SANDPOINT, Idaho — It's possible, Rory Whitney said, looking over at kids dipping into the bowl at the Concrete Lake, that one of them is a future Olympian.
Whitney, owner of the 7B Boardshop in downtown Sandpoint, was among several dozen people at the Sandpoint skatepark Thursday to celebrate the groundbreaking of a long-hoped-for second phase.
"It's very fulfilling, seeing the excavators down here moving dirt and stuff like that," said Whitney, who was one of those kids dipping into the bowls at the skatepark's launch 19 years ago. "It makes me happy. It's been a long, hard-fought battle, and I think the kids in this town deserve the best park we can give them. What we're doing here makes me very happy."
Thursday's groundbreaking ceremony of the Concrete Lake Skatepark expansion marked the launch of a quick project that they expect to be finished by mid-August. Crews were already hard at work tearing out asphalt and mapping where the new features will go.
While the second phase is an active construction zone, Planning Community Development Director Jason Welker said the city anticipates being able to keep the project's first phase open throughout."This skatepark is probably the most used and the coolest thing we have in our city parks," Welker said. "It's been an important project for the city to expand it for a long time, and we're super stoked to be doing that."
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