Emeryville Nets $10,000 Grant For Skateboard Park

From the Adirondack Daily Enterprise:

August 28, 2013 By CHRIS KNIGHT - Senior Staff Writer (cknight@adirondackdailyenterprise.com) Adirondack Daily Enterprise

SARANAC LAKE  NY- The ongoing effort to build a village skateboard park received a major boost Tuesday when the Tony Hawk Foundation announced it has awarded the project a $25,000 grant.

News of the grant was posted Tuesday night on the "Saranac Lake Skateboard Park" Facebook page.

"We are ELATED and honored," Peggy Wiltberger of the Saranac Lake SkatePark Committee said in an email to the Enterprise. "We are hoping that adding this credibility to the project will encourage everyone to contribute what they can to the SkatePark."

Wiltberger said the committee needs to raise another $47,000 in cash and $26,000 in in-kind services.

"We are working with the village to break ground next spring," she wrote. "We really need to come together for the final push."

The local project was given the most money out of 11 communities across the country picked by the Tony Hawk Foundation to receive grants for construction of skateparks. The next closest, in dollars, was a $10,000 grant to Emeryville, Calif. The other nine communities were each awarded $5,000.

From The Fun Loving People At Caltrans

What's The Matter With These Damn Kids These Days?

Caltrans shows who's boss.
Re-Printed from KGO-TV:

Caltrans crews demolish skate park 

under I-580

Thursday, August 25, 2011

TAGS:

emeryville, caltrans, I-580, oakland, east bay news, terry mcsweeney

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Terry McSweeney
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BORDER OF EMERYVILLE, OAKLAND (KGO) -- A labor of love by a group 

of athletic young people was torn down under I-580 at the Oakland,

 Emeryville border. Caltrans says a skateboard park there is illegal. 

The skateboarders say it keeps kids out of trouble.

Alex Fatemi took one last ride around a skateboard park that he and 

his friends built by hands a couple of years ago. He can't understand 

why Caltrans crews are tearing it down Thursday morning.
"We have been painting over the graffiti and we have cleanup days 

where we pick up the trash. I don't know why they don't see that as a 

positive push for something good," said Fatemi.
But the state doesn't see it that way.
"The harm in letting it go is that number one it sets a precedent, and 

number two there are liability issues, and there are crime issues, 

homelessness issues, all sorts of issues that arise," said Caltrans 

spokesperson Bob Haus.
There had been hope of leaving the spot open and perhaps working 

out a deal with Caltrans. But skateboarders say, with redevelopment 

agencies on the way out and the economy what it is, officials in 

Oakland and Emeryville were unable to come up with the money 

for the $5,000 per month lease that Caltrans wanted.
Fatemi took his petition of 600 signatures to plead his case with 

Caltrans crews one more time, but the fate of the park was sealed.
"I feel like something has been taken from me that I cherish so much. 

I was in love with this place and now someone is going to kill it. 

They are going to kill it, it sucks," said Fatemi.
CHP officers came in to tell Fatemi that the ride was over. When 

Fatemi was asked by ABC7 News where he would go from here, 

he said he would take his board to the streets.
Caltrans said it is negotiating with a billboard company for the land. 

There is another skatepark nearby that will also be taken down 

by Caltrans.