City Council

Harbor Springs skate park project is ready to kickflip in to action

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City staff and members of the Harbor Springs community announced the Ted Swarthout Memorial Skatepark Project during the city council meeting on August 2, 2021. 

The fundraising project, which was brought to the city by Sunny Wagner, aims to revamp the Harbor Springs SK8 Park to honor the vision of Swarthout, Sunny’s brother, who passed away earlier this year while awaiting an organ transplant. 

Parks Director Rachel Roon and Harbor Springs SK8 Park coordinator Nate Jacques led the presentation outlining Swarthout’s vision for the new park and the issues with the current park. 

Among other issues, Jacques said he believes the current state of the park is unsafe and financially challenging to maintain over time. 

The park, which is largely made up of wooden skate structures, has to be moved and reorganized every season and Jacques says that only contributes more to its wear and tear and lack of safety. “It is the biggest jigsaw puzzle of my life,” said Jacques. 

Not only are the structures difficult to maintain, but the asphalt surface they sit on can lead to even more challenges.  “Over time the surface has deteriorated so much that massive cracks, gaps, bumps and weathering issues have made safe skating next to impossible,” said Jacques. 

According to the presentation at the meeting, fixing the surface and replacing the wooden structures would require approximately $150,000, but the same issues would eventually come back. 

“Skatepark usage has increased over the years,” said Roon. “The locals are using it, the visitors are using it, so it’s something we really need to look at.” 

The solution, according to the project, is to transform the park to be made entirely from concrete. This will cut costs in staffing, maintenance and equipment while also eliminating many of the current safety issues. 

Evergreen Skateparks is a skatepark company from Portland, Oregon, who have made several parks across the country as well as several already in Michigan.

News

Meridian Township adds an -s to Family Winter Sport Weekend

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Meridian Township’s Parks and Recreation department expanded this winter its schedule of Family Winter Sports Weekends. What once was a program held in one weekend spans multiple weekends.

“When we first started out 18 years ago, we try to do just one big weekend,” said Mike Devlin, one of Meridian Township Parks and Recreation team specialists, “Now, every weekend we have something going on.”