BY ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week

POTSDAM — The village board heard first-hand recently from a Saranac Lake village board member regarding that community’s skate park which was constructed 7 years ago.

Plans are underway to construct a similar skate park, combined with an art park, on Willow Island in Potsdam. The committee putting the project together is hoping to contract with Pillar Design Studios, formed by Potsdam native Brad Siedlecki, to construct the park. Siedlecki’s company has built the skatepark in Saranac Lake, as well as others in Saratoga Springs and Syracuse.

The village is partnering with SLC Arts to bring the Potsdam park into reality, hoping to combine efforts to expand access to project funding. Various conceptual design work has been done on the park in Potsdam already.

At the village board meeting Monday, May 16, Saranac Lake village board member Rich Shapiro gave the Potsdam trustees an overview of the Saranac Lake facility.

“Our skatepark opened, this July it will be 7 years,” said Shapiro. Shapiro told the board that since opening, maintenance has been minimal at most.

Liability was a concern for members of the public in the mountain town before the skatepark opened, Shapiro said. However, that village’s liability insurance only increased about $300 a year after the park opened, he said.

Shapiro covered other aspects of the Saranac Lake park like injuries, rules, trash removal, electricity, lighting, signage, safety issues, fencing, skate culture, and how much the park is used by members of the public.

“It’s been marvelous,” Shapiro said. “It’s essentially the most used park in the village, which is hard to imagine.”

Organizers spearheading the Potsdam skatepark proposal are researching funding options to pay for construction. Pillar Design has given an estimate of around $600,000 for the 10,000 square foot park.

The skatepark was originally part of the village’s state Downtown Revitalization Initiative project list to receive part of the state funding award in 2019. In the original DRI submission the total cost of the Fall Island Skatepark and Outdoor Art Gallery proposal was estimated at around $337,800. The funding request through the DRI was $257,800.

However, the park didn’t make the cut of the final projects to receive funding. Two other projects which were approved project funding however have dropped out, freeing up about $700,000 from the DRI funding for other project work. However, the decision on what projects from the village’s DRI strategic investment plan will receive the now available money is now in the hands of the state.

Shapiro said the Saranac Lake skatepark didn’t receive any state DRI money for the work. The community raised money through grassroots efforts for years prior to construction to help cover the cost of the work, which was around $300,000. The village contributed about $100,000 in in-kind services for construction. About 105 businesses donated to the effort as well, Shapiro said.