Out with the old and in with the new.
Work is underway on the City of Auburn’s new skate park. Speaking with Finger Lakes News Radio, Auburn Senior Planner Renee Jensen said construction began in earnest three weeks ago and great progress is being made.
“They started off first with excavating and leveling the ground and if you were to stop by today you could see the the footprints laid out for the skate park,” Jensen said. “Then the next steps, which I think they’ll be starting this week, is starting to build up forms for some of the ramps, and then concrete will go in.”
The original skate park, which is adjacent to the site of the new one at Casey Park, was dismantled in the spring and turned into a staging area for the new park. The pavilion will remain and be incorporated into the new skate park though. It is anticipated that the city will do work on the pavilion as well.
Back in April, the city accepted $150,000 from the Emerson Foundation for the park. Grindline Skateparks Inc of Seattle, Washington was also awarded the contract for its construction. Additional funds were received in June when the city received $25,000 from the Metcalf Foundation and $10,000 from the DE French Foundation for the project.
Jensen added that the new park will be 10,000 sq ft, roughly 50% larger than the approximately 6,500 sq ft original.
It was originally hoped that construction would be finished in October. According to Jensen, however, unforeseen delays related to insurance set the project’s start day back. A new completion date, dependent on the weather, has been set for December 30. Jensen believes that the construction team is ahead of schedule and foresees completion as early as December 1.
She also noted that the community’s input and support have been critical in getting this project off the ground.
“It was really great that the community was such an advocate for it which makes it an even bigger project,” Jensen said.
A formal ribbon cutting for the estimated $940,000 skate park has been planned for spring.
