Ellicottville Skatepark
Ellicottville Skatepark
Village awards design/build contract; first of two design meetings held
ELLICOTTVILLE - In 2018, a group of local skateboarders presented an opportunity to the Village Board of Ellicottville to build an outdoor concrete skatepark for public use. A year later, the Village applied for and was awarded a “Built to Play” matching grant through The Skatepark Project (TSP, formerly known as the Tony Hawk Foundation). Partnering with the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, TSP’s Built to Play grant offers qualifying western New York communities up to $250,000 in matching funds to apply towards the construction of said skatepark.
Following three years of advocacy and fundraising (amidst a pandemic), the Ellicottville skatepark committee (SK8EVL) has raised the funds needed and is moving on to the next phase - DESIGN.
Grindline Skateparks of Seattle has been hired to design and build the concrete park, which will be located in Ellicottville’s Village Park. Groundbreaking is planned for later this spring, with an anticipated completion date of October 31st of this year, if not sooner. Grindline’s senior project manager, Matt Fluegge, recently made the trip to visit the Ellicottville site and meet with village officials and the SK8EVL committee.
“We are excited to work with the Village and the local skateboarding advocates to build a quality, concrete park for the community,” Fluegge said. “Our design team understands the unique backdrop that Ellicottville is set in and we want to showcase a creative design to reflect that ski town vibe.”
To help with the design, Fluegge and the Grindline team posted an online survey, followed up with an in-person meeting hosted by Fluegge himself during his March 21st trip to Ellicottville. These two platforms invited local skaters and interested community members to provide their input on what they’d like to see in the park.
“The online survey provided skaters with photos of all the different types of features that you can find in a skatepark, and asked them to rate the features that they are most interested in,” explained Fluegge. “We’ll take those results, along with the community’s input from the in-person meeting, to create a conceptual design, which we’ll bring to the table at our second community meet-up, scheduled for later in April.”
Suggestions for park features ranged from a flow bowl, quarterpipe and pump track, to ledges, hips and down rails, just to name a few. The overall impression: plenty of transition balanced with a skate plaza style layout.
One local skater, William Benatovich, voiced his vision during the community meeting, which no doubt got the creative juices flowing amongst those in attendance. “When we discussed possible features to include in the skatepark, I had an idea for a rail or rails to imitate skis or a snowboard. I think this would be a great representation of Ellicottville’s rich history of skiing and snowboarding.”
Another idea, pitched by the Grindline team themselves, is to incorporate green circles, blue squares and black diamonds - just like what you see on the ski slopes - to reflect the various difficulty levels of the features within the park.
“We’re grateful for all of the community input we’ve received from that first design meeting,” said Brenda Perks, SK8EVL lead advocate, “and we’re excited to see what Grindline comes up with for an initial concept. We encourage everyone that attended the meeting, and also those who couldn’t make it, to mark their calendars for the 2nd community input meeting, when we’ll review the design that Grindline has come up with and make any final suggestions for change.”
The skatepark, once completed, will welcome everyone - local and from surrounding communities - at no charge. Skateboarders, quad skaters and scooters will have a safe space where they can be outdoors, practice their sport, and make new friends. SK8EVL, although they have raised the funds necessary to build, continue to accept donations in an effort to build the best skatepark possible.
“When we first applied for the Built to Play matching grant (pre-Covid), the average cost of a concrete skatepark was $50 per sq. ft.,” said Perks. “Based on the amount raised, this would have provided Ellicottville with a 10,000 sq. ft. facility. However, due to Covid and the rising cost of materials, the present-day cost to build a skatepark has increased to $75 per sq. ft., which means we are now looking at a 6,500 sq. ft. facility. All the more reason to continue to fundraise, so that we can get closer to that original 10,000 sq. ft. footprint.”
The 2nd community input meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 25th at Fattey Beer Co., Ellicottville. Stay updated: Follow @sk8evl on IG/FB.
Those interested in making a tax-deductible donation can do so through the Cattaraugus Region Community Foundation, where the Ellicottville Skatepark Fund is located, www.cattfoundation.org, or you can mail a check, payable to CRCF (Memo: Ellicottville Skatepark Fund), to PO Box 1077, Ellicottville, NY 14731. The SK8EVL committee is also selling commemorative bricks which will be installed in the walkway surrounding the skatepark. For an order form, email ellicottvilleskatepark@gmail.com or text/call 716-244-7573.