Wanted: Contractors to build a new Stafford skatepark

After a round of unsuccessful bids the first time around, Stafford County put out another proposal on a county skatepark to get a place the county skateboarders are missing.

The new park design includes all the basics of Skateboarding 101, including a vertical wall, which is like a half-pipe in the skating world, grinding rails, grinding ledges, skate stairs, a quarterpipe, and a round cone thing in the middle. These features are standard for skateparks of this level. The proposal Bids will only be accepted via eva.virginia.gov.

The skatepark will be at St. Claire Brooks Park at 80 Butler Road in Falmouth.

Bids will be opened 15 minutes after bids are due on the same day bids are received: Monday, February 26, 2024, at 2:15 p.m. A public bid opening will be hosted via WebEx. the document came out on January 23, 2024, and all the proposals are due by Monday, February 5, 2024, at 2 p.m.

According to Brion Southall, Director at Stafford County’s Department of Parks, Recreation, Facilities, and Tourism, the bid package went out last summer, and they received one bid that was well over the budgeted amount. The staff reviewed the bid package and worked with the contractors to discuss ways to make this project work within budget.

Several contractors we discussed it with had too much work on their schedule already, including the design company, who responded that they had over 18 months of projects on the books and could not take on any more work, said Southhall.

USA Skateboarding has a Skatepark Performance and Accreditation Rating for Certification (SPARC) program and a 75-point checklist to evaluate safety and inclusivity. At this stage, it’s unknown whether the Stafford Skatepark will be under this evaluation.

There is skateboarding in next summer’s Olympic Games, though. The World Skateboarding Tour just completed a competition related to qualifying for the Paris Olympic Games this summer, and the skatepark they used for the competition in Dubai in the Middle East looked similar to the plan for Stafford County.

Mike Salmon is a freelance reporter for Potomac Local News.

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