CUMBERLAND — Standing near a mound of fresh dirt and several ceremonial shovels, Cheyenne Jenkins said the city’s future skate park will be a place where kids can feel like they fit in.
In 2021, she spearheaded the organization of various community groups that advocated for a skateboarding venue in the city.
Cheyenne Jenkins
Cheyenne Jenkins
Jenkins, a Cumberland resident, said folks across the area united to raise roughly $30,000 for the park.
Dig Deep Brewery at the Footers Dye Works Building became a mainstay for the fundraisers, and even created an honorary Do A Kickflip beer, she said.
“This is a product of community,” Jenkins said at a groundbreaking for the skate park at Gene Mason Sports Complex Friday.
“We probably collaborated with 40 businesses and nonprofits, musicians, artists … each person played a vital role,” she said.
Roughly 40 people were at the groundbreaking, including Cumberland’s City Council members.
Cumberland Administrator Jeff Silka said construction will begin Monday for the skate park, made possible by joint funding from the city and Allegany County.
City officials in November accepted a $787,000 bid from First Fruits Excavating Inc. to prepare the site for the new facility.
The work is set to include erosion and sediment control, a stabilized construction entrance, grading and pipework so that Rampage Skateshop and Skatepark Equipment, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, can build the park.
The park is set to be finished this fall.
“I’m glad to see it coming to fruition,” Cumberland Mayor Ray Morriss said.
“This project is monumental,” Cumberland Director of Parks and Recreation Ryan Mackey said. “It’s been wonderful to be a part of it.”
Megan Huckabay and her husband, Johnny, a committee member for the skate park project, own Huckabay Skateboards at 650 N. Mechanic St., where business has been good.
Johnny Huckabay
Johnny Huckabay
Megan Huckabay
Megan Huckabay
The new skate park will give kids in the area, including their son R.J., 10, something fun to do, she said.
R. J. Huckabay
R.J. Huckabay
“It’s been a long time coming,” Megan Huckabay said. “We’re hoping that it’s full every weekend.”
Johnny Huckabay said he’s been skateboarding since he was a kid and taught the sport, he described as a type of meditation to clear the mind, to his son.
He said the groundbreaking for the project brought him overwhelming feelings of emotion.
“Skateboarding really helped me out in my life,” Johnny Huckabay said.
LaVale resident Greg Kerr, a survey project manager for an architectural company, joined the skate park committee to help navigate work with the city to make the project happen.
His father, Jeff Kerr, a Cumberland native who now lives in North Carolina, built the BMX track at the Mason Complex 20 years ago.
Greg Kerr said he’s happy construction of the new skate park is set to begin.
Greg Kerr
Greg Kerr
“It feels good,” he said and added the project is a true representation of community. “A lot of people have put in a lot of effort.”