Nonprofit president Rena Wilhelm urged Greenport officials to cut through the red tape that has stalled a $125,000 project to upgrade the village skate park.
Ms. Wilhelm, head of Skate Park Inc., confronted trustees at their Jan. 15 work session after six months of no progress on proposed Phase 1 renovations of the park at 170 Moores Lane. The nonprofit has raised more than $125,000, almost entirely from North Fork residents and business owners, and secured a contractor willing to rebuild a major portion of the park for a fraction of typical costs.
But the project has been frozen since Ms. Wilhelm first presented it at a work session last July.
“What I’m asking for now is simple: a clear, direct path from this administration that allows Phase 1 of the renovation to proceed, and I am genuinely struggling to understand why this has not happened,” she said. “This is a win waiting to happen. Instead, our progress is stalled, and the message it sends to residents, to donors, to kids who use this park, is that this administration has not prioritized this project, no matter how much support it receives.”
Mayor Kevin Stuessi said the village must follow state prevailing wage laws, requiring engineered plans and a public bidding process where contractors are paid higher-than-standard rates.
“The challenge, of course, is building things under the state laws and adhering to prevailing wage, etc., is much different than just somebody wanting to go in and build something,” Mayor Stuessi said. “What I’d love to do is have somebody from the board, and we can do a smaller group meeting, and dive into this a bit more and see what more we can or cannot do.”
A potential solution emerged when Mayor Stuessi proposed applying for a state grant that could fund the entire skate park renovation — not just Phase 1. Trustee Mary Bess Phillips said she wants to put a resolution in place at the board’s Jan. 22 meeting to have the village’s grant agency work with the nonprofit to apply for the state’s Municipal Parks and Recreation Grant.
The grant could award up to $900,000 and cover 90% of a project’s total cost. The application deadline is Feb. 9.
Mayor Stuessi sent Ms. Wilhelm information about the grant on Jan. 8 to help bridge the funding gap for the entire skate park. Ms. Wilhelm said recently elected Southold Town Board member Alexa Suess also sent her the grant information and she spoke with Ms. Phillips about it.
Trustee Lily Dougherty-Johnson said the makeover is something they all want, and getting the grant to come alongside the fundraising would help.
Ms. Wilhelm said that from the beginning, she did not want the project to be a burden on taxpayers. She had raised over $100,000 by the time of the July 17 proposal.
“This is why we did this ourselves,” she said, adding that the annual North Fork Dog Dock Diving event last June raised $10,000 for the skate park.
“We have raised the money, we have secured a contractor, we have built trust among the families and kids who rely on the space, and we are ready to hand the village a revived, safer, modernized park on a silver platter,” she said. “All we need is your partnership.”
Ms. Wilhelm had requested that the issue be put on last Thursday’s work session agenda, but it was not, which “speaks volumes,” she said.
“I shouldn’t have to come here every month, or ask Kevin every single month, what we’re doing, because at that point I’ll just resign,” she lamented.
Last April, the skate park got a major shot in the arm when Dominick Marcoccia of Marco Masonry Corp. partnered with the park. Ms. Wilhelm said Mr. Marcoccia is donating so much — whether it be materials or labor — that they could potentially use the $125,000 for the prevailing wage. Or, she said, they can pay for the materials and the labor is donated, for example.
Phase 1 would renovate the eastern side of the park, about 5,000 square feet. The nonprofit would remove the current mini-ramp and replace it with a new street course that caters to all skill levels of skaters, BMX riders and scooter riders. The six-foot spine and 12-foot vertical ramp, or half pipes, would remain after a poll by community members.
Phase 2 would renovate the western side of the skate park.
Ms. Wilhelm took over the role six years ago to try to reverse the trajectory of the struggling park. She said that, along with volunteers, many issues were fixed by hand, with their own money.
Mayor Stuessi told The Suffolk Times that it is “unfortunate the park was so poorly maintained for over a decade, but now we have a chance to rebuild it in its entirety through the great efforts of Rena and the Skate Park Committee, along with the state grant.”