New local skate-park in the works

HOUGHTON — A new local skatepark is in the works. Amanda L’Esperance brings us updates from Houghton.

In mid–2015 a group of community members in Houghton began publicly discussing the possibility of putting a skatepark in the city. So far the city has recognized a skatepark as being in the Master Plan as well as the Recreation Plan. Now it’s up to the community to make it a reality.

The city has been helpful in finding grants for the project and has agreed to donate a piece of land that will be near parks, local businesses and amenities. Alex Aho, the founder of the project, says it will be a concrete park with little maintenance required.

Aho said, “So this first phase will be about $125,000 and will cover about 3,200 square feet and it’s meant to be a phase–centric project. So this first one that we’re doing is going to be pretty small by skatepark standards. It’ll be definitely satisfying in design but we do intend to build up more on top of that. So second and potentially third phases will probably be within the $50–70 thousand range each.”

The Houghton Michigan Skatepark is currently in its fundraising phase. Recently, a skateboard auction was held in support of the park. Aho says the goal is for the park to be a free and open community feature.

Aho said, “The quickest way to follow our happenings is on our Facebook page, ‘Houghton MI Skatepark, or at Instagram ‘@HoughtonMISkatepark’ as well. And you contact us if you want to help out. You can donate through our website at ‘HoughtonMIskatepark.org‘ and you can reach out to us anytime. ”