Planning and Zoning to Vote on Skate Park Tuesday

Ten years, hundreds of meetings and thousands of dollars later, the building of a skate park in East Haddam is about to become a reality.

Several town departments including East Haddam Youth & Family Services, Parks and Recreation, the Local Prevention Council, Public Works, the first Selectman and the Land Use Administrator recently met with a contracting consultant from Poprocki Concrete and Masonry of Mystic  in an effort to move the project forward.

$55,000 in funds has been raised and held in an account until the town could find a suitable location and find the right contractor. 

Several possible locations have been considered throughout the process and include the previously approved field on Great Hillwood Road, Nichols Field and two locations at the old middle school. After evaluating all possible sites, the committee decided on the back parking lot of the old middle school, adjacent to the tennis courts.

According to the committee, it was chosen for the following reasons:

• "It is visible and safely accessible for the kids. Getting to either the Nichols Field or Great Hillwood locations would require kids to use Rt. 149 and neither provides the visibility that of the old middle school site.
• It requires minimal site work and therefore reduces the cost of preparing the site for building.
• Because it reduces the cost of site preparation, it allows for almost all of the funds donated to be applied directly to the cost of building the actual park.
• The contractor, who has built many skate parks throughout Connecticut, has agreed that he can build the park on this site in the most cost-effective way."  

The proposal to build the skate park by year's end will be decided at the Planning & Zoning Public Hearing on Tuesday, June 14th at 8:00 pm at the Grange Hall on Town Street. The regular P&Z meeting will begin at 7:15pm.

Show your support for the skate park by attending the hearing at 8pm.

The skate park committee is currently under the direction of the Department of Parks and Recreation, which is taking the lead as the project moves forward and will also oversee the park once completed.

If you have any questions, please contact Tiffany Quinn, East Haddam Parks & Recreation (873-5058) or Toni McCabe, East Haddam Youth & Family Services (873-3296) before the meeting.