Phase 1 upgrades of Greenport skate park project proposed

The Greenport Skate Park has been in serious need of renovations for quite some time. At the village’s board of trustees’ July 17 work session, a proposal for Phase 1 of the upgrades was presented, offering some insight into what the park may become. 

Rena Wilhelm, president of Greenport Skate Park Inc., and Dominick Marcoccia of Marco Masonry Corp. shared images of the current park and renderings of what each part would look like after the changes. The proposal does not require expanding the park’s footprint at all.

“I came up with the best cohesive design for the Phase 1 area of the skate park, which is about 5,000 square feet,” Mr. Marcoccia said. “It caters to all levels of skaters, BMX riders and scooter riders — anyone who might be enjoying the park. ​​I think it’s going to bring a lot of traffic in.”

Mr. Marcoccia partnered with the skate park in April. He’s worked on several other skate parks and has been skateboarding for over 20 years, at hundreds of different locations. Starting even before the partnership, Ms. Wilhelm and the skate park have been holding events and raising money for the renovations. Over $100,000 has been raised so far, and the community was polled last year to see what specific things people wanted at the park.

The Phase 1 area is the eastern side of the park, not including the six-foot spine and 12-foot vert ramp, or half pipes, which the community revealed they wanted to see kept in the polls. There is currently a mini-ramp in the area, which will be removed, and it will be replaced with a new street course. The larger ramps will be rejuvenated after getting through Phase 2. 

Fencing around the park will need to be removed before construction starts and replaced with a temporary fencing structure. The perimeter fencing was a talking point long before the planning even started, with questions arising if the fences were even needed — or wanted — anymore.

“We had wanted to remove the perimeter fence even before we started planning, because it looks like a prison-style playground, and it gives a sort of negative connotation to skateboarding,” Ms. Wilhelm said. “However, [trustee] Mary Bess Phillips had brought up that the park was in such a condition that, based on insurance … if the park ever needed to be condemned … you could keep people out by keeping that fence up. I really hope we never get to that.”

“It’s going to be important to think about this for decades to come and to build it in such a way, knowing that we’re going to be dealing with more and more short periods and more intense rain,” Mayor Kevin Stuessi said. “And then also looking at the groundwater intrusion, which is a big issue back there.”

Mr. Marcoccia said that at a lot of skate parks, if the drain water is designed to run off the edge, there’s usually a trough with blue stones topped off with stone, which helps the drainage. He said there is one area in the park that does require a drain, and it doesn’t have the option anywhere in the current zone. 

During the construction, after everything is removed, the concrete ramp footings and foundation will be installed and the rough grading of the base will begin. After the final grading, the rebar and steel rails will be put in and the concrete will be poured in. All the steel would then be painted and the joints would be caulked, and the area would be cleaned. 

Once Phase 1 is completed, and before Phase 2 can begin, fundraising will have to start from scratch again. Ms. Wilhelm is hopeful that once members of the community see the vision and the progress from Phase 1, more will get on board for Phase 2.

“What I hopefully anticipate is that people will be so excited about Phase 1 that they’ll want the rest to be finished,” she said. “It’s already an overall eyesore, but then when you look at the potential when that goes in, I’m hoping that that’s enough.”