After a long winter, the Barrhead skateboard park is showing its wear.
The ramps and jumps, which sit in what used to be the town’s tennis courts, have seen better days. However the facility won’t stay this way for long.
A cleanup day has been scheduled for next month, and Barrhead Parks and Recreation department is calling out to community youth to join them.
The work bee is set for May 3 weather permitting, with a backup date of May 10. The entire site will be cleaned and pressure-washed, and the existing equipment will get a new paint job.
Director of Parks and Recreation Sue Keenan is eager to get youth involved in the clean up of the area, as well as painting of the equipment. This way, she said, users of the park could have some part in bringing it to life.
“We know that with the weather changing, kids are going to be out there,” said Keenan. “My feeling was, and the team’s feeling was, if we got the youth involved in actually getting the site together, that they would take a little bit more pride and respect for it.”
Come the clean up day, Keenan and Brandy Siegert from the recreation department, along with the recreation staff will be on site to help out. Both Town and County councillors have been invited to attend as well.
“We’re really trying to make it a community event. We know there are kids from both the town and county that utilize the skateboard facility,” said Keenan. “We really want to get everyone involved and behind it.”
Keenan said one of the future goals for the park is looking into getting some kind of corporate sponsor, like a skateboard shop. For now though, the objective is to get the skate park up and running smoothly.
Currently the recreation maintenance crew is working on assembling all of the ramps, which will be completed over the next couple of weeks
Once the ramps have been put together, Keenan said the crew will address the materials on the ground.
“There is a rubberized mat because it used to be a tennis court,” she said. “We’re looking at scraping all of that off and putting some kind of a concrete coating on it to give the kids more traction for their skateboards.”
