Kathy Poirier of Pierce Street said she’s been talking to people about building a skateboarding park in Westbrook for at least 10 years, and she knows other people who’ve been talking about it even longer.
It appears as though it’s finally going to happen.
Through a combined effort of the city, community businesses, residents and even local teenage skaters, a skate park is now a reality. The city expects to break ground in Bicentennial Park in a matter of weeks. And as a bonus, it won’t cost taxpayers a cent.
“(I’m) really psyched,” said Westbrook High School ninth-grader Kyle Richard, 15. “I’ve always wanted a skate park here.”
City Administrator Jerre Bryant said he expects the total cost for the park to be more than $100,000. The city won’t be paying a penny for it, though, because it’s being built with money from donations and in-kind contributions from local businesses.
“There’s an awful lot of people involved,” said Mike White, owner of White Brothers Inc., which will be donating the excavation for the project. White said he’s donating the earthwork and encouraging other local businesses to donate much of the rest of the work. “We’re putting the schmooze on them all. We’re getting everybody to chip in because it’s a good project.”
White said Pike Industries is planning on donating the pavement, and Burns’ E.A. Fencing Inc. will be supplying the fences. The city will be using donated money to pay a skate park construction company to construct the actual ramps and rails and other obstacles and provide the final layout, with suggestions from the kids. On Friday the city received four bids in response to 10 requests for bids.
Of course, local skaters are “psyched” about having a skate park so close to home. Now they won’t have to drive or ride the bus or scrape together rides to Portland, Windham, Bath or Biddeford – communities that have parks and have had them for years.
Matt Burnham, a 17-year-old Westbrook junior, said he’s had to take the bus to Portland to skate every day. With a park here, he won’t have to make those trips – he can just go down to the park instead. And it’s doubly important because the number of places kids are allowed to skate in Westbrook is dwindling. Just two weeks ago the police made it illegal to skate at the “6s,” a spot near CVS that was the main place in Westbrook to skate.
Residents are excited as well, because a skate park means kids won’t be hanging around in parking lots and on sidewalks as much and getting into trouble.
“I’ve thought for a long time the youth of Westbrook needed something that was theirs,” said Poirier, who sat on the committee that worked to get the skate park built. “I’m a firm believer in giving young people something to keep them busy.”
The project came together after the city got enough donations to pay for the park components and a design company to lay them out. Flannery Properties donated $10,000 to the project to add to a donation of $75,000 Hannaford made in 2003 for improvements to Bicentennial Park, some of which will go for the skate park. Meanwhile, local businesses like White Brothers offered in-kind services.
Bruce Dyer, substance abuse counselor at Westbrook High, said the final approach to getting the project done began in the fall. He put up signs in the school for skaters to come to a meeting to discuss possible locations and set-ups for the park. The park committee met with the kids and local construction companies and a design representative from Skate Parks Inc., one of the bidders. They decided on a location, then the kids hashed out several possible designs for the park.
The kids loved being in on the design phase. “I thought it was cool they took the skaters’ input over the people who don’t use it,” said 17-year-old Josh Farrar, a junior at Westbrook. “Having the skaters design it is the way it should be.”
Doing it this way the kids got to choose the components to tailor the park to the style of Westbrook skaters. The park design and construction company will ultimately decide on the layout of the park based on their expertise, but the components and feel of the park will come from the kids.
“We focused mostly on street elements, more things that we would find in the city but not be allowed to skate,” said Burnham, who stressed the park design will be more realistic for Westbrook skaters’ abilities as well as style.
“What’s there will be used,” said 18-year-old senior Adam Cowsert.
On Monday the Westbrook City Council voted, through first reading, an easement on the Hannaford property to allow the city to build an access road to the park. The access road will make construction easier and, more importantly, allow emergency vehicles to drive right into the park in case a skater gets hurt. The council will vote final approval for the easement on second reading perhaps as early as Monday, May 29.
The four bids for design and construction received last Friday came from Child Scapes of Canada; SPC Skate Parks of Kennebunkport; American Ramp Company Inc. of Joplin, Mo.; and Skate Parks Inc. of Situate, Mass. Randy Peters of the Westbrook Recreation Department, who is handling the bids, said the park will most likely be concrete, which while harder than wood is smoother for skaters, extremely durable and quieter for neighbors.
“We think we’re going to make (the kids) a great park that’s bombproof,” said Peters.
According to Peters, the council should have a bid on the table for voting at their next meeting. Construction can start before getting a second approval on a bid, however. He said he expects a groundbreaking to take place soon after the council gives final approval to the easement. After that, the park could be built within a month.
A new skateboard park planned for Westbrook’s Bicentennial Park means teens looking for places to skateboard will no longer have to skate in places like the one pictured above. Known to skaters as “the sixes,” skating was banned there earlier this month. Send questions/comments to the editors.
