The latest proposal to build a professional-style skate park in Dormont -- led by former Dormont resident Mary Pitcher, to honor her late extreme-sports loving sons -- has been defeated.

After hearing more than a dozen impassioned public appeals from both sides at last night's packed borough meeting, council voted down the motion, 5-2.

Council members Tim McCoy and Blair Brockmeyer cast the two swing votes, which doomed the park plan. Both favored the idea of bringing a skate park to Dormont, but took issue with some of the finer details of the process.

"The motion was too open-ended. There needed to be a lot more specificity. If it comes back next month with more parameters and more specifics, then I would probably vote in favor," said Mr. McCoy, who at the meeting offered an alternative and seemingly popular proposal that would scale down the size of the existing Dormont Pool, leaving space that he said could be used for a skate park.

Mr. Brockmeyer said he voted against the proposal because he didn't like any of the three plans that had been presented by skate park designer John Buerkle, of Pashek Associates.

Mr. Buerkle's initial plan would have placed the skate park in Dormont Park about 60 feet from residences on Memorial Drive. After hearing complaints from concerned residents, Mr. Buerkle proposed two subsequent park sites -- one in Dormont Park, about 240 feet from the homes on Memorial Drive, and another along Banksville Road, in place of existing tennis courts.

Undeterred by the defeat, Mrs. Pitcher said that she would not be giving up her fight to bring a skate park to Dormont. She recently submitted a proposal to the Keystone Oaks school board that requested school district land for a skate park. She also plans to continue speaking with council members in hope of making a more amenable proposal.

"At some point, we're probably going to have it come back to the table. Maybe in a year. Maybe in six months. It might be six years, but at some point the issue will come back because skateboarding is not going away," Mr. McCoy said.

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