Skateboard park to get upgrade with new ramps, jumps

Local skateboarders will soon have three new ways to practice their sport.
Nearly $20,000 has been set aside by the town for the purchase of three new pieces of equipment for the local skateboard park, the first step in a series of upgrades for the 10-year-old facility on Dufferin Street.
"We want them to have a nice park," said Rebecca MacLean, manager of programs and special events for Sackville's parks and recreation department. "It's an asset to the community, just like a soccer field or a baseball diamond is."
The new steel equipment will consist of a bank ramp, a double-jump box, and a spine - apparatus that was identified during discussions between skateboarders and recreation staff over the past year.
"They need a place that has the proper equipment to practice their sport," said MacLean.
The initial plan was to have permanent concrete structures installed in the park, she said.
However, with a recreation master plan currently being developed for the community, MacLean said that proposal was nixed in favour of movable equipment.
"We're not exactly sure whether the park will remain there. We're kind of in limbo right now," she said. "So we just thought it would be better to be flexible at this point."
Town council approved the purchase of the new equipment, which will come from The American Ramp Company at a cost of $19,997, during a special council meeting Oct. 20
The other wooden ramps and boxes currently in use at the skateboard park will be refinished for future use.
In a deal made several years ago, the local skateboard committee, along with the help of their parents, takes care of the repairs of the ramps while the town chips in with the materials.
When a bylaw was introduced in 1996 prohibiting the use of skateboards on town streets and sidewalks, the town set up a temporary park for skateboarders in the parking lot of Atlantic Wholesalers (now Moneris).
This served the purpose until the new $25,000 park was built in 1997 on Dufferin Street, a year after a group of local skaters approached town council asking for a safe and suitable place to enjoy their sport.