{"id":25464,"date":"2025-04-21T13:35:07","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T17:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=25464"},"modified":"2025-04-21T13:35:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T17:35:07","slug":"skate-park-opening-on-tap-tuesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/21\/skate-park-opening-on-tap-tuesday\/","title":{"rendered":"Skate park opening on tap Tuesday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decatur’s newest recreational facility is completed and ready for an opening ceremony<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The skate park at Short and Fifth streets (in North Ward Park, near the city pool) was recently finished by city workers and a ribbon-cutting ceremony has been scheduled for Tuesday at 3:15 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event will be open to the public and, Mayor Dan Rickard said, he expects some of the city’s young people who helped design the facility will be on hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work on the skate park, by city employees, began last May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some meager wooden equipment has been situated on the site for a number of years, but the new setup has produced considerable improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The cost was pegged at around $35,000, with federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly all of the new equipment \u2013 a halfpipe, quarterpipes, ramps, kickers, a pyramid, etc. \u2013 is made of concrete. The entire area got a new coat of asphalt last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Rickord pushed the idea starting last summer after seeing some young people on their boards \u201cwhere they shouldn’t have been skating,\u201d downtown, mainly around the courthouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He talked with some of the young people that evening, then brought them together with himself and Building\/Zoning Superintendent Curt Witte. Other meetings followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTheir attitude really changed once they realized we wanted to work with them,\u201d the mayor said later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey were impressed that we were genuinely interested in what they had to say and put a great deal of thought into the plans. Without the input of the skaters, the park would not have come to fruition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council gave its approval to plans prepared by Witte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The skate park joins a dog park, numerous pickleball courts, and other facilities around the city which have been added in recent years. Likely coming next is an improved disc golf course.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com Decatur’s newest recreational facility is completed and ready for an opening ceremony The skate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[17,14,15],"class_list":["post-25464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","tag-community","tag-decatur","tag-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25467,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25464\/revisions\/25467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}