Popular Port skate park gets a $65,000 facelift

One of Port Washington’s most popular parks is getting a facelift this week, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed.

“There were kids out waiting to get on it,” Jon Crain, the city’s superintendent of parks and forestry, said of the skateboard park on Moore Road Tuesday.

They will have to wait a few more days to get out on the revamped skatepark, however. 

Crain said installation of the new equipment — a total of three ramps, including a halfpipe and quarterpipe — was expected to be completed Wednesday, but the existing equipment will then be sealed with epoxy to help extend its life.

“I expect it will be fully open by the weekend,” Crain said.

The skateboard park was initially created by the city in 2002, with parents and youths raising $15,000 to pay for the park and the city providing another $10,000 as well as the land across the street from the street department garage.

It was so well received that the city added some more challenging equipment a few years later.

“We’ve been really happy with how well used it is and how well the kids take care of it,” Crain said.

“It gets used hard. The equipment is expensive, but it really gets beat on.”

The park is used by a wide variety of people, from teens on skateboards to families with young children on scooters, he said.

Vandalism isn’t a problem in the park, Crain said.

“There’s a core group of kids who take ownership of the park and really look after it,” he said.

To accommodate the new equipment, which cost about $65,000, Crain said, the city expanded the park about 15 feet to the north.

Crain noted that there is only one company in the country that does above-grade skateboard ramps.
“Everybody seems to be switching to concrete bowls,” he said.

“I think eventually we’ll go that route.”

But, he said, that won’t be for a while since the new equipment is expected to last “a good long time.”

Crain said he hopes to have a grand opening for the park “in the near future.”