The High Point Action Sports Park held its grand opening on Friday in State College, where dozens of people of all ages came to skate and bike.
“Can you believe it? State College, we finally have our very first public skate park," said John Saxton, a member of the Highpoint Park Skate Park Committee.
Saxton said the total cost of the park was more than $2 million. Grants covered most of the cost.
The park has about 20,000 square feet of concrete, including ramps, stairs and rails for skaters. Construction began last summer, but the idea has been years in the making.
"When the borough first began seriously studying the idea of an action sports park more than a decade ago, a lot of people didn't think this day would ever arrive," said Evan Myers, the State College Borough president. "For too long, local kids and people older than kids were skating downtown, on campus and in parking lots because there was really no place designed for them to go."
State College Mayor Ezra Nanes said the park isn't designed just for skateboards.
"You could bike, you could rollerblade, you could roller skate, you could take a wheelchair in here," Nanes said. "It's designed for everybody to access it, and that really ties in with the core values of who we are as a community."
The skate park on West Whitehall Road is open from dawn to dusk. Nighttime skating isn’t allowed, and there are no lights at the park.
