MANCHESTER, NH – A public meeting was held at the Cashin Center on the evening of Wed, Nov 20, 2024, for the purpose of discussing a planned skateboard park proposed for Wolfe Park, west of the Dairy Queen on the city’s West Side. This skateboard park has the very real possibility of becoming an economic engine for the West Side and indeed the whole city, drawing visiting families from the entire region and beyond, who will visit the park and will also dine in restaurants, shop, visit art museums, and take in other activities.
Skateboarding is today a multi-generational activity with diverse participants from all regions, genders, and ethnicities. Meeting participants emphasized many positive aspects of skateboard culture, such as diversity, inclusiveness, being an unstructured activity, lacking teams and designated coaches, including plenty of informal mentors.
The meeting was opened by Kate Waldo, Park Project Manager. Following her introduction, Alderman Bill Barry of Ward 10 mentioned that Wolfe Park’s existing Little League fields are being underutilized, “so it’s a great opportunity to put the skateboard park in, and … make this hopefully the best skateboard park in New England.” He added, “This isn’t just for ward 10, it’s not just for the West Side, but it’s for the whole city.”
The meeting was attended by roughly 30 engaged stakeholders, where “stakeholder” means a skater, or parent of one or more skaters, at the park. It became clear during the discussion that many of those present had skated throughout Manchester and surrounding communities, and many still skate today, sometimes together with their kids.
Barry added that one of Wolfe Park’s Little League fields will be retained and revitalized, then handed the presentation over to Bob Duval, Chief Engineer of TFMoran, the prime contractor for the Wolfe Park projects.
Skatepark within larger context of Wolfe Park projects
According to Duval, the city has had many improvements underway at Wolfe Park for a while. Recently they greatly improved the existing basketball courts. Later the meeting’s audience confirmed that those basketball courts are seeing a lot of use, though the lighting still needs additional improvement. Other projects planned for Wolfe Park include:
- reconditioning existing softball field
- added parking
- pickle ball courts
- horseshoe pits
- bocce
- cornhole
- expanded playground
- walking trail around whole area
All of these projects have yet to pass through the gauntlet of the budget process. That is expected to happen next spring.
Duval described this set of projects as “something for everybody.” He added, “We hope to make Wolfe Park a jewel among the city’s parks, and it sounds like the skate park could be a jewel within Wolfe Park.”
For the skateboard project design, TFMoran will utilize the firm of Nor’east Skateparks in Auburn ME.
Nor’east Skateparks presentation & discussion
Below is some background taken from Nor’east’s website.
Owned and operated by Chris Hogan and Keith Powers, two lifelong skaters and friends from Nashua, New Hampshire. Our passion for skateboarding was centered around the David W. Deane skatepark in Nashua, a facility that was built in 1999. It was far ahead of it’s time in its design and construction, as concrete parks were a rarity for our area. It attracted skaters from all over New England and far beyond. More importantly it created a strong community of friends and family that is still growing strong today. This park fueled our passion for traveling to skateparks all over the world and led us both to choose careers in skatepark construction. For the past 10 years we have been traveling the country and the globe honing our craft, building parks and communities. Our goal is to offer our knowledge, skills, and passion to our local area to create spaces that will positively affect the lives of young people and pay forward what we were so lucky to have.
Hogan and Powers emphasized that they still skate. They have built about 120 parks, and have skated in about 2,000. Yes, two thousand. My knees go weak!
Nor’easter’s previous projects can be viewed on their website. Among them:
- Newport, RI, at about 18,000 square feet
- Ludlow, VT, at about 4,000 square feet
- Derry, NH, Alexander-Carr Park at about 10,000 sqare feet
- Freeport, ME, not yet completed
Note that the Manchester park will be larger than any of those, at an estimated 20,000 square feet.
After introducing themselves, Hogan and Powers transitioned into a Q&A session and/or dialog with the audience to elicit input about what could make this project a success, what is needed, and what should be avoided. Below are some items that came up:
- Since the skate park site was formerly a ball field, the terrain is very flat. Hogan and Powers had some concern that drainage might present some challenges, and noted that upcoming soil tests will help get a handle on that.
- Many audience members had high praise for the Derry Alexander-Carr park.
- The audience was emphatic that lighting will be needed for nighttime skating. Ideally the lighting will not shut off w/o warning, which could lead to injury.
- Parking needs to be sufficient for all the planned activities.
- Shade and/or cooling could be needed in summer.
- Audience was enthusiastic about including some version of, or reminiscence of, Manchester’s “Wave Ledges” at Stanton Plaza – the intersection of Pleasant & Elm streets, in front of the Double Tree hotel. This seemed to be a happy shared memory for many of them.
- Audience said that Wolfe Park’s revitalized basketball courts are already getting a lot of use.
As the meeting drew to a close, Bob Duval of TFMoran summarized important items that he had noted during the discussion:
- include references to historic Manchester
- consider a graffiti wall
- sight lines are important
- must be sufficiently done in December to start estimating
- final design probably won’t happen until April
- light is important
- street stuff is important
- shade is important
- brick accents
- tribute to Amoskeag falls
- wave rail
- cooling
Finally, an audience member added: “Visit other parks in the area, identify things you like and things you DON’T like, then let Nor’easter know.”
What comes next?
Mark Gomez of the Parks Department summarized where we are in the process.
“We’re very much in conceptual design phase right now, and once the conceptual design is finalized, we’re going to be putting cost estimates for each of the elements of the design together, that’s what our consultant is doing, and then we will make a proposal to the Mayor and Board of Aldermen as a whole to fund the project.
“That might proceed over several years in phases, it really depends on the price tag, and what kind of funds are available.
“That’s where we are.
“The goal is to have the conceptual design and the cost estimates really worked up by next month, and then we’re going to go into a budget process for fiscal year 2026, which begins July first, and the budget is usually settled somewhere between March and May, sometimes into June, but that’s when the work will go into figuring out how much funding there is, what elements of the proposed design we can move forward with, and how quickly we can move forward with it.”
In summary:
(1) More planning and design work
(2) Cost estimation work
(3) Budget process, in spring of 2025
Those steps will probably then be followed by work to adjust to the realities of budget limitations. Watch this space for updates.
Summary
I have seldom seen a group of 30 or so citizens so positively engaged by a city presentation. It was energizing to witness.
After the official close of the meeting, I spoke casually with two other participants, both 40+ year old skaters. One, a Manchester resident, will be traveling this weekend with his daughter to visit a specific skate park in New Jersey near Princeton. In conversation they emphasized the positive aspects that keep them attuned to skateboard culture, and which were mentioned above: diversity, inclusiveness, unstructured activity, informal mentors.
In summary, I was surprised and impressed by the engagement of this skating community. Why surprised? Perhaps I should not have been. Mostly it stems from my own ignorance. I have never spent much time around the skateboarding community. After hearing them speak for a while, it dawned on me that they were, unsurprisingly, very much like any other community centered around a shared activity. Like skiing. Or hunting. Or surfing. They have their own lingo and their own culture. And I would say it’s a culture that can benefit our larger community.
You can watch a recording of this meeting here via Manchester Public TV.