BRISTOL — Progress is rolling along on efforts to transform Bristol’s skatepark at a cost estimated at $800,000, including deconstruction of the current park.

The Bristol selectboard in June 2023 agreed to allocate up to $140,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to renovate the skatepark, and a major fundraising push is planned.

Community members are working to revamp the skatepark next to the Bristol Hub Teen Center on Airport Drive, aiming to create a long-lasting recreation area with an eye toward accessibility and inclusivity.

The goal is to construct a new concrete park that, if all goes to plan, could be completed in the next couple of years. Community members on April 3 will gather at the Bristol Hub Teen Center at 6 p.m. for a final design meeting with Nor’Easter Skateparks, the firm with which locals are working to design a remodeled skatepark.

“We’re just really excited about this project,” Bristol Hub Director Taylor Welch-Plante told the Independent. “As someone that’s been kind of dug into this for a couple of years, I’m really excited that things are moving forward, and it’s feeling like we’re going to have a concrete skatepark, which is so huge.”

The Hub is working in collaboration with the Bristol Recreation Department and the Bristol Recreation Club on the skatepark project. The rec. club owns the property on which the skatepark is sited.

PROJECT BACKGROUND

The town’s skatepark was created in 2000.

“Over the course of time small improvements have been made, and small additions of more asphalt, repainting, different things have been rebuilt or moved,” Welch-Plante said. “But ultimately, it is a skatepark of asphalt, wood, skatelite and steel, which are not really designed to be outdoors or permanent. I think over the 25 years it’s been here it’s been really well established that this is a very important, permanent feature of our community and surrounding communities.”

Welch-Plante noted the skatepark’s significant role during the pandemic, when many residents used the facility as a source of entertainment and an outdoor gathering spot.

Work on the skatepark, such as developing a new section for younger users, emerged as one of the projects supported by the community and recommended for funding by Bristol’s ARPA Advisory Committee.

Residents unanimously backed the decision to move forward with construction of a concrete skatepark at an initial town-wide meeting about the project last year.

“(That decision) is awesome, but adjusts the overall costs and planning of the park significantly,” Welch-Plante explained. “But it will ultimately lead to a permanent and easier to use and really great asset to the community.”

SKATEPARK DESIGN

The town released a Request for Proposals for the design of a new skatepark and picked Maine-based Nor’Easter Skateparks.

Nor’Easter has held a couple of design meetings with local residents in recent months. Welch-Plante said around 30 people attended an introductory gathering this past January, during which Nor’Easter co-owners Chris Hogan and Keith Powers explained the process and attendees had an opportunity to ask questions.

Nor’Easter also posted a virtual survey ahead of the meeting that allowed community members to offer feedback. The survey drew around 30 responses.

At a second design meeting this past February, residents reviewed and commented on three potential designs.

“That was great; there was a lot of conversations about how the overall park is going to be laid out,” Welch-Plante recalled.

She noted one goal of the project is to include cement paths from the sidewalk to the skatepark and from the Hub’s existing sidewalk to the nearby pavilion, to increase access to the area.

“To make it so that, (for) community members that are coming with their kids and strollers or maybe walkers, it’s easier to get to that place and be able to sit down and watch their grandkids, or maybe they’re using a wheelchair that can go on the skatepark and so it’s easier to get there,” she explained. “Just trying to increase accessibility in general.”

Welch-Plante said community members have been discussing the dual role the pathways will likely play — as a place for residents to walk and for skaters to ride on — and how to balance those uses.

Other topics that have come up at design meetings include the skatepark’s visibility from the road.

“One of the things we’re really excited about for the skatepark is it’s going to act as its own art piece; a set-in-the-ground, permanent art piece that’s going to be amorphous and beautiful and rolling and blend with the environment as best it can,” Welch-Plante said. “So, we’re really excited for that to be something that can be seen from the road.”

She said residents have discussed where the highest features of the park will be, and if those structures would block the view from the road and ways to navigate that aspect of the design.

“We want to highlight this really cool commitment that the community has made to this culture of people that is often underserved or pushed off,” she said.

FUNDRAISING

At the upcoming April 3 meeting, Welch-Plante said community members will review a final design incorporating residents’ feedback and have one more opportunity to offer input and edits.

After that, town officials will have access to final designs and construction documents for the new skatepark. Welch-Plante said the next phase of the project will focus on fundraising, with the goal of having a good portion of needed funds secured before releasing an RFP for the building process.

Welch-Plante noted fundraising is already underway to cover the $800,000 projected cost, with the Vermont Community Foundation and local residents having chipped in. The town has also applied for a grant through the state’s Land and Water Conservation Fund, a process that included a partnership with the Bristol Recreation Club to explore the granting of a public access easement if funds are awarded.

Those interested in supporting the project can donate through the Bristol Recreation Department’s website or by sending a check to the town of Bristol with “skatepark donation” in the memo. The team also welcomes in-kind donations, such as materials for the new park.

She said the team has some other plans for fundraising as well. Profits from the inaugural Gitaskog Skateboard Film Festival being held in town this upcoming July will go toward the skatepark renovation project.

Community members plan to host music events and skate jams that could help raise additional funds for the effort.

“We’re really excited to work with everyone and all the creative people in and around Bristol and the other towns and make some really fun things that celebrate all the successes of the skatepark and how much it’s meant to people for 25 years and the really exciting prospect of this new, one-of-a-kind, really nice concrete skatepark,” Welch-Plante said.

The team’s goal is to see the new skatepark built in the next couple of years; Welch-Plante said that timeline is dependent on fundraising.

She noted a similar effort is underway in Middlebury, where members of the Middlebury Skatepark Project are seeking to build a concrete skatepark in the town’s recreation park.

“Collectively, those that support skateparks in this area are so excited by the prospect of two concrete skateparks in nearby towns where there have otherwise been none; the idea that it can draw people down here and highlight what a beautiful area Addison County is and how great Bristol and Middlebury and Vergennes are,” Welch-Plante said.

“We’re just really excited about making this a center where people see it as a place to travel to hang out at skateparks, but that is not really what it is right now and that’s a really cool change,” she continued. “Outdoor recreation is such a huge pivot-point of the culture of Vermont, so bringing more opportunities where there are these public, outdoor resources where people can recreate at really low costs and explore this action sport is going to be really good for all the communities.”