The Hyde Park Town Board voted this week to reject late bids for a proposed skate park and also approved moving the location of the project from Hackett Hill to Pinewoods Park in the village. Town leaders, including Robert Linville (D-Ward 1) assured residents that rejecting previous bids doesn’t mean the project isn’t moving forward.
“We’re rejecting bids that came in approximately twice as high as anticipated,” said Linville. “It doesn’t mean that we’re rejecting the skate park.”
After receiving bids that would make the project unaffordable, the town’s recreation commission recommending reverting back to the project’s original plan as a street-style skate park based at Pinewoods Park closer to the center of town. “We’re going to move it to Pinewoods and make it the best we can,” said board member Hannah Black (D-3rd Ward).
Hyde Park Recreation Director Kathleen Davis said she’s meeting with the town’s recreation commission this week to develop a timeline for the revised skate park plan. “Our big hope it is to get it done in time for summer camp,” she said. “Our focus right now is to work on the skate park portion and follow up with other components,” added Davis.
Those additional components include landscaping, parking lot expansion, bathroom renovation and fencing. The first order of business, said Davis, is to topcoat the base coat of asphalt that is currently in place at Pinewoods for the skate park. “The surface needs a finished top coat that cures for four to six weeks,” she explained. After the top coat has cured, ramps and other skating components can be placed on top. Since the skate park will be changing from a poured concrete design to a street park concept, Davis is working on a list of street elements such as ramps, quarter pipes, rails, steps, ledges and boxes to consider for the finished project. Once those items are ordered, she said, they will be delivered ready to use and assemble easily on the asphalt base.
Davis anticipates that local skaters will enjoy the street design of the park and will be happy with the new location closer to the village. “They’re going to be pretty happy with the location,” she said. “Hackett Hill was further out of town,” she added, explaining that skaters would have had to enter Pinewoods Park and cross over Market Street, a busy road, to enter Hackett Hill. “There is no formal crosswalk from Pinewoods to Hackett Hill,” she said, adding that keeping the skate park at Pinewoods is “a lot more convenient and safer” for kids who plan to skate, bike or walk to the skate park.
Police/court facility
The town also authorized spending up to $25,000 to correct mold and other safety issues at the Hyde Park Police headquarters following an inspection by the New York State Department of Labor.
The current headquarters, located on Route 9G in the Town of Hyde Park, are based in a dilapidated building that the town leases each year. Bob Kampf, previous town councilman for the 3rd Ward, is leading a police/court facility committee to encourage residents to approve building a new combined police and court headquarters on donated land in the town. Kampf is frustrated that the town is forced to invest money into a building it has no interest in owning.
“The money’s not being put in the right spot right now,” he said. Kampf and his committee members have pared the proposed police/court project down to approximately $4.5 million and have enlisted the support of Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand (D-Hudson) to offset expenses. “If she gets the appropriation, we won’t have to spend much at all,” said Kampf.
Kampf said that further details of the police/court facility project will be available at the next town workshop on May 12 at 7 p.m. at town hall, and encouraged residents to attend. “It will be an open discussion regarding scheduling the vote and getting figures on the tax rate,” said Kampf, who noted that both he and Hyde Park Police Chief James McKenna plan on attending the meeting to work out details of the police/court project with town leaders.