ALLEGANY, N.Y. — After years of fundraising, the Village of Allegany is getting a new skatepark.
"I think it will kind of lighten the mood a little bit for this town and for the people who want to learn, like, BMX, skateboard, scooter, all that stuff that's able to learn. And people who do in this small town can actually come here and do what they want to do," Jhonas Price said.
Since 2018, Jhonas Price and his mom, Jennifer DeLong, have been volunteering their time to help transform this field at Allegany River Park into a skatepark for skateboarders and BMXers.
"We simply saw a posting for the first public meeting and were like, 'Let's go check it out and see what they have to offer.' So we went, and we found out what this project could bring to the community, and I'm like, 'Yeah, we need to make sure this happens because Allegany deserves it,' " Jennifer DeLong said.
DeLong says this will give kids growing up here more to do.
"There's a lot of playgrounds for the little ones, but the older ones, teens, you know, they need to get out from behind the screen, and go get some exercise, and hang out with their families," DeLong said.
Wednesday night, The Skatepark Project presented the village and volunteers with a grant for $300,000 to build the permanent skatepark; $50,000 will go toward its environmental features.
"It's right next to the river. It's important to protect the water because runoff from concrete can also be, have pollutants in it and not be clean, and so some of that money will go towards that. There's lots of different ways to use that funding, you know. Using drought-resistant species for plantings and local species," says Trevor Staples with The Skatepark Project.
DeLong is thankful they got the grant because before the COVID pandemic hit, they had raised less than $10,000, and they didn't know if the project would happen.
"It's a small community, so raising funds is difficult. We did struggle with that for sure, and then COVID came, so it really kind of put a kibosh to it, and we didn't think we'd be able to go through with the process, and we were actually trying to decide what to do with the money we did raise. Like, who can we donate it to? And then this opportunity for this new grant came along, and we were like, 'Let's give it a shot,' and obviously we were successful," DeLong said.
They are going to take the next year to plan, and they hope to break ground in 2023.
If you would like to help out, you can contact the Cattaraugus Region Community Foundation.
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