A state transportation project to extend Military Cutoff road will help complete funding for the proposed Ogden skateboard park after the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners voted this week to use more than half a million dollars from the project for the park.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation project would extend Military Cutoff Road to cut across Ogden Park over a bridge spanning Ogden Park Drive, with the state buying the right-of-way for $502,580.
The commissioners voted 4-1 on Monday to approve using the DOT funding toward the Ogden Skate Park proposal, with commission chair Beth Dawson saying she opposed dedicating the funds to the skate park until June when the county’s parks and garden department is scheduled to issue a report on county park priorities.
Tara Duckworth, the county’s parks and gardens director, said the Parks Conservancy of New Hanover County also raised $60,783 for construction of the skate park, with another $65,000 of in-kind donations, including donations of soil, equipment and other necessary materials for park construction.
“It’s kind of been a parks director’s dream,” Duckworth said of the skate park project. “I would never have expected to have so much community support.”
Duckworth said the Military Cutoff extension would go between the baseball and soccer fields and not impact visitors’ use of the facilities. The extension is part of a larger DOT project to expand Military Cutoff Road to the US 17 bypass of Hampton.
The skate park was originally budgeted at $465,000, with the county approving $265,000 for the first phase of construction. The DOT funding and donations complete funding of both phases of the project.
Dawson raised the skate park as an issue in her ultimately unsuccessful bid in last week’s Republican primary election, ending her tenure on the commission when her term expires this year. She criticized fellow commissioner Woody White for voting for the project, saying it didn’t fit with his message of fiscal responsibility. She said that the commission should wait.
“Maybe a skateboard park is not at the top of the list right now,” Dawson said. “Maybe something at the northern regional park would be a higher priority use for these funds.”
Construction on the first phase of the 10,000-square-foot park is scheduled to begin in April. The Military Cutoff Road extension construction is expected to begin in 2017.
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