Combine a skatepark with a BMX bike track and you get the pump track: a series of bumps, dips and curves a variety of wheeled devices — including bikes, skateboards, scooters and wheelchairs — can ride through.
The concept has proven popular within the Tenino community, as the City of Tenino’s first pump track, a beginner course designed for all ages and abilities, has seen almost constant use since the city finished installing it at Tenino City Park on Monday, according to Mayor Wayne Fournier.
“The thing has been used nonstop since we put that straight track in,” Fournier said.
Workers had just two panels left to install on a second, intermediate pump track at Tenino City Park as of Thursday. Once that is fully installed, the city will turn its attention toward installing a third, advanced pump track at the park ahead of a scheduled Saturday, June 17, grand opening ceremony for all three tracks.
The idea of building pump tracks in Tenino began four years ago when Fournier and his then-7-year-old daughter were visiting a park in Olympia that featured a portable pump track.
“She was able to ride on it with her little Razor scooter, and there it just seemed like a really nice crowd of families that it was attracting,” Fournier said of the Olympia pump track.
He and his daughter later found another pump track at a park in Leavenworth that had a different design than the one they visited in Olympia, he said, which prompted him to start researching the different types of pump tracks.
Then, about three years ago, a tree fell on the playground equipment at Tenino City Park.
“Instead of just repairing what we have, we used the opportunity … to kind of leverage that loss into a request of the Legislature for enough money to just build it out,” Fournier said.
The City of Tenino initially considered installing a pump track in a different part of town, but when the state Legislature allocated some funding for Tenino’s playground, the city switched gears and incorporated the pump track build into the new playground design.
“We got a lot of support from Representative Peter Abbarno’s office (and) we somehow pulled this major rebuild off,” Fournier said.
The pump tracks themselves were a separate item in the city’s budget, with some American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds going into the purchase of the equipment from the Pacific Northwest-based company Highwire, which also sold Tenino its new playground equipment.
“They’re dream clients, really, because they’re just so open and enthusiastic, but no nonsense too. I’ve never seen a more capable group,” said Highwire owner Peter Tammetta of the City of Tenino.
The pump tracks themselves are a product of a Czech brand, Parkitecht, which designed the tracks to fit into an urban landscape.
“I would say Parkitect, their design, is very much at the forefront of that movement to the roller sport world, so it’s exciting. It’s the first in the nation of its kind,” Tammetta said.
Featuring a fiberglass surface and steel structure, “it’s got better curves and it’s kind of a better surface area than, say, a plastic one … and the ones that are built into the ground, they don’t flow as well,” Fournier said.
The June 17 grand opening ceremony for the pump tracks will run in conjunction with the Raise For Rowyn 5K, which begins at Tenino City Park at 10 a.m. For more information on the 5K, visit https://www.raise4rowyn.org/run.
The event will feature food vendors at Tenino City Park and professional BMX riders are set to perform stunts on the new tracks.
For more information on Highwire and the Parkitects pump tracks, visit https://highwireus.com/parkitect-modular-pump-tracks/.
Updates on the installation at Tenino City Park can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/CityofTenino.
(Editor's note: Edits to this article correcting the spelling and country of origin for Parkitect were made at 3:30 p.m. on June 19. )
