STARKVILLE – During the COVID-19 pandemic, Laura and George Dunn noticed their gardening tools routinely going missing only to discover that their young two sons had been taking them to build bike ramps in a nearby abandoned property.
So the Dunn family began collecting money to help fund construction of a skate park that would serve bikers, skateboarders and scooter riders, eventually raising about $2,000 they donated to the city.
Even though their sons are in high school now and neither Laura nor George skate, Laura said the family is excited to see their dreams finally come to fruition as the city looks to nail down design plans for a new skate park at the Sportsplex.
“You want your community to have different benefits to be able to be attractive to all different kinds of people,” Laura told The Dispatch.
Plans for the skate park have been underway since February, when the city received a federal grant that will cover 30% of the $400,000 project, which City Engineer Chris Williams expects to be complete by spring 2027.
Community members had the chance to give input on the design concepts for the park presented by Pillar Designs, which the city contracted to build the park, during a public meeting Wednesday at Travis Outlaw Center.
Three concepts were presented all with similar skate boarding features like quarter pipes and rails. Brad Siedlecki, president of Pillar Designs, told The Dispatch the main difference between the different concepts is the flow skaters would experience while working through the park.
Plan A would have seen the users skating back on forth. Plan B would have seen skaters traveling in a circular park promoting more movement. While Plan C, the favorite among attendees, is more street style with a mini-ramp separated out from the main part of the park.
Each of the three concepts include a two-phase design, with the first phase calling for a concrete park setup with areas for users to do tricks. The second phase could see an addition of a pump track, seating areas and further expansions. Current project funding will only cover the first phase.
“Several other cities have done multiple phases, two or three phrases to it,” Williams told community members during the meeting. “So that would be the same idea is, we can get this, show that everybody loves it. And then it might take us several years to try and get (a match) built back up but then we could go again.”
Siedlecki told residents his goal is to build a park that will appeal to all skill levels, bikes, scooters and skateboards while also maximizing what the city can offer on a tight budget.
“The idea is to design something that is accessible for everybody,” Siedlecki said. “But at the same time, the last thing I want to do is what you see (in) a lot of your above-ground steel parks. Once you skate it four or five times, (you’ve) got this place on the wood, and then what happens? It gets trashed. So I will always design for beginners, but I will always design for progression also.”
The proposed designs also include plans for the park to be shared by all ages of skaters.
Siedlecki said he intends to combine elements of Plan A and C, which garnered the most interest from community members Wednesday. He hopes to have finished within two weeks so construction can begin in November.
Prior to construction, Williams said the city needs to prepare the site with dirt work that was not included in the original budget. The additional $46,190.78 needed for the dirt work will come from the city’s 1% and 2% tourism tax revenue. The funding for the dirt work is on the consent agenda for the board of aldermen’s upcoming Tuesday meeting. With its approval, the work would begin next week, he said.
While Williams said a November start for construction might be optimistic, he expects construction will start before the end of this year with the park completed by the spring 2027 at the latest.
“I’m really excited to bring another part of the community to be able to (use) the parks,” Williams said. “To be able to serve another group of the citizens of Starkville I think it’s really exciting.”
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