Samual Cool, a student a EMU, comes to the skate park as a way to blow off steam after studying. Lily Merritt | Washtenaw Voice
By Catherine Engstrom-Hadley
Staff Writer
After the success of Ann Arbor’s skatepark, Trevor Staples of Built to Play Skatepark Grants, an initiative from the Tony Hawk Foundation, reached out to the Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation commission about working on a park in Ypsilanti. Now, the parks department is ready to get to work.
Staples is a former WCC student and Writing Center employee.
“People were reaching out to us saying ‘we love to skate, but the Ann Arbor skatepark is too far away from us and too hard to get to,’” said Meghan Bonfiglio, deputy director of the Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission.
The new park will sit across from the Ypsilanti Township Community Center.
“We started planning before we had a location,” said Bonfiglio. “Ypsilanti Township was able to donate the land to the project … because of the grants with the Tony Hawk Foundation and the Ralph C. Wilson Institute… we were able to present to the parks commission, who matched the grants, then Ypsilanti Township donated the property and agreed to maintain the park.”
Why a skatepark?
“It’s safer … the concrete is smooth, the concrete is hard and doesn’t have cracks. The seams match up enough so that the small hard wheels can roll over them smoothly. If you fall, you can slide instead of hitting rough pavement,” said Staples. “If you are skating on the handrails in front of the bank, the business owners aren’t going to like that; it may cause damage to the property—there are pedestrians and traffic. When you have a public skatepark, people can do their sport in a place that’s safe.”
The community is involved in every step of design for the Built to Play grant skateparks.
“The Tony Hawk Foundation grants require that skaters are involved in the process of design, so it meets the community’s needs. Often times the municipality decides what a skatepark is and then it doesn’t end up being what the users want, and it doesn’t solve any of the issues in the community,” said Staples.
Local skaters are invited to provide input at the design meetings while working with the parks department, New Line Skateparks design and the Built to Play team.
“I am blown away by the amount of time and effort the community has put into this project,” said Bonfiglio. “I always leave these meetings feeling so excited about this project.”
In Prospect Park, a do-it-yourself skatepark already exists and is maintained by the local skaters. It will remain.
“People put a lot of work into this space, and have told us they still want this here,” said Staples.
Anyone interested in helping plan the new skatepark, or getting a grant for a skatepark nearby can reach out to the foundation.
“There’s the need, there’s the want, and now there is the money for them,” said Staples.
Contact Built To Play and Trevor at trevor@tonyhawkfoundation.org or the Washtenaw County Parks commission at 734-971-6337 to find out more.
Learn more about the park, itself, on Instagram and Facebook at @washtenawcountyparks and @ypsilantitownship_skatepark
