For the past few years, Portsmouth has been making a rather impressive comeback. The city has been implementing new ideas in hopes of creating more buzz for the city. With the talk of comeback comes the most ambitious project Portsmouth has taken on. This project is a $300,000 skate park. The skate park is an ambitious addition to Portsmouth; it will be able to compete in size with skate parks in much larger cities.

When will this skate park be open?

The city of Portsmouth is hoping to have the construction of the skate park completed around Thanksgiving of 2019.

Where will money for this skate park come from?

Portsmouth received a $156,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. They also received $10,000 from the Tony Hawk Foundation. SOMC has donated $10,000 and Shawnee State University’s Development Foundation has donated just over $1,000.

Where will the park be?

This park will be located at Weghorst Park, located on the corner of 4th Street and Jefferson Street in Portsmouth.

Who is designing this park?

The city is working closely with Spohn Ranch, a skate park design firm based in Industry, California. They have helped build skate parks across the United States.

How can I help?

North Shore Printing is currently selling t-shirts to raise funds for the skate park. These shirts can be found in their shop located at 1105 Gallia Street. According to the Portsmouth Skatepark Project Facebook page, “Don Pendleton of Alien Workshop has designed the second Portsmouth Skatepark Project t-shirt. His talent pops up everywhere from fine art museums and murals around the globe to dozens of skateboards and snowboards. His work has been featured on Vans shoes, craft beer and Mountain Dew cans. One of his most famous art pieces, the album artwork for Pearl Jam’s “Lightning Bolt,” won him a Grammy for “Best Recording Package” in 2015.’’