FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Local skateboarders will not have to wait much longer for a place to call their own.

Construction started this week on the Fairhope Skateboard Plaza at the Volanta Avenue Municipal Park.

“We began framing up some of the concrete pads Monday,” said Jim Schlumpf, owner of East Coast Contracting Inc., the contractor for the project. “We did the tree removal and site preparation a couple weeks ago. The contract period ends in early July.”

The idea for a city skateboard park started more than 10 years ago when several Fairhope High School students, including Billy Michaloupolos and Jared Glattli, began lobbying the city to build a park where they could skateboard in safety and without being a nuisance, instead of on city streets and private parking lots.

The students formed a committee, held skateboard demonstrations and collected signatures on petitions.

The group gained an advocate in City Councilwoman Debbie Quinn, who helped organize several public meetings about the issue during 2006.

She also encouraged the city to apply for a state community development grant, which the city received last summer in the amount of $38,000. The contract for the grant requires the city to match that amount in funds or services.

Last fall, the city announced that an anonymous donor had contributed $25,000 toward the skateboard park.

The project was put out to bid in January.

At its Feb. 11 meeting, the City Council accepted the low bid of East Coast Contracting in the amount of $53,798. Six other companies bid on the project, with the highest being $139,100.

The contract requires the project be completed within 60 days. A city employee stated that time period could be extended but would not confirm when the contract period began.

The council heard about the status of the project in January in a presentation by Eddie Boyette, director of city parks and recreation.

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 winds through the woods at the park. At that time, he said the cost of the project would be between $90,000 and $100,000.

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

“They did a fabulous job of recreating what we submitted to them,” Michaloupolos said at the time. “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 skateboard plaza is completed, it will join Bay Minette and Gulf Shores as the only skateboard parks in the county. There is no skateboard park in Mobile, Glattli said in January.

“After we’re done, I don’t know if the city will come in behind us and do any landscaping or other work,” Schlumpf said. “It’s a pretty straightforward project. I’m from New York with a degree in civil engineering and have built bridges and large buildings. But it is an interesting design.”

The Fairhope Skateboard Plaza will be located on the north side of Volanta Avenue close to the intersection of that road and Greeno Road.

“There will probably be some additional work done by the city,” Boyette said Tuesday, referring to what will be required to open the skateboard park after the construction currently under way is completed. “From what I gather, people are pretty excited about it.”