City of Centralia officials and a group of local skateboarders gathered at the Fuller’s Twin City Skate Park at Rotary Riverside Park Wednesday evening to talk about replacing ramps and filling cracks in the concrete to improve the park for those who use it.
Centralia Deputy City Manager Amy Buckler, with support from City of Centralia Parks and Buildings Operations Manager Kyle Markstrom and Centralia City Councilor Chris Brewer, hosted the small 5:15 p.m. gathering at the skate park to talk about the potential revitalization of the now more than 20-year-old outdoor facility.
A small group of local youths and adults with fond memories of the skate park in better condition gathered to share their concerns with the city officials.
Buckler and the others made clear from the start that they supported the idea of restoring the park.
“We are aware of the condition of the skate park,” Buckler said. “We do want to renovate it. It is in our six-year parks plan that was passed by the city council in 2024, to retrofit the skate park, and we do have some ideas for how we can move forward on that.”
But before offering solutions, the officials opened the meeting up to the audience to hear the main concerns for the park as is.
The group of youths was led by the two young community members who started the petition for improvements at the skate park in July. It recently caught the city’s attention and led to the meeting. Alyssa Webster and Christian Schloss each talked about wanting to see the skate park restored to its former glory.
Those two, along with other community members, listed their concerns with the park. Failing elements of the park range from one oversized hole in one of the ramp structures to smaller holes and gaps in ramp materials, cracking concrete and raised screws. Others added that some years ago the large flood lights meant to light the park at night stopped turning on.
The park has gotten so bad that many community members admitted to often going to other skate parks, such as those in Napavine, Oakville and even Olympia, instead of the one in Centralia.
“It’s a little hard to justify coming up here to skate this park,” Schloss said. “It's a 30-minute drive, and I know a lot of people in the Lewis County area, it's a pretty decent drive to get to a skate park, so when they get here and it's not something that a beginner can easily skate … When you drive 30 minutes, it's a little disappointing.”
Schloss added that many of the ramps and features are not beginner friendly and appear to be made for more advanced skaters or even for BMX biking.
After hearing concerns, Buckler spoke about the city’s hopes to solve the problems and revitalize the now-outdated facility that she added has aged beyond its "useful life.”
Buckler first clarified that the city would not be able to support a concrete skate park due to prohibitive costs.
“I think that concrete is going to be unrealistically expensive,” Buckler said. “Because of the existing conditions here. This is not stable underground … So we would have to excavate all of that and put new concrete down and we’re getting into like a $4 million project.”
However, Buckler said that purchasing new modular ramps to replace the failing ones would be realistic and would also minimize any closures of the park. To give many of the attendees a better idea, Buckler handed out example photos of ramps provided by American Ramp Company showing the range of ramps and features available.
Buckler added that the ramps would need to be funded with state dollars through the Youth Athletic Facilities Grant. In pursuit of that money, she asked those in attendance to participate in a later meeting to develop a conceptual design, write a letter of support and, should the city secure the grant, lead fundraising efforts to secure the required matching funds.
“It will take a while to go through the process to have them fully approve it. Like a year,” Buckler said. “But I think that it would be enough money. Now, there would be a matching requirement, and that's where maybe some fundraising would come in from y'all and the community and we could look at some other ways to get the matching funds, but I think it's realistic. “
Buckler's announcement was well received by those in attendance. Webster said the support from the city was exactly what she and others were looking to get out of the recent petition that now has more than 300 signatures.
“It actually matched exactly what I was hoping for,” Webster said. “We got the right level of support, I feel. I feel like the city has good intentions and they genuinely want to help us. That's what I was really hoping for.”
