YORK COUNTY — The York County Parks and Recreation Advisory Board is gauging interest to see how residents in the area feel about a potential skatepark.
The survey is available on York County’s website that locals may fill out. The survey will officially close on April, 25.
“This is our one chance for our voices to be heard as people that are interested in skateboarding, BMX, and other action sports,” said John Wiggins, a York County skateboarder who brought the idea to York County Advisory Board.
Wiggins sites that other local municipalities have provided support for skateparks in the past. There is at least one skatepark located within James City County, Newport News, Hampton, and Gloucester County.
“It’s been a long time since anyone’s asked the parks and recreation department for a skatepark type of thing,” said Wiggins. “It surprised me, but at the same time now that I’m hearing the feedback, there’s a lot of people that really want this. I kind of thought I was out on a limb, asking them to look into a skatepark. Now I realized there are many people in York County that want something like this. I’m really pumped up about this because maybe something will happen.”
The survey is a very preliminary stage that the advisory board wants to use as a tool to measure the public interest and to see if it’s an idea worth pursuing. There’s no proposed design and there’s no proposed property where the potential York County skatepark would be located at this time.
“The James City County Skatepark is probably the best skatepark within a half-hour drive,” said Wiggins. “It’s been there for 20 years, and it shows that if a skatepark is built properly it can really last too.”
After the survey closes, the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board will review the results and may continue to do more research, and then, maybe in the future, it will make a recommendation.
Locals interested in filling out the survey can find it online at the York County Parks and Recreation website.
