Another day, another season is upon us. With winter actually here a few quick reminders about the Park and the Skate Park. In particular do NOT apply any de-icer of any kind to the skating surfaces. De-icing products (especially salt) will destroy the surface finish of the concrete in very short order. While the park is open during the winter months, Missoula County will not be doing any regular plowing. They will not plow the park itself at all, and will only maybe plow the parking area in the unlikely event they have extra man hours for plow drivers.

Spring sprung, summer scorched, and fall is now upon us. The working group continues to meet regulary, and a little while back, a number of volunteers came out and (finally!!) finished staining the jack leg fence that establishes a vehicle barrier for the park. There are more grant applications out to fund park improvements, the county along with volunteers have been maintaining the grass. We greatly appreciate all of the park users helping keep our park clean by picking up their own garbage, and others!

tl;dr; We’re not done yet! More things are planned and, with continuing support, built in the 2024 construction season! The Skate Park officially opened for the public on October 21st, 2023. We had one VERY perfect weekend right after that, and now fall/first winter is settling in. It’s been freezing rain today as I’m writing this very update! The Skate Park has been our focus as we begin the process of turning what was a disused baseball field into a community asset.

Beginning at the end of last week, and continuing into this week the hard working Evergreen crew has been shooting concrete. All hands on deck! CONCRETE’S HERE! Once the mud starts flowing, it’s all hands on the pour. Concrete is dirty, it’s heavy, and it’s messy. And it isn’t going to wait for anyone or anything. Once that truck gets loaded at the batch plant, that concrete has a clock. Tick-tock.

CSS Contracting (Chris) was out this past weekend and installed the drainage sump. On his own dime he had the donated sump transported it to the site and installed it. It doesn’t look like much now that it’s in, but, that is also the point! This sump, donated by Montana Precast Concrete, will collect runoff from the hard surfaces of the skate park, providing a place for the water to go rather than sitting in and on the concrete features causing damage.