Skaters rejoice as new park opens

[Lily Howes]

Lily Howes/The Williams Record

The Town celebrated the official opening of the Max Rothschild Memorial Skatepark, located near Cole Field, last Saturday with a ceremony and ribbon-cutting. The park was spearheaded by the nonprofit Purple Valley Trails (PVT) and designed and built by the firm Grindline Skateparks.

The event attracted students, local residents, and skating enthusiasts from across the region. It featured trick competitions, skills demonstrations from local skaters, and vendor booths selling skating accessories. Stretches of Stetson Road were closed Saturday in order to accommodate increased foot traffic in the area.

The event was dedicated to Max Rothschild, a seven-year-old Town resident who died in a bicycle crash in August. The skate park’s select committee, composed of Town officials and PVT board members, dedicated the park to Rothschild and named it in his honor after being given permission by Rothschild’s parents, according to PVT President Bill MacEwen.

The 8,500-square-foot park features terrain for street skating, which mimics roadways and utilizes rails, stairs and handrails, and a large bowl for vertical skating.

According to MacEwen, the total cost of the park’s construction was $750,000. MacEwen said that $350,000 came from the Williamstown Community Preservation Committee after Town voters approved the funding allocation at Town Meeting in May. Business sponsorships and individual donors accounted for the remainder of the funds. “A lot really came from the community,” he said in an interview with the Record. “That’s everyone from young people who skateboard who are pitching in 10, 20 bucks to really high net worth individuals that donated six figures.”

PVT is continuing to raise funds in order to add lights and an informational kiosk to the park, MacEwen added. Although PVT was responsible for securing fundraising and coordinating the park’s construction, the Town’s Department of Public Works provided additional support by assisting in remodeling the landscaping surrounding the park, such as trees and fencing, he explained.

MacEwen said that the PVT has had difficulty securing Town funding to promote recreational opportunities in the past. “It was pretty cool that this past funding round, the Town made a big bet on the skate park and went all [in] on this pretty significant recreation project,” he added.

MacEwen explained that the skate park differs from other recreational areas in Town because it is geared towards children and young adults.

Assistant Professor of Physics Graham Giovanetti was in attendance at the event. Although his sons are not avid skaters now, Giovanetti said he hoped the new park will encourage them to try a new activity. “If you’re not a soccer, baseball, basketball, hockey player, there’s less opportunity to recreate and have some sort of community-oriented activity,” he said in an interview with the Record. “Skateboarding has a wrinkle of organized sport, but it’s self-driven and self-motivated, and I think it’s a great thing actually for the kids.”

In addition to local residents, avid skaters from across the region traveled to the opening and multiple experienced skaters competed in skills competitions judged by local skateboarding enthusiast Justin Maruco. The competitions had tiers for intermediate and advanced skaters with the winner of the latter receiving a $500 cash prize.

Attendee and skater Floyd Robinson traveled approximately 45 minutes from Cambridge, N.Y., to be at the grand opening. He said the Town’s embrace of the park is integral to shifting attitudes towards the skating community. “Twenty years ago, skateboarders were given such a bad rap like, ‘Oh, we’re the bad kids,’ and all this stuff,” he said in an interview with the Record. “So having a skate park like this where people can come hang out and meet like-minded individuals, it’s great.”