O'boro Parks and Rec board puts unanimous support behind skate park | News

OWENSBORO, KY (WFIE)- New Thursday night from Owensboro. The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board voted unanimously to recommend building a skate park in Owensboro, but where and at what cost?

The board also decided that the park needs to be made of poured concrete, something skaters say is a must.

Hearing that the Parks Advisory Board is in support of a skate park being built in Owensboro is music to Elliott Carter's ears.

"We've felt like this is the most progress we've seen so far and we're just ready to get the ball rolling on this," Carter said

"They basically convinced us there's a lot of people in this community that would really benefit from it. There's a lot more kids going it than I thought and not just kids, young adults," said Mike Fagan with the Parks Board.

The board also decided a poured concrete park would be the way to go, similar to Bowling Greens.

"I like Bowling Green's facility. I don't want the exact same park because we want to have our own identity. With poured concrete the park won't deteriorate. It'll last a lot longer," Carter said.

"With a majority of this park being concrete to maintain a slab of concrete, obviously is a lot cheaper to maintain than a portion of turf," said Director of Parks and Recreation Amanda Rogers.

Park officials estimate the park would cost just over $1 million to build at about 25,000 square feet and it would cost about $4,400 a year to maintain. Other park directors tell Owensboro leaders their skate parks are popular in the community.

"It's one of his top five utilized parks," Rogers told 14 News.

The next step the board will tackle is where to build the park. So far, the top two locations are Moreland Park and 911 Allen Street.

"I think they're pretty good locations. They seem to be more central. With Moreland, you have other sports facilities around," Carter noted.

That the board has decided it wants a park, the next step is to form a recommendation to give to the city commission at August's work session.

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