Featured photo by Matthew Olson
Story by Matthew Olson
After years of anticipation and community advocacy, Nate Williams, director of the Murfreesboro Parks & Recreation department, cut the ceremonial ribbon to officiate the opening of a new skate park on July 19.
Williams considered multiple potential layouts for the park since planning began in 2021. The 12,000-square-foot skate park includes ramps, rails, ledges and stairs. A paved pump track extension consists of vertical bends, dips and rises. The rider gains momentum through “pumping” and laps back to the beginning, like a circuit.
On Jan. 25, the city council voted to contract New Line Skate Parks for the park’s construction. Along with design firm Griggs and Maloney, the city conducted public meetings to explore design possibilities.
“The really cool thing about this was the public input that we’ve had,” Williams said. “We had hundreds of people participate and say what they really wanted.”
The designer listened to them and came back with a plan that had been implemented, leaving both Williams and local skate enthusiasts satisfied.
In an exuberant show of community spirit and commitment to skateboarding culture, LRB Skate and Record Shop’s staff showed their admiration at the park’s opening. Owner Phil Doran watched beginning skaters learn how to fall and get back up while learning to drop in for their first time — just as he did once.
“This is just exciting to see all these kids and that everybody’s been waiting for this for so long,” said Doran. “Longer than we’ve been here.”
Skateboarders, bikers, inline skaters and scooterists all came to enjoy the long-awaited accessibility of the skate park. Members of the Murfreesboro action sports communities immediately began reaping the benefits of their new stomping ground.
Jesse Helton, a local skateboarder, emphasized the importance of safety and respect at the park.
“Skate park’s dope, man,” Helton said. “Be easy on the pump track because you can fall on your face. And don’t leave trash around here. Take care of it. We’ve been waiting 10 years plus. So, thank you, guys.”
Construction included an underground conduit in case the city wants to add lighting in the future. For now, the park hours are from dawn until dusk.
“We don’t have that funded,” Williams said. “But, you know, we do think towards the future for stuff like that. So that will happen at some point, but we wanted to make sure we could just get the skatepark up and going.”
Matthew Olson is a contributing writer for MTSU Sidelines.
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