Work begins on Lincoln Skatepark after unexpected funding windfall

Construction of the Lincoln Skatepark began at Hooper Park last week after the project unexpectedly received $150,00 in funding.

The funding – a $100,000 donation from Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament’s Montana Pool Service Foundation and a $50,000 donation from the Montana Skatepark Association – came as a welcome surprise to the Lincoln Skatepark Committee, a group of Lincoln school students who have been committed to the creation of the facility since 2018.

“It came to my attention two weeks ago that Jeff Ament was very interested in making our park happen, sooner rather than later,” Karyn Good told community members who attended the May 1 Lincoln Government Day listening session. Good has been helping the Skatepark Committee coordinate development of the skate park since the effort began.

Good explained that Evergreen Skateparks, the contractor building the facility, contacted her to say Ament had agreed to pitch in $100,000 to implement the project.

Ament, a Big Sandy native, has helped build more than 20 other skate parks in towns around Montana. He visited Lincoln School in late 2018 at the invitation of English teacher Phil Reed and talked to the student body about the challenges of getting a skate park off the ground.

At the time, Ament committed to donating $50,000 outright to a skate park for Lincoln and agreed to match up to $50,000 in fundraising. Earlier this year, he upped his match commitment to $100,000. The Lincoln Skatepark Committee raised $10,000 in 2019, and Good was actively searching for grants in hopes of getting the project off the ground this year, but admitted in March it was tough going. She told the BVD she had her eye on a promising grant for the project, but even if approved, the funding probably wouldn’t come through until 2022.

A couple days after hearing of Ament’s decision, Good got word that the Montana Skatepark Association had received a large grant and also wanted to put $50,000 toward the Lincoln project. The funding windfall came with the stipulation that they accept the money and start the project immediately because Evergreen, which builds skate parks throughout the northwestern U.S., has other construction projects lined up throughout the summer.

Good contacted Lewis and Clark County, which owns Hooper Park, with the news. She said it took about a week to get the county’s approval to begin construction, and the Evergreen crew, operating out of Stevensville, got to work a couple days later.

The Lewis and Clark County Commission and the County Public Works Department had already approved of the project last year, after the Skatepark Committee gathered support or approval from the Lincoln Park Board, the Upper Blackfoot Valley Community Council, the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce and the City-County Parks Board.

“We just started jumping through all those hoops,” Good said of the Skatepark Committtee’s efforts “The toughest hoop by far was the county. They had a billion questions they had for us to answer. We answered every single one of their questions.”

The 5300-square foot skate park on the northwest corner of the park is a different design that the original concept developed by Evergreen last year. The new design, featuring four bowls, two on each end of an oval, provides options for skateboarders of different skill levels.

“It’s a big relief,” Lincoln High School senior Makenzie Storey, president of the Lincoln Skatepark Committee, told the BVD. “We put so much work and effort into this, seeing it is a big relief and it’s kind of like this wave of joy.”

Good said she has since found out it’s not uncommon for Ament’s foundation to come into a rural community like Lincoln and nearly fund the entirety of a project like this.

“I don’t think he ever suspected we were going to raise $50,000, because of the size of our community,” she said. “He’s from Big Sandy. He knows a lot about small towns and some of the financial issues. He just wanted to make sure these kids were bought into this project, and they proved to him they were by volunteering a lot of their free time. (They) just did their best to raise funds for the project.”

Reed, who first encouraged students to contact Ament’s foundation to nominate Lincoln for a skatepark, explained at Fridays gathering that the Skatepark Committee is comprised of about 12 or 15 students, but he said at different points throughout the process, nearly every kid at the school has had a hand in the project.

“A lot of the younger kids are really excited,” Storey told the BVD. “A lot of them, they rollerblade or they want to use their bikes on it. A lot of kids skateboard, but you can’t really skateboard around here.”

For some it may be a surprise to learn skateboarding is a passion that crosses multiple generations. Ament himself is 57 years old and Lance Spiker, Evergreen’s project manager and construction foreman, said he’s been building skate parks for 20 years and skateboarding for 38 years.

“This is what makes skateboarding,” Spiker said of the community support for the Lincoln project. “When I grew up, we were pushed out of everywhere. We built ramps in our back yards to hide. This brings communities together and bonds the community and makes it feel like something that is a family. Small communities like this, everybody knows each other. It is like a family and that’s how skateboarding is. I know people all over the world and skateboarding is like a family. The guys I grew up with in middle school, I still skateboard with.”

The Lincoln Skatepark Committee plans to continue its fundraising efforts for additional improvements to the skate park.

“We want to make this park look as good as possible. We will be raising funds to lay sod, have some benches, maybe plant a couple trees next summer or provide some sort of shelter,” Good said. “We really want it to be a space where families can come and spend some time.”