sure, it could be bigger, but this is a big day for Skate Idaho. It’s a big day for the city of Pocatello. We’re just thrilled to have it here.”