Park coming along

More work to be done on bike/skate park

Michael Alexander

NLJ Reporter

Progress has been made on the bike/skate park previously reported on in the June 13 issue of the News Letter Journal.

The park is a joint venture of Newcastle and Bent Sprockets, a local nonprofit trail organization. The park venture includes a memorandum of understanding between the two parties that clarifies their responsibilities. This MOU has allowed Bent Sprockets to begin preliminary dirt work, such as clearing trails and making jumps.

At present, the park, which is located on “three city lots along Salem Avenue and one lot in the cul-de-sac of Deanne Avenue,” is still in the early phases and has much work yet to be completed. However, enough work has been done to allow residents to make use of the park.

“We’ve had two community work days, and both were pretty successful,” said Jeremy Dedic, the chair of Bent Sprockets.

According to Dedic, 25-30 volunteers showed up on each of these occasions to help bring the park along. Each day, they worked for about three hours clearing paths and moving dirt to create a bike pump track. Dedic estimates that the bike path around the perimeter of the park and the walking path are nearly complete and that the pump track is about a third complete.

While pleased with the progress, Dedic stressed the importance of everyone being on the same page.

“We do ask that people not take motorized vehicles there, and we do ask that we don’t have anyone working independently,” he said.

Those requests are meant to ensure that any work is “wisely done” and that the trails are kept “safe and sustainable,” he said.

While the park is far from its envisioned completion, Dedic said he is encouraged by residents already making use of the trails.

“It’s cool to see kids out there riding and people out there walking,” he said.

Dedic said that the city is going to take some of the donations received and hire a designer to create a final blueprint for the park. The current dirt work may or may not remain after the park is completed.

“When the real design comes, we might be changing (the current trails), but … we’ll be able to use (them) as the community raises the money for the rest (of the park),” he said.

While much work remains, Dedic said he is very optimistic about the progression of the project and looks forward to the eventual completion of a bike/skate park that is suitable for everyone from beginners to more practiced trail riders and skateboarders.

To bring about an earlier completion of the park, Bent Sprockets welcomes more volunteers and donations, and heavy equipment operators are especially needed.