Joplin crew comes through at Andover skate park

Three years after it was removed to make way for the new community center, the Andover skate park has a permanent home.

In an odd turn of circumstance, the equipment installed at Sunshine Park last week was manufactured in Joplin, Mo., where thousands of people lost their homes in a May 22 tornado.

American Ramp Company (ARC) was about a mile from the path of the killer tornado that tore a mile-wide gash through the city of about 50,000. None of its 100 workers was among the 141 killed in the storm, but eight of its employees' homes are gone. A handful more had significant property damage, or have harrowing stories.

There was the worker who was at a barbecue when the tornado hit and was buried in rubble for an hour but walked away with only bruises. And the shipping coordinator who, with her daughter, survived in the bathtub of her third-story apartment as the roof was ripped from her building.

ARC sales manager John Hunter said the company, like the rest of the community, has tried to band together to promote healing and rehabilitation in the city.

"There's that comfort in knowing your community or your company or your family is going to pull together and help each other out," he said, noting that he was touched by the sales reps, clients and even competitors from all over the world who called to check on them.

For the first week after the tornado, the whole company worked half-days, Hunter said.

Andover officials found the company incommunicado during that time, said Parks Coordinator Todd Haas.

But he wasn't complaining. Although Andover officials fully expected the tornado to throw their project off track, a work crew arrived with the city's new equipment three days ahead of schedule.

The finished product

The new park is a combination of new ramps and refurbished parts that had been set up and torn down each year in the Community Center parking lot.

The transitions in and out of storage were hard on the equipment, and the transience sent the message that the skaters were second-class citizens, said Park and Recreation Commissioner Shaun Van Vark, whose sons have competed on the national skateboard circuit.

Kids already were using the new equipment as workers finished refurbishing the old ramps. Van Vark said he's been coaching them about taking care of the grounds and the equipment.

"They need to understand it's not every town in these times that gets a brand new skate park," he said. "So if they want it, they've got to take some responsibility and ownership."

As for ARC, company officials are creating a new stake in Joplin. Plans are afoot to rebuild several city parks destroyed by the tornado. Among their planned features: skate parks.