The Barriere Skatepark Society started in 2016 with a mission to create a top quality concrete skatepark in Barriere to provide a safe, versatile, all inclusive, free-to-use recreation facility, with an underlying goal of providing healthy and accessible activity options for youth in and around the community.
Most recently, on Feb. 2, society representative Dustin Doherty reported that the “funding looks to be in place to be able to put the concrete skatepark project in Fadear Park out to bid this year”. The original estimated cost for the project was $174,000.
“Currently we only have $32,900.26 in the bank, but we also have $33,000 in in-kind donations, $30,000 being held in trust with the North Thompson Community Forest Society (if needed), $5,500 in payed expenses (engineering), and recently the municipality has indicated that they plan to allocate $70,000 towards the skatepark from funding through Trans Mountain,” said Doherty, “The combined total puts the projects funding at $175,491.12. Theoretically, more than enough.”
It is hoped the project will finally be ready to be put out for bidding by the end of February.
“We won’t know the actual price of the skatepark until bids are received, and because of the specialized nature of skatepark construction and a high number of other projects in the space, there’s a chance that bids may come in unreasonably high or not at all,” said Doherty, “But we’re optimistic, and are definitely going to give it a shot. The Society’s main goal is that the project is successful in the end. Worst case, if all the pieces don’t fall into place this year we will just differ the project for next year. Either way it will happen.”
He also notes that if bids come in higher than the society’s current estimates they may once again be looking for additional funds. Donations can be made to the Barriere Skatepark Fund at the District of Barriere municipal office, please call ahead to find out how (250-672-9751), you might need an appointment or have to send by mail, e-transfer, or credit card.
“If all goes well we might just have a skatepark by the end of this summer,” said Doherty.
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