Mansfield opens new skate park

It was not even 2:30 p.m. yet at the newly opened skate park located behind the Mansfield Community Center and area students were already grinding the rails and practicing ollies.

“I just hate when I suck,” said University of Connecticut senior Anthony Luth after he unsuccessfully hit a ramp and lost his board mid-air again. “Usually, I’m good.”

Luth, from Wolcott, visited the skate park for the first time Wednesday afternoon and said he was glad he no longer had to skate around campus or find a place to practice his tricks where he wouldn’t get in trouble.

“I’ve been waiting four years for this,” he said. “I’ll take anything.”

Luth is not the only local resident who was happy with the skate park’s “soft opening” at the end of August.

The park has opened with limited equipment that was purchased with donations from local businesses and funds from Mansfield.

The official opening of the park will be Sept. 19 from 1 to 3 p.m.

Although the park has only been open since Aug. 31, there are visible signs that show the new equipment – which includes ramps and rails – has been used often.

Countless skid marks on the ground and scratch marks on the new equipment less than two weeks into the park’s existence are sure-fire signs the park has been, and will continue to be, busy.

The bells had barely rung at the end of the day for high schools and students were already descending upon the park.

Recreation officials in Mansfield said the park has 10 to 12 bike riders or skateboarders there at any given time throughout the day.

The park is fenced in and opens when the community center opens and closes when the center closes. The park is locked up when it is closed and cannot be accessed at night.

According to Jay O’ Keefe, assistant director of parks and recreation, the park has filled a void for the young skateboard and bike aficionados of Mansfield.

“There’s certainly a niche there,” he said. “It’s probably not real visible.”
Recreation Coordinator Bill Callahan said the skate park is similar to fields and courts for soccer players and basketball stars.

“I think it’s important because these kids are athletes and they have no playing field,” he said.

According to Callahan, he expects the park may tweak an interest in the sport because now people have a safe place to learn and practice.

O’ Keefe said since officials have finished building a site for that specific group, skaters have been “coming out of the woodwork” and using the park.
“It seems to have answered a need,” he said.

Students using the park Wednesday afternoon agreed.

They said they were glad Mansfield officials built a place for all area skaters and riders to go instead of taking to the streets, sidewalks and vacant parking lots of their hometowns.

“Every town needs one,” said Luth. He said he was glad to have the park nearby and looked forward to when new equipment would be purchased and installed.

Currently, town officials are fundraising for new equipment.

Fellow UConn student Ryan Gallacher said he had used the park nearly every day since it opened.

Gallacher, a junior, said he thought it was important to have a park for local skaters to have as their own practice ground.

“The sport of skateboarding is growing rapidly,” he said, adding the park is busiest at 5 p.m. when high schoolers and UConn students come to test their skills.

Even students from Windham High School travel to Mansfield to use the newest park.

Damian Hainline, a sophomore at Windham, was visiting the park for the second time and said the park was a great place to meet other riders and skaters.

“It’s a good common ground,” he said, adding the park will likely keep “kids out of trouble.”