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Granby skate park redesign garners enthusiastic feedback

The Polhamus Park Skate Park is currently built with a deteriorating wood and composite skate surface. The town has budgeted $162,000 for an all-concrete park upgrade.
Amy Golden / agolden@skyhinews.com

Sitting front row at Granby Town Hall, 12-year-old Keller Hydle was the first to give feedback on what he wants to see at the town’s new skate park.

Keller has been skateboarding for almost five years now and actually designed a couple 3D models for the skate park himself. He and his family love to skate.

“I’m a skater at this skatepark,” Keller said of his interest. “Every time we come here, we’re like, ’Oh, we wish we had this. Oh, we wish we had that.’ When I came I was like, ’Oh man, here’s our chance.’”



He was one of the younger members in the group of roughly 25 who attended a skate park presentation by Tito Porrata with Pivot Custom on Thursday night at town hall.

The Polhamus Park Skate Park is currently built with wood and composite skate surface. The park is deteriorating, though, so Granby budgeted $162,000 for an upgrade — enough to design an all-concrete park.



The group in attendance was mostly skateboarders, though a number of bikers and even a roller-skater also attended the meeting. The purpose was to get feedback on the initial design by Pivot Custom.

The new park will be on the existing 12,000 square foot slab. Porrata explained that the project’s limited space and budget will have to balance the desires of the different users.

His goal is to create a park unique to Granby under the guidance of those who will use it most.

“This is the exercise for you guys to tell us what we need to do to make it your park,” Porrata told the group Thursday.

There are two main styles that can dominate a skate park: street or transition. Street focuses on obstacles like stairs and handrails, while transition skating involves undulating ground and ramps.

Because nearby skate parks in Winter Park and Kremmling are mostly transition, Porrata’s initial design emphasized street skating. The concept includes two quarter pipes at one end, a ledge on the other, A-frames, pyramids, stage areas with multiple ledges and landing pads, rails, and a small volcano.

The initial redesign for the Polhamus Park Skate Park emphasizes street skating elements. A survey is open now to gather feedback on the park before the designer comes back with a refined design.
Courtesy Pivot Custom

However, the crowd’s feedback leaned toward more transition elements Thursday night. Porrata explained that more transition would mean fewer street elements and vise versa.

The feature that almost everyone agreed the new park needs is a mini-ramp similar to the one already there. There was some divergence about the other elements, but all were excited about the upgrades.

Porrata said his next design would likely blend in more transition elements. A skater himself, Porrata took a moment to highlight civic responsibility to the group.

“You’re all taxpayers. This is the city working for you,” Porrata said. “But this respect goes both ways. Keep the park clean. If you someone doing something lame, this is your park. Take ownership.”

The group also highlighted their desire to fix the lights at the park, which suffer from a faulty timer, according to Granby Recreation Director Julie Martin. Certain other work at Polhamus has to be completed before that change can be made, but the town is planning to fix that element as well.

Martin added that the recreation department would love to secure donors for the project to expand the budget.

The survey to give feedback on the first design is open now through March 25 at http://www.pivotcustom.com/granby. Porrata plans to come back in a few weeks with an updated design, which will also be open to feedback before it is finalized.


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