Muncie skatepark to be built in Westside Park

<p>Community members met in the CAP building April 21 to discuss the future of Muncie's skatepark.&nbsp;Mary Freda&nbsp;// DN</p>

Community members met in the CAP building April 21 to discuss the future of Muncie's skatepark. Mary Freda // DN

Fifteen thousand square feet of skate and bike space have been designed to stretch part of along Cardinal Greenway, near Westside Park.

The Muncie Skatepark Initiative began in November, when community members came together to bring a skatepark to Delaware County.

“The skatepark will be a great asset to Muncie. Not only will it give local skateboarders an amazing place to ride skateboards, BMX and scooters, it will also draw in visitors from other communities and around the country,” community member and skateboard advocate Todd Swackhamer said in a press release.

RELATED: Community members create initiative to build skatepark in Muncie

Community members have teamed up with Hunger Skateparks, a company that designs and constructs skateparks.

"Muncie has been needing a skatepark for 15 years," co-owner of Hunger Skateparks Christy Wiesenhahn said. "It's like a basketball court, if you don't have one, you're way behind the times."

The company's design-and-build concept keeps Wiesenhahn and co-owner Bart Smith on the project from start to finish and allows for community input throughout the construction process. 

The duo has built skateparks in Indiana, Arkansas and Denmark, with most of their projects based in Indiana.

Currently, the team is working on a skatepark in New Castle. The project recently received a grant for $275,000, and the project is slated to be done in June and will feature influence based off Robert Indiana's work. Indiana is popular for his pop art works, including the "LOVE" sculpture. 

The process behind the design, Wiesenhahn said, started with the question of, "How can we integrate what's interesting, what's important to New Castle?"

Wiesenhahn said a similar approach will be taken into consideration for the future skatepark in Muncie.

Currently, the project is still in its early stages. 

"We're not profiting from this, we're donating our time," landscape architect Josh Perkins said. "I'm not a skater personally. I just think it's a great project. I think its going to help a lot of folks. I think it's great for Muncie."

The project is still undergoing tweaks. The drawing was unveiled to community members Friday night and designers asked for community feedback. Wiesenhahn said the 3-D design will be unveiled in about a month. 

The Muncie Skatepark project doesn't have a slated completion date; however, Perkins is shooting for spring or summer of 2018. 

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