FAIRHOPE, ALA. — They’re not as young as they once were, but Billy Michaloupolos and Jared Glattli are hardly over the hill.

And though 40 might still seem ancient to them, as the main leaders who started promoting a city skateboard park more than 10 years ago while students at Fairhope High School, they have become the acknowledged “elders” of the local skateboard community.

“It goes as far back as 1996,” said Michaloupolos, 28. “Jared and I started collecting signatures on petitions and taking them to City Hall when we were still in high school.”

The skateboarders eventually found an official supporter in City Councilwoman Debbie Quinn, who helped organize several meetings and public hearings during the past two years, which further galvanized community support for the idea.

That work paid off Monday night when the city announced that bids would go out this week for construction of the Fairhope Skate Plaza project.

“We’re projecting completion in late spring,” said Eddie Boyette, the city’s director of parks and recreation. “I think these young people should be applauded.”

Boyette showed plans for the project, a 4,000-to 5,000-square-foot triangular-shaped plaza of sidewalks, concrete pads, steps, rails and other skating obstacles, that will wind through the pine trees at Volanta Municipal Park west of Greeno Road. He said the cost of the project would be between $90,000 and $100,000.

The project is funded by a state community development grant of $38,000, to be matched in cash or services by the city, and and an anonymous private donation of $25,000, Boyette said.

“The state should also be applauded,” Quinn said. “They usually do not give grants for skate plazas.”

Michaloupolos said that he and Glattli and a few others helped develop the plans for the project through meetings with Boyette, who said a local engineering firm prepared the drawings for the project plans at no cost.

“They did a fabulous job of recreating what we submitted to them,” Michaloupolos said. “It’s a different kind of skate park. It caters to street skaters and to all levels of ability. It’s also very environmentally-friendly. Instead of just putting one big concrete slab out there, it uses a lot of open spaces.”

When the Fairhope skateboard park is ready, it will join Bay Minette and Gulf Shores as the only cities in the counties where skateboarders can pursue their sport in safety away from city streets.

“Even now, kids come all the way from Mobile just to skate in a private place where we skate,” said Glattli, 31. “There’s not a skate park in Mobile. (The skate plaza) here will definitely be used. That’s for sure.”

In other business, the City Council:

• Heard a report from Nancy Wilson, the city treasurer, on the city’s “cash balance comparisons” as of Dec. 31, 2007. It showed the following amounts as of that date: general fund, $1,921,738; gas fund, 630,472; electric fund, $1,867,954; water fund, $4,914,398; golf fund, $130,285; and capital projects (including library project account), $3,829,311. The report stated the total of those funds was $13,625,633, and minus debt service funds of $2,440,699 and other restricted funds of $4,147,502, leaves a total cash balance of $7,037,432. That total compared with $6,809,564 as of Nov. 30, 2007, and $7,503,680 as of Dec. 31, 2006.

Wilson presented graphs of the fund balances during the past year, showing the trends of those amounts.

“In January we will look for our revenues to increase,” she said. “Because it is a cyclical thing.”

• Heard a report on the accounts payable for the city in the total amount of $1,663,798 as follows: general, $179,545; gas, $368,656; electric, $948,582; water and sewer, $113,605; golf, $43,325; gas tax, $2,706; and capital projects, $7,386. The reported stated the following as the total “funds needed:” $1,663,798.

• Approved the minutes of the Dec. 20 council meeting.