PLAINS TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Two entrepreneurs from Luzerne County are bringing a business to the Wilkes-Barre area that's been gone for the last few years.
For the first time since 2014, the Wilkes-Barre area will once again have an indoor skate park.
Mikki St. Pierre and Jeff Mushell recently founded Keystone Rampworks. With the help of a few friends, the couple is transforming a portion of the Wyoming Valley Sports Dome in Plains Township. The space will be open for riders on May 1st.
"We did a lot of traveling over the last five years, just going to other parks, and I learned over those five years that there wasn't anything local," St. Pierre said. "I always asked 'Well, why don't we stay close to home? Why isn't there something to do? And (Jeff) would always say, 'Well, there's no place to ride."
So, the couple decided to bring a temporary skate park and coffee shop to the sports complex. Mushell has been a BMX rider for over 20 years. He envisions this as a safe haven for extreme sports enthusiasts.
"We just kind of get looked at as delinquents and troublemakers and everything else," Mushell said. "It's just because we don't have anywhere else to go, so we have to get creative and make our own spot."
Edward Suchoski is leasing out the space to Keystone Rampworks. From 1998 - 2014, he set up a skate park there, before it became too much work. He's happy to see it make a return.
"Not every kid is into the winter sports," Suchoski said. "You have basketball, wrestling, swimming, not every kid does that type of sport. There are other interests that kids have."
Right next to the dome here sits an empty plot of land. If everything goes well this summer, Mikki and Jeff plan to build a permanent skate park and coffee shop.
"We live in a cold climate, so we want to make sure the kids have a place to go during the offseason when it is cold out and they can't ride outside, they still have a place to go to," St. Pierre said.
The hope is that the permanent location would be ready in September. For more information, you can visit Keystone Rampworks' website here.