City begins renovation of Monroe skate park

Monroe officials gathered last week to celebrate Board and Blade Skate Park renovations, which are now underway at Lake Tye.

The ground-breaking ceremony was held Thursday, April 7, at Lake Tye Park. The $270,000 project is being funded through a $120,000 matching-fund grant from the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office and supplemented with money from the Monroe Parks Department Capital Improvement Fund. The park will be closed during the renovations and re-opened sometime in July.

The event was attended by Mayor Geoffrey Thomas, Sen. Kirk Pearson, Monroe city councilmembers Patsy Cudaback, Jim Kamp, Jeff Rasmussen, Kirk Scarboro and Jason Gamble, the Monroe Chamber of Commerce, Monroe city staff and Monroe Parks Board members.

The new skate park will replace a project that was completed in 2002, Thomas said, with the former obstacle ramps to be repurposed for possible use by another agency. He thanked city staff for their dedication to the project, the state for its grant award and volunteers Aris Williams and Todd Yingling, who worked on the park's early concept design. The city then contracted with architectural design firm Grindline Skateparks Inc., which prepared the final engineering construction design documents and will construct the project.

"I thank skate park development volunteers Todd Yingling and Aris Williams. I thank them for their time and work to develop a concept design for a new skate park,GÇ¥ Thomas said. "I also thank our city staff for their hard work and seeing this project to fruition.GÇ¥

Williams, a professional skateboarder and skate park designer, said he drew the initial designs on paper and Yingling used computer-aided design (CAD) to digitize his work.

"The one thing I did when I designed the park was I designed it with flow and consistency, so that you could skate both directions and know what velocity you're supposed to move at,GÇ¥ Williams said.

The park will accommodate all levels of skateboarders, he said, and be good for beginners.

"It's a great park to learn at; it has a street feel to it,GÇ¥ Williams said.

Yingling said he worked on the project in memory of his friend Gabriel Mason Hobbs, who passed away in September 2011. He and Hobbs spent countless hours skateboarding around Monroe, Yingling said, long before Monroe even had a skate park. Hobbs' parents attended the ceremony in their son's honor.

"I would just like to thank everybody that was involved in the project and my dear friend, Gabriel Hobbs,GÇ¥ Yingling said. "I started this work and undertook it in his memory.GÇ¥

The city is looking forward to additional Monroe Parks Department enhancements at Lake Tye, Thomas said, including concession and stage improvements and replacement of the playground facilities. Additionally, the city will continue to seek funding opportunities to help facilitate other projects, including renovations of the soccer field and south ballfield with synthetic turf.

For more information about the new skate park, please visit Thomas' Facebook page at www.facebook.com/MayorThomas360.