In October 2015, EPSA board member Jaime Favela noticed his company Moreno Cardenas Inc. (MCi) was starting construction on the El Paso Water Utilities Pollard Street pond project that included a redo of the small, existing concrete storm water channel.

It’s “double driveway down” design used for getting trucks down in there for ditch maintenance made it inherently attractive for skateboarding due to multiple banked faces and elevation changes. The question was “could we somehow make it even more skate-friendly” in the 11th hour?

Scouting

The original Pollard ditch and surrounding area was a scary mess, essentially a big fat field of weeds and dirt. But according to Favela, it used to be quite the skate spot back in the 1970’s.

The first point of action was to meet with MCi engineer Marcos Medina, the guy drawing the construction plans, to check the viability of any late amendments to his project. With discussions taking place over spicy Mexican food at Dona Lupe Cafe, Medina endorsed the EPSA skate-friendly idea on the condition that “no cost would be added.”

Cautious but open-minded, Medina felt the Pollard ditch redo would be a good fit for skateboarding because (1) there is no big volume of storm water feeder ditch going into Pollard, and (2) there was going to be a grassy, family-friendly pond park area built adjacent.

Stormwater improvements

The Pollard Pond Improvements project was one of almost 100 projects recommended to improve flood control in the watersheds throughout the City of El Paso.

The El Paso Stormwater Master Plan, approved by the Public Service Board and City Council in 2009, lays out the capital improvement projects (including bigger culverts and reservoirs) that prepare the city for major rain events and focuses on area where the flood risk is particularly high.

With Medina’s backing and a no-added cost strategy, EPSA reached out to the EPWU boss  John Balliew saying we believe by simply doing a steel trowel or very light broom (instead of the standard broom finish) and rounding off the concrete a bit at the bottom of the bank, this place could be an awesome skate spot for our community’s youth.

Balliew, a key player in our first EPWU skate-friendly project at Van Buren Dam, came back with a big thumbs up!

CSA Constructors

EPSA was quickly invited to attend a pre-construction meeting on the concrete channel. Turns out CSA Constructors was the builder, same team that built Westside Community Skatepark back in 2009.

Working with Bobby Stallard and on-site crew chief Jorge, we came up with a quick and dirty plan to form up butter bottoms with the first pour going down on November 24, 2015 – only one month after getting the green light from EPWU.

Charlie Concrete

The CSA game plan was simple – 3 massive, monolithic pours and done. Of course, this puts a lot more pressure on the finishers to control the mud from placement to finish trowel.

Luckily, there was really cool cat named Charlie working on the crew who took a lot of pride in his work and it showed. Here “Charlie Concrete” doing his thing with an EPSA sticker on his hard hat – thanks brotha!

December 9, 2015

The concrete boom pumps out 90 yards on the single biggest day of the Pollard project!

KVIA-TV coverage

One news media outlet showed up in the middle of all the muddy mess to do a feature story.

ABC-7 crew took a few job site shots, went to the EPSA website for context and did an excellent interview with EPWU’s Alan Shubert on the viability of these dual-purpose ditch projects.

Pollard Renamed to Mario Navarro Park

Long before our friend Mario Navarro’s life was tragically taken in train derailment accident on August 29, 2022, many in our skate community referred to Pollard as “Nav’s Ditch” – he loved to skate here.

So it was heartfelt when his wife Monique Navarro advocated for the El Paso City Council to officially rename Pollard Pond Park to Mario Navarro Park to honor his legacy two years later.

Navarro is remembered as someone who dedicated his life to serving his community, as well as a mentor, and an avid skateboarder.

In an interview with KFOX-TV, Monique said “this is more than just honoring him, for everything that we loved about him as a family. He was an absolutely important part of this community. He cared so much about the arts. He mentored so many up-and-coming skaters. Anyone that ever came in contact with Mario can attest to the kind of man he was.”

Theron Nicholson’s beautiful artwork “El Padrino Slaperino” helps us memorialize our fallen brother. If you go to the ditch, you’ll also see a big mural and Dia de los Muertos style altar called an “ofrenda” which translates to “offering” – a public display to welcome and honor the spirit of Navs.

 

 

Get there

The Pollard Ditch is located where Hamilton Avenue “T-bones” Pollard Street right next to the US-54 South Freeway.

In El Paso speak, it’s really close to the Chicos Tacos on Dyer Street. Technical address: 3090 Pollard St, El Paso, TX 79930.