Committee Exploring Half Dozen Options For Framingham Skate Park

The Town of Framingham will open sealed bids this afternoon, Sept. 3, by designers to build the town’s first ever skate park.

After the bids are opened, the 11-member Skatepark Advisory Committee will be asked to evaluate the firms. The Committee is scheduled to meet tonight at 7 in the Parks & Recreation office on Union Avenue.

Over this past week, members of the Advisory Committee have been independently visiting a half dozen sites in Framingham to determine the feasibility of the property, as a potential skate park.

Sites on the short list, for now, (others could be added )include:

• Butterworth Park
• Temple Street Playground
• Mary Dennison Park
• 150 Irving Street
• Brophy Elementary
• Winch Street Park
  
• 618 Waverley Street

In August, the Committee took a field trip to Farm Pond park to explore the possibility of property, next to the Bocce courts, as a potential skate park.

In May, Town Meeting voted to move forward with plans to build a skate park in the Town of Framingham.

Town Meeting voted 124-4 to spend $50,000 to design a concrete skate park.

Estimated costs to build the concrete skate park is $250,000 to $450,000, and plans are to be submitted back to Town Meeting no later than 2016.

The Advisory Committee will look at several factors in determining the best location in town for the skate park. Those factors include: property ownership, zoning of the property, access to public transportation, within walking distance of targeted users, access for emergency vehicles, infrastructure, size of the property, room for expansion, proximity to neighbors, conservation issues, and other environmental concerns.

“I don’t want to tear down trees,” to build a skate park, said Committee member and Framingham Town Meeting member Michael Cannon.

Teen James McCarthy, a member of the Advisory Committee, said high on his list for a skate park location is one accessible to public transportation.

Advisory Committee Chair Jason Smith said the Committee will look at potential sites throughout town and not limit itself to one section of town.

Framingham Parks and Recreation Director James Duane at the last meeting on August 27, explained how a skate park could be located at Butterworth Park, as not to disturb the existing softball/baseball and soccer fields.

Smith, who was enthusiastic about Farm Pond during the field trip, said at the Aug. 27 meeting there may be issues with the Farm Pond site, that would make it expensive to locate a skate park there.

Smith told the Committee he was waiting to hear back from Framingham DPW Director Peter Sellers on some information, which he hopes to present to the Committee tonight.

Duane was expected to present the bids to the Committee tonight, which will not be publicly opened at 1 p.m., as well as make presentations on each of the other potential skate park sites visited by Committee members.