As announced in December, construction on the city of Emporia’s new Whittier Skate Park could still begin by summertime.
That’s according to Assistant City Manager Mark Detter who recently provided an update on the project during an interview with KVOE News Tuesday morning. Detter says there was a recent stakeholders meeting held in January with another set to take place at a currently undisclosed date in March.
During that time, Detter hopes the various stakeholders will be able to narrow down several concepts into a final plan to be presented to Emporia City Commissioners by April.
The skate park project has been in talks for several years following residents’ requests to see an update to the current Santa Fe skate park. Original plans were to have the new project located at Santa Fe, however, following lease negotiations with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, the decision was made to move the project to Whittier in 2022. Back in December, Emporia City Commissioners approved a $250,000 drawdown from the Lake Kahola Fund which will be combined with an anonymous $250,000 donation made back in October of 2021 giving the project $500,000 total.
Emporia City Commissioners have stated their desire to use the skate park as the starting point for future expansion in Whittier.
Continued discussions on the Whittier Park project come as the city is about set to begin renovations on the community-built playground in Peter Pan Park. Renovations will begin next Tuesday with the area around the playground set to be closed to the public Monday.
Detter says the project should be completed by the end of March, however, an exact date is currently pending. Detter adds the playground updates may be just the first wave of additional improvements coming to the park with future improvements likely to be focused on the park’s disc golf amenities.
Upcoming renovations will include the replacement of the playground’s wooden fence with chainlink and the addition of new slides. With the removal of the wooden fence in the park, the city is allowing donors of the fence pickets to claim those once they are removed.
To schedule a time to pick up a fence picket, contact the city Parks Department by calling 620-341-4365 after Monday.
