Oak Hill breaks ground on significant city park upgrade

Oct. 2—OAK HILL — This time next year, city park will have a lot more to offer to residents and visitors alike.

Late last week, city officials and stakeholders gathered to break ground on a significant upgrade to Oak Hill City Park. Utilizing nearly $2 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds, the city will introduce a skate park to the city park layout, as well as making improvements to the baseball and softball fields, installing a basketball court and completing other renovations.

"We're all very excited about this project finally starting," said City Manager Damita Johnson. "We're looking forward to the completion of it."

Mayor Charles Briscoe called it "a great day for the city" and "a great day for our children."

The first round of the multi-phase endeavor is being overseen by Veritas Contracting, with The Thrasher Group providing engineering and other services, and American Ramp Company charged with designing and building the skate park. Demolition was done in recent weeks to clear the path for the first stage of work.

"Our city park, a former fair ground, was acquired by the city in 1950 and has been a long-standing beacon of outdoor recreation in this community," Briscoe said. "Thousands of Oak Hill residents and residents of neighboring communities have grown up playing baseball on these fields behind me, football on the field next door, playing on the playground equipment or simply enjoying the open space and fresh air.

"Today we build upon that long history to make new memories for thousands more children in generations to come."

"This project was started in March of 2022 and has been a collaborative effort of many groups of people, including former council, current council, city administration, Oak Hill Public Works staff, community members, representatives of the Oak Hill Little League, Camp Royal staff, Thrasher Engineering, American Ramp Company, and now we're joined by Veritas Contracting, and they're going to bring it all to life," Briscoe added. Phase 1 of the city park master plan "will significantly improve the usability of this park and will improve the outdoor recreation experience for people of all ages," the mayor noted.

Highlights will include "extensive renovation to the baseball facilities, including new dugouts, a new concession stand, restroom, press box building, and the addition of a regulation-sized outdoor basketball court."

A much-anticipated addition also will be the "construction of a 10,000-foot concrete skate park, along with many smaller improvements to the existing infrastructure."

The investment will be nearly $2 million and "represents the city's recognition of the importance of our local youth of our community and to the access of outdoor recreational opportunities," said Briscoe. "This is just the start of our plan for this park. Future phases will feature enhancement to parking availability, improvement to the playground features, and accessibility." A perimeter health trail is also in the plans.

The later phases are yet unscheduled.

"We were brought in to do the design for the skate park, which involved visiting the site, working with Thrasher, and community engagement," said American Ramp Company representative Cole Beckham. "We actually met with a bunch of kids and the team members out at Camp Royal and had a couple of professional skaters from our team skate with them and get input on the design ... what turned out into a great design.

"We contracted just a few months ago for the construction of the skate park. We'll be building it probably spring or summer of 2024."

In discussions with the public, Beckham said the community indicated several preferences for the skate park. "Camp Royal is an awesome facility, but they definitely wanted to differentiate and complement what they have at Camp Royal," he said. "Definitely a little bit of everything, but some beginner-friendly stuff, some stuff where you can learn to drop in. Plaza-style elements (street style skating, rails, stairsteps, Euro gaps ...

"Yeah, it's a really balanced park, has a little bit of everything (for) beginner to intermediate to expert. It will be an awesome park."

Bill George, project manager for Veritas Contracting, said the company is happy to be involved with the project as general contractor. For one, the firm has employees with local ties, he noted. "It's kind of personal for us, so we're really glad to get the opportunity to do this job."

"That's another thing we take pride in; we self-perform pretty much everything in house," he said. "We do have an excavator local that we're using, and a plumber. Everything else is in house. We self-perform pretty much 90 percent of our work."

Demolition, which included taking out dugouts and most of the fences, has occurred, and surveying is complete. "We've got our batter boards up.

"Monday (Sept. 25), we'll be putting footers for the dugouts and pouring concrete, and also the concession stand will be formed up. So we're going to start in the back. There are four dugouts and a concession stand and the field, of course.

"Before bad weather hits, we want to get all our blocks up, laid and formed. We'll be moving in also excavating for a large basketball court (66-by-108)."

"We're a West Virginia company; we're glad to be here and be part of it," George concluded.

Briscoe praised city public works employees who "quickly and efficiently accomplished the demolition of existing facilities to clear the way for construction. Your skills and expertise are valued and appreciated."

Email: skeenan@register-herald.com; follow on Facebook