Who is Friends of the St. Joseph Skatepark
We are a grassroots coalition of local residents, skaters, BMX riders, parents, and community advocates. Our shared goal is to improve St. Joseph’s parks and create safe, engaging spaces for our youth to enjoy. Together, our team brings over a century of combined experience in action sports, drawing on inspiration and knowledge from skateparks we've visited all across the country.
Why is there a need for a new skatepark?
Officially, the current skatepark is over 25 years old, and the City of Saint Joseph has determined that the facility has reached the end of its usable life. Certain areas are simply too costly to repair, while others are no longer up to modern safety codes. As frequent users of the park ourselves, we decided to step back and look at this as a great opportunity. Instead of just putting band-aids on an aging facility, we get to start fresh and build a completely modern, world-class skatepark from the ground up.
Who can use the skatepark?
We are designing the park to be inclusive to everyone—skaters, bikers, inline skaters, scooter riders, everybody. The park is being thoughtfully laid out to incorporate zones of flow using the bowls, plaza area, and pumptrack.
We encourage all ages and skill levels
to come shred the space together.
What amenities will the park have?
With the park constructed in concrete we’re looking to incorporate a nice bowl area as a stand alone section. The second is a large street course or plaza style set up with different elevations for ledges and rails, another park section of transition with ledges and rails, and finally a stand alone pump track packed with transfers and a curved wall ride.
Can I share my ideas for the park?
Absolutely! We would love to hear from you! Nothing is set in stone yet! We’re currently in the design phase, so please feel free to email us and look for upcoming events/meetups.
How is the project funded?
By good people like you! We’re looking for all donors, private individuals, small businesses, corporations, grants. You name it, we’ll write them a letter of intent! We’re currently partnered with the Parks Foundation tax-deductible 501(c)(3) account held with Honer Credit Union. Online we have a secure account setup with Butter crowdfunding.
When will the new park open?
That is the big question! The short answer is: TBD. Optimistically, we are aiming for the fall of 2027 or spring of 2028. Of course, with your help, it could be even sooner!
Will the new skatepark be noisier now that it's moving to the back of Kiwanis Park?
As homeowners ourselves, we completely understand that your home is your sanctuary. The short answer is no. Unlike our current metal skatepark, the new park will be made of thick, dense concrete with smooth, seamless transitions, and some features will even
be built directly into the ground.
While we don’t have exact decibel numbers, a great way to picture the difference is to imagine knocking your hand on a metal sign, and then knocking on a concrete sidewalk. Concrete naturally absorbs sound (and it stays cooler
to the touch during the summer!).
Overall, the skatepark will be no louder than
the kids playing at the nearby Kaleidoscope Playground, and it will strictly follow
the same park hours.
What will replace the current skatepark once the new one is built?
While we do know that the old park’s metal ramps will definitely be torn down, the concrete pad is still in perfect shape. It’s smooth and large enough that the city did entertain the idea of pickle ball courts to be installed. While this is just one idea the intent is to not abandon the site but to add more activities to Kiwanis Park.
![[headshot] image of customer](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/69f577f1249e12246396ca4e/6ab17aa47d794b3f305c1b1b_pump_track.jpg)
