This is Dan Lesko. Who are you?"
That's the voice mail message on the Wilde Lake High School senior's cell phone. However, very few area skateboarders would have to pose that question back to Lesko, because they already know who he is.
"He's the guy who made the whole skate park possible," said Howard High senior Dave Eassa, referring to the Skate Spot, a skateboarding area set to be unveiled April 25 at Centennial Park North. It will be the first of its kind in a county park.
"He was really instrumental in the process," said Raul Delerme, chief of the capital projects and park planning division of the county Recreation And Parks Department.
Lesko, a die-hard skater who keeps his skateboard in the trunk of his car, shrugs off the accolades. Yet he admits the park off Old Annapolis Road will serve as "a landmark for me and my friends."
"Skateboarders often get in trouble for skating," said Lesko, who added that he and a few friends were once banned from using the parking lot at the Dorsey Hall neighborhood pool.
"But just as many kids like to skate as play baseball or basketball and we need a safe place to go," said the 18-year-old, repeating the basic message he delivered before the Howard County Council two years ago.
"It seems to me that I made some compelling arguments," the Dorsey Search resident said of his testimony.
The Skate Spot, a 60-by-95-foot arrangement of ramps, quarter-pipes and rails that was installed last week on an underused basketball court, "will give kids a legitimate place to skate," said Delerme, noting that Lesko worked tirelessly to make it happen.
"It's like the county is finally recognizing that skateboarding is something that a lot of kids are into around here," Eassa said. "That's pretty rad.
"And Dan deserves all the credit for making that happen."
Delerme said the Skate Spot fit in nicely at Centennial North, which is a small community park in a residential area.
And by using the existing pavement as the foundation, the project came in at a lower cost - $127,000, plus a few thousand more for the large crane required to lift concrete pieces into place, he said.
But the influence of Lesko and a group of 15 to 20 other determined skaters who attended multiple county hearings didn't end with the Centennial Park installation, Delerme pointed out.
