Skatepark project ready for next steps

Public officials and community supporters who have collaborated for the past decade to turn Ruston’s old municipal pool into a skatepark say they now have enough funds to move the project forward.

That’s thanks in part to a $50,000 Hometown Grant from T- Mobile, which the city, the wireless company, supporters and skaters alike gathered to celebrate Thursday with a presentation in Railroad Park.

“This is a huge day for the city of Ruston,” Mayor Ronny Walker said. “ We said from the first we were going to make this happen. Through a lot of partnerships, we’re there, but we needed just a little bit more to get over the hump.”

T-Mobile selected Ruston as one of 25 cities across the country to receive the latest round of Hometown Grants, an initiative aimed at kickstarting local development projects that enhance communities.

Ruston was chosen from among some 800 applicants, said Christine Lynn, T-Mobile’s senior executive manager in Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.

“We support the community because the community supports us,” Lynn said. “When we can put up a skatepark so children can have a safe place to skate, that is near and dear to our hearts.”

Located at the old pool site on Memorial Drive, supporters say the 20,000 square-foot facility would be the only concrete skatepark within at least 150 miles. The aim is that it would draw interest from across the I-20 corridor and host regional events and competitions, in addition to promoting healthy activity and a love of the arts in the local community.

Through a diverse combination of funding sources — including grassroots fundraising by the nonprofit Friends of the Ruston Skatepark, appropriations from the state Legislature, and grants from local agencies — the city now has some $1.1 million in funding set aside for the project, Public Works Director John Freeman said.

The latest estimates put the base cost at about $967,000. With some more features added as a contract alternate, the full design would cost some $1.3 million.

So there’s still room to either find more funds or potentially get some of the work done at the site through donated labor to drive down the cost, Freeman said.

But the T-Mobile grant puts the city in position to move forward with the project, starting with a meeting with designer New Line Skatepark today. Once the project is bid out to a contractor, it’s expected to be a sixto- eight-month build.

The concept for a skatepark in Ruston began around 2015 and revived during the COVID shutdown of 2020, becoming a public-private partnership between the city and the Friends group.

Joey Slaughter, a Louisiana Tech University art professor and executive director of the Friends, was one of those behind the original idea for the park.

“I’m certain that if it wasn’t for skateboarding every day as a kid, I would not be a professor of art,” Slaughter said during Thursday’s presentation. “The nature of skateboarding is rooted in art, music, friendship and culture, as well as empowering kids. We want to give skaters a safe place to skate and be creative.”

After a decade of planning, more disruptive natural disasters in the community than one could shake a barometer at, and a global pandemic, officials and enthusiasts alike are hopeful the setbacks have been weathered, and the beginning of the end is in sight.

“To be here today with this grant is a major milestone for our project,” Slaughter said. “ We have a great design that we’re very proud of. We’re ready to get started on it, and htis grant is going to help us do that.”