KILGORE, Texas — The Kilgore council has approved a plan to use a $50,000 anonymous donation in conjunction with city funds to install shade covers and build additional skating features at Kilgore Skate Park at Kilgore City Park.
“We have a donor, an anonymous donor, who is looking to help provide shade at the skate park,” City Manager Josh Selleck said at a recent council meeting.
Parks Director Ryan Riley delivered a presentation to council about the specifics of the project.
“We’ve got a deal going here where we can actually put some shade over our skate park located on Kay Street,” Riley told council members. “I took a couple of days to go down there and just look and see, and I was shocked and surprised at the amount of kids that actually use the skate park during the day. I think it would definitely be a benefit for us.
“The skate park gives these kids a place to go and something to do other than just hanging out doing things they shouldn’t be doing. I think this would be a very good project for us to look at.”
The project as planned involves erecting two shade structures inside the skate park. A 35-foot by 20-foot shade cover will be placed over the half-pipe at the park, and another 50-foot by 20-foot shade cover will be placed over some of the other skating structures.
“The second structure is going to cover our half-pipe area. That’s one of the primary ones that (skaters) use, so we’re going to put a specific cover towards that,” Riley said.
The plan will also include the construction of a skating structure called a grind box — also known as a “hubba” — that allows skaters to jump up and slide down a portion of the box on their boards and then jump back to the ground.
Read more from our newspaper partners, the Longview News-Journal.
