City of Ferndale (COF) officials have selected a skate park for their application for Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO) grant money specifically offered for youth athletic facilities.
COF officials recently were able to build Star Park, south of Pioneer Park, using primarily RCO grant money.
This year’s application will propose to construct a skate park with an estimated cost of $400,000 to $500,000. Applications up to $500,000 are accepted and only require 5% matching funds, unlike the typical 50% requirement for most other grants.
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Click for more informationCOF Communications and Special Projects Officer Riley Sweeney said in an email there were other prospective parks projects identified in the recently updated COF Parks Master Plan that could have been proposed in the grant application. According to Sweeney, these included “turf on Phillips 66 sports complex ($1-million) or a picnic shelter at Star Park ($150k) or a Spray Park ($200k).”
“We decided to pursue the skate park over other projects on our 20 year parks project list because of a few factors. The main reason was the amount of the grant (up to $500,000 – only requiring 5% matching) was a good fit for the Skate Park,” Sweeney said.
When asked what percentage of Ferndale families a skate park would be expected to serve, Sweeney said, “We don’t have hard numbers on potential usage of the park but we do regularly receive requests from the public for a skate park facility, especially since the two grinding bars were removed from Hastings Park next to the river. We have received over 74 unique comments in support of a potential facility since we began this process in February.”
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Click for more informationCOF officials are hosting a community meeting on April 12th regarding the proposed skate park in Ferndale. Skate Park designers Grindline Skateparks will be on hand. The meeting will be held from 5:30pm to 7pm at the Pioneer Pavilion Community Center.
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