Matt Alderson can remember a time when he and his buddies had to drive a couple of hours out of town to hone their BMX bike riding skills.
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That time will soon be coming to an end.
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Construction of the long-awaited, much-anticipated Waterford Skate Park is expected to begin, weather permitting, on March 15, 2024 and should be completed by the July long weekend.
“A lot of people are really excited about this, especially me,” Alderson, a BMX enthusiast, family man and Simcoe resident, said. “Me and my friends used to drive two hours – one way – on a weeknight to practice our skills.
“There were some good ones (parks) locally but if you really want to progress you need a top quality park close to home.”
The Waterford Skate Park will fill that need for the skate board, BMX and scooter enthusiasts in Norfolk County and the surrounding area.
An engineer with G. Douglas Vallee Ltd. in Simcoe, Alderson became involved in the Waterford Skate Park about a year ago. Fund-raising efforts for the park had been ongoing for a couple of years and Alderson provided some designs and drawings to ensure it’s a park that everyone can enjoy.
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“I grew up 10 minutes from Waterford and now I live in Simcoe,” Alderson said. “I’ve been riding BMX my whole life and I’m really looking forward to riding this park with my sons, Riley and Levi.”
The park will include 8,700-square-feet of skate park and about 5,000-square-feet of dirt jumps. It is being built on a vacant parcel of land adjacent to the Waterford Heritage and Agricultural Museum on Nichol Street West.
“We think this is a great location for the skate park,” Tom O’Hara, a member of the skate park committee, said. “This is a community use area.
“It’s close to the museum, the old railway building and the trail system.”
Parents will be able to leave their kids at the skate park while they enjoy a walk on the trail. Youths in the area will be able to ride their bikes, boards or scooters to the park, O’Hara said.
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Plans for a skate park in the town have been in the works for more than six years and were gaining momentum when the COVID-19 pandemic hit causing a delay.
When the pandemic ended, momentum to build the park gained traction. O’Hara and others are looking forward to it being done.
The budget for the park is $750,000 and the lion’s share has been raised. The only funds left to raise are for amenities including lighting, landscaping, trees, picnic tables and benches.
The park is being developed by Drop in SkateParks, who won the project through a competitive bidding process. It is being supported by G. Douglas Vallee Ltd., an architecture and consulting engineering firm based in Simcoe, and local surveying company, Jewitt & Dixon, Ltd.
“We’re eager to get going on the construction,” O’Hara said. “Our plan is to scrape off the dirt and have the site ready for the contractor so that when they arrive on site all they have to do is build the park.
“It’s going to be a multi-dimensional park that will accommodate skate boards, scooters, BMX bicycles for the young people of Waterford and all of Norfolk County.”
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