Construction of State College’s first skate park likely delayed as fundraising continues

Courtney Benedetto
·2 min read

State College’s proposed action sports skate park, High Point Skatepark, may have to push back its construction timeline from 2023 to 2024 to raise more funds.

Since 2018, former, local and professional skateboarders have collaborated with the borough and New Line Skateparks, a skate park construction and design team, to build State College’s first-ever all-wheel skate park designed for skateboards, BMX bikes, roller blades and more. It would be located at High Point Park, off Whitehall Road.

Kim Faulds, a representative from the skate park volunteer committee, said at Monday’s State College Borough Council meeting that the volunteer committee is still in need of $900,000 to build the skate park. The project has raised a total of $1,046,000 out of the $1.9 million it needs.

According to Gordon Kauffman, a lead volunteer for the skate park, the committee needs $1.5 million to secure a spot in New Line’s construction schedule for 2023, and the remaining funds can come in later. If the project receives enough grants before New Line’s schedule is finalized this spring, there’s still a possibility construction will begin in August, but that’s unlikely.

“We’re very optimistic, but we’re also trying to be realistic,” Kauffman said.

If the funding isn’t made available in time, the new project timeline involves breaking ground in the summer of 2024 for a grand opening three months after the start of construction. Faulds said 2024 is a definite goal to avoid the expiration of some of the existing grants.

“All we can do is just take it one step at a time,” Kauffman said. “I will say I’ve just been so proud of the community coming together on the fundraising campaign.”

Since starting the campaign in October, Kauffman said 140 unique gifts from various community members have totaled $25,000.

Kauffman also said the borough is now helping the volunteer committee with grant writing, which will help the project secure more funding.

The project is looking for potential grants from ARC Development and the Happy Valley Adventure Tourism Bureau, as well as fundraising efforts within the community and support from Centre County.

The volunteer committee is accepting donations through its website, highpointskatepark.com.

“We want everybody to feel accepted in this space and let them know that all of this planning is for everyone,” Faulds said.