PORT TOWNSEND — The Olympic Peninsula YMCA will receive more than $767,000 to build a skate park in Quilcene.
“We could break ground as early as the summer,” said Wendy Bart, the YMCA’s chief executive officer. “Potentially July or August of this year, but based on the grant, we also have time.”
The state Recreation and Conservation Office grant (RCO) details that construction would need to start May 1, 2026.
The cultural resource review is already underway, Bart said.
Bart said the YMCA will be working with Seattle-based design company Grindline, which is responsible for the park’s initial designs, to create construction bid documents.
The grant’s specified time frame for reimbursement is from Feb. 15 until June 30, 2027.
Bart said the YMCA was notified of the award in October 2024 and entered into the grant agreement in April.
Matt Tyler, a Jefferson County Public Works manager, said the grant is unique in that it doesn’t require matching funds, meaning it will be fully state-funded.
Jefferson County, the grant’s second sponsor, will own, operate and maintain the skate park, according to a recent board of commissioners consent agenda document authorizing the agreement.
The park will be located on Jefferson County park land at 294952 U.S. Highway 101, the same property as the Quilcene Community Center, Tyler said.
The skate park will be located in the northeast corner of the county park on the corner of Washington Street and West Rose Street, he said.
The county park also has a basketball court, a tennis court, a playground and a campground, Tyler said.
Tyler said the skate park will fit well in the overall context of the park.
“There’s already a picnic shelter and a campground there,” he said. “I think it will be really fun for families that are camping there to go over and use the skate park on their vacations.”
Bart and Tyler credit much of the success to a small group of community volunteers: Brady MacDonald, Asa Clifford and Kai Dakers.
MacDonald said the group received $15,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds from Jefferson County for the initial design work in early 2023.
Stronger Towns served as a fiscal sponsor for the skate park effort early on, MacDonald said.
MacDonald said there have been a group of dedicated skaters discussing the potential of a Quilcene skate park for years.
Conversations that led to the current state of the project started at Quilcene Brinnon Connection meetings at the Quilcene Community Center.
MacDonald grew up skateboarding north of Seattle. He said he and fellow organizers have seen the time they spent at skate parks as positive, as places that offered free and consistently available opportunities to move and connect with community.
“This sense of this is for us and is shared with everybody,” MacDonald said. “It’s generally a positive space where I make community. It’s more than just skating and the athletic aspect of moving your body. It’s like this cultural infrastructure.”
The value of skateboarding as an activity hasn’t required very much explaining throughout the project’s numerous phases, MacDonald said.
“Every place that has a skate park, people have seen the benefits of it,” he said. “It’s pretty well documented in the last few decades.”
MacDonald said that, through the community center meetings, the informal group became aware of the county-administered ARPA funds that were open for project applications. The group applied and was awarded the funds to design a park.
The volunteer group was aware of Grindline’s skate parks and chose it as the designer.
“We love these parks,” MacDonald said. “We know these parks that they’ve built. They’re kind of legendary, and they were super helpful right away when we reached out.”
Grindline’s value showed itself in its regional experience.
“They knew about the grants, they knew about processes, they had worked with a lot of working volunteer groups,” MacDonald said. “They’ve been a resource for us.”
“When this funding opportunity came up through RCO, it required having someone who had at least three years of experience doing work in youth recreations,” Bart said.
The county didn’t feel like it was in a good position to pursue the grant, and Stronger Towns and the volunteer group didn’t qualify, Bart said.
“We were approached by the group of volunteers to see if we would be willing to be a partner as well,” Bart said. “It just made sense to me to support this project in any way we could. We thought, ‘We have something we can contribute here, to make an asset in a community that doesn’t have a lot of opportunity.’”
The park hasn’t been engineered, but initial designs have been completed, MacDonald said. The process included several community meetings with presence from the public, Jefferson County and Grindline, he said.
“We have a really good idea of what’s possible for the space,” he said. “We really want a good mix. We want it to be a park that’s accessible to every level, every kind of wheel. I’m thinking about my 7-year-old. How can we have good flow for a 7-year-old?”
“My take on it was, ‘Make sure that it’s accessible to all skill levels and to many different uses,’” Tyler said.
In addition to offering a place for skateboarding, the park will be useful for roller blades and BMX bikes, Tyler said.
“People in wheelchairs are going to be able to go out and enjoy certain parts of it,” Tyler said.
Not yet finalized, the design includes a 6-foot bowl, a small stair set, rails and ledges, among other features.
“We’re incorporating a pump track feature so a person who can’t kick the board up and do something on a rail or go vert can move back and forth on these pump tracks,” MacDonald said. “You’re getting into a flow. You’re surfing in this very chill way.”
MacDonald said he can imagine that he might mostly ride the pump tracks, avoiding the more wild, high-impact obstacles.
“You can be somebody who’s like, ‘I can’t do impact at all on my knees,’ but I can still be cruising and doing my thing,” he said.
More advanced skaters also will have obstacles to skate, he added.
Developing the skate park will require cutting down some trees, but they will be replaced by other trees, Tyler said.
The park will have seven parking spots, including ADA spots and two trailer parking locations, Tyler added.
Some reductions in the scope of the plans were made after the initial grant request of $900,000 was unmet.
“What was changed was things like pathways, a shade structure, the surfacing of the parking area and minor changes to the amenities,” Tyler said.
It’s possible that additional funding will become available, Bart said.
“We’re going to find out in, I think June or July,” Bart said.
The bowl likely will incorporate a log which skaters can carve over, be in reference to the area, MacDonald said.
MacDonald said the experience of bringing a project to life and engaging in the public process has been an enriching experience.
“I haven’t really been involved in these types of experiences where you’re working together with the county and other nonprofits and trying to get a big project done,” he said. “I think it was really heartening and really cool. It inspired me to work together and bridge the gaps and not just write something off as too hard or too complicated.”
A project of this scope would more typically take upwards of 10 years, at least, to complete, Tyler said. He called the approach to the project unique and innovative.
“This is the epitome of a community coming together with so many different organizations collaborating together for the good of a community,” Bart said.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.
