Portsmouth breaks ground on $3M skatepark. Facility expected to open this fall.

Ian Lenahan, Portsmouth Herald
·2 min read

PORTSMOUTH — The multi-year effort to bring a skateboard park to the Port City has officially reached the construction stage.

Past and present Portsmouth leaders, joined by residents at the front line of the skatepark push, took to the city “stump dump” off Route 33 on Thursday afternoon for a ceremonial groundbreaking at the site.

Holding blue ribbon-adorned shovels, Mayor Deaglan McEachern, Assistant Mayor Joanna Kelley, City Councilor Rich Blalock, former City Council member Esther Kennedy, who shepherded the movement to bring the new skatepark to Portsmouth, along with Skateboard park Blue Ribbon Committee co-chairs Amy-Mae Court and Dave Cosgrove, broke ground at the site.

Portsmouth leaders gather for a groundbreaking ceremony at the "stump dump" site off Route 33, where the city's new skateboard park will be built, on Thursday, May 25, 2023. Left to right: Blake Martin (Weston & Sampson), Councilor Rich Blalock, Mayor McEachern, Amy-May Court and Dave Cosgrove (Skateboard Park Committee co-chairs), Asst. Mayor Joanna Kelley, Christine Sproviero (DPW Project Manager), Peter Rice (DPW Director), David Quirk (Quirk Construction), Todd Henley (Rec. Dept. Director), Esther Kennedy.

Joining the group of roughly 50 attendees were current City Councilors Andrew Bagley, Kate Cook, Beth Moreau and John Tabor, former Mayor Rick Becksted and previous Councilor Petra Huda, City Manager Karen Conard, recreation director Todd Henley, Portsmouth Department of Public Works director Peter Rice and project manager Christine Sproviero, among others.

Youth skateboarders, with support from Kennedy and other Portsmouth residents, first began their plea for a new skatepark in 2021 during the prior council administration. Skateboarders called for renovations to be made to the skatepark at the Greenleaf Recreation Center - which were completed by the city in a few months’ time - in addition to seeking an entirely new facility elsewhere in Portsmouth.

With the help of the volunteer skateboard park committee, the city opted to locate the new 20,000-square-foot skatepark off Route 33, an area that had been used by the city as a staging area for other projects. The “stump dump” site will undergo a phased overhaul that will eventually see walking paths, a playground, additional parking, lighting and field upgrades.

The entire skateboard park project, along with lighting for the facility, will cost the city close to $3 million. Quirk Construction, a Georgetown, Massachusetts company, has been awarded the bid to complete the project.

The city expects the Skateboard Park to initially open for use this coming fall, though additional work on the site will be needed next spring.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Portsmouth NH breaks ground on $3M skatepark to open this fall