|
from The Telegraph
July 2, 2006
Opening of skate park delayed
Hellrung remains closed another three months
By LINDA N. WELLER
The Telegraph
ALTON -- New skate park equipment arrived at Hellrung Park in March, but eager skateboarders will have to keep looking at the ramps, "H" pipe and other pieces from afar for yet another three months.
The entire park, including the skate park, remains closed.
It was to reopen by Friday, according to grant requirements. However, the extensive renovation work is not done -- or completely bid out yet -- so its "grand reopening" will be closer to Sept. 30.
"We are not going to open only part of the park," said Mike Drake, executive director of the Alton Park and Recreation Department. "We got an extension until Sept. 30 from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources."
Drake said last winter’s wet weather caused water to settle in the bottom of the park and delayed the work by 60 to 90 days.
The skate park is on the south end of the park, which is in the middle of Central Avenue, Union, Brown and East Seventh streets in the Mexico neighborhood.
The city has yet to award bids for a retaining wall; bids for fountains came in too high, so those features will be put in later, if at all.
Last week, workers from Belleville Fence Co. were putting up an 8-foot-tall, vinyl-coated chain-link fence around the skate park area. It will have a turnstile to keep out bicycles.
During the past couple of years, the city filled in the sub-grade hole that was Hellrung, then put in a basketball court, backboards and nets, picnic shelter and two sets of playground equipment. It also will get sidewalks, plantings and a community garden.
The city closed the park at the beginning of the improvement process. Police have had to chase out skateboarders who climbed over the short, orange warning fence to try out the equipment. Now that a tall, chain-link fence is being put up, Drake said the city will prosecute anyone who climbs over it, pulls it away at the bottom or otherwise damages the fence to get inside.
The Department of Natural Resources had set a deadline for all the work to be completed by June 30. The state agency provided the $228,000 matching grant, which is covering the bulk of the $450,000 to $500,000 renovation cost.
The rest of the funding is: $90,000 from the city; $100,000 from the Metro-East Park and Recreation District sales tax; and $20,000 from The Siedlund Co. of St. Louis, which put in Hampton Place and Hampton Place extension homes in the area.
Consultant Wayne Freeman and the Tony Hawk Foundation, both of St. Louis, each provided $5,000, and the Bank of Edwardsville donated $2,500. The state Urban Forestry program also gave the city $5,000 for tree purchases for the park, for which the city also obtained an extension.
Another grant, this time for $20,000, may be forthcoming, Drake has said.
lnweller@hotmail.com
|
