BERLIN – Town officials appear to be poised to select Heron Park as the preferred location for a skate park in Berlin.
Tony Weeg, founder of We Heart Berlin, the nonprofit that has been working toward bringing a skate park to Berlin, announced this week that the Berlin Town Council was expected to vote on a motion to make Heron Park the site of a skate park on Aug. 14.
“As you can imagine it’s a big day for our community,” Weeg said this week. “We learned through a committee meeting the intention of the mayor and council to make a motion of support for Heron Park being the location of the Berlin Skate Park. This designation and future home of the park becoming a reality enables us to kick flip into high gear a fundraising campaign.”
On Monday, a small workgroup made up of elected officials, town staff, parks commission members and We Heart Berlin members met to review the 2023 Spohn Ranch skate park study as well as the 2022 BEACON study. The group, which is only expected to convene a few times, met with the goal of offering a site recommendation to the Berlin Town Council.
We Heart Berlin has been focused on bringing a skate park to town since early 2022. In May, the group presented the town with a skate park design study by Spohn Ranch that evaluated Stephen Decatur Park, Henry Park and Heron Park as potential locations. That study designated Stephen Decatur Park — specifically the area near the pond — as the best location after looking at factors such as visibility, accessibility, infrastructure and environmental impact.
At this week’s meeting, however, concerns were shared from members of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church regarding the potential location of the skate park. Parishioners said they were worried about the potential for noise and the close proximity of the proposed skate park to the cemetery.
Members of the workgroup quickly came to the consensus that Heron Park would be a better location. Though town officials have been talking about selling a portion of the park property, in recent weeks they’ve made it clear the parcel being considered will only be parcel 57, not parcels 410 or 191, which are behind Croppers Towing and now being eyed for a skate park.
“I am most excited about Heron Park because it has something the rest of our land does not, existing impervious wasteland blight,” Weeg said. “With that thought comes the fact that that area already handles storm water and we wouldn’t be adding any new impervious area, we’d be building on top of it. Lastly, all of this should probably come on in parallel with existing and possible new ideas of what amenities should be in that park in whole, so that we don’t box ourselves into any corners. That being said, right now the only park amenity that has a funding engine is the skate park. So once we sort of put some puzzle pieces together and loosely understand what a good layout of that whole park would be, I’d hope we could begin to realize the actual skate park in real life.”
Councilman Steve Green, one of the workgroup members, confirmed that the full council was expected to be presented with a recommendation at the Aug. 14 meeting.
“The full consensus of the work group and the parks commission was for Heron Park to be the site,” Green said in a statement. “Choosing a general location will allow We Heart Berlin to move ahead with its planned grant requests while the town can parallel seek funding through state programs. Selecting the site will be huge. I personally would like a skate park to be included in the future visioning of the Heron Park property, particularly the nine-acre parcel 410. The full Mayor and Council will be asked officially to commit the skate park to Heron Park. Where exactly it will be developed will be decided in the future. This decision will allow those concerned about Decatur Park to understand that site is out. The skate park has been discussed in Berlin since I was a teenager, so I am excited about a step being taken toward making it a reality with a general site commitment.”
Mike Wiley, chair of the Berlin parks Commission and another member of the workgroup, said its initial meeting went smoothly and he was glad to see progress made.
“It went well,” he said. “I was very pleased we were able to come to a conclusion. Everyone seemed to be happy with the compromise.”
Weeg is hoping to see skateboarders in attendance at the Aug. 14 meeting to show support for the project. He’s currently hoping construction of the skate park, which would be located in front of the sledding hill at Heron Park in an area already covered with concrete, will begin in 2024.
“Skateboarding will no longer be a crime in town, rather it will be welcomed in a beautifully designed and designated spot,” he wrote on Facebook. “As we plan the Berlin Skate Park holistically many things will be taken into account, and a lot of public input will happen alongside our partner, Spohn Ranch Skateparks. It will fit in a space full of other park amenities someday, and all of that will be taken into account in a big design.”
