BY ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week

POTSDAM — An environmental site assessment will be done for Fall Island Park for its inclusion into the village’s DRI-funded Downtown Streetscape and Riverwalk Trail project.

At their meeting Monday, May 15, the village board approved a proposal from KAS Environmental Science and Engineering for the preparation of a Phase 1 environmental site assessment of the park.

The park was recently included as part of the project and will be the site of a planned skateboarding and art park.

The expense for the assessment will be reimbursed through the village’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative funding approved by the state in 2018. The DRI funding, around $10 million, is funding multiple initiatives and projects throughout the village including its Downtown Streetscape and Riverwalk Trail project.

The village designated the skatepark project as part of the Riverwalk at their April meeting after getting a go-ahead from the state. The skate park construction will be funded, in part, from $700,000 of the village’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative funding package that was originally designated to two other projects that dropped out of the program.

A Fall Island skate park was originally proposed to the state as one of the community renewal projects to be funded through the DRI, but the project didn’t make the cut of projects for the state initially.

However, grassroots support from various organizations and community stakeholders, notably SLC Arts, kept the idea alive, and the village opted to partner with SLC Arts in 2022 to help raise money from other sources for the project.

After two other projects dropped out of the DRI last year making funding available, the state approved the skatepark for inclusion into the DRI Riverwalk project.

Pillar Design Studios, formed by Potsdam native Brad Siedlecki, has given an estimate of around $600,000 for the 10,000-square-foot park.