And although it’s called a skate park, this new addition to the local recreation scene isn’t just limited to skateboards and roller skates. Scooters, bikes, and anything else that has wheels but no motor is also welcome.

This was evident on Thursday afternoon when a skateboarder, two boys on BMX bikes and a handful of younger children on scooters rode through the curves and dips of the park.

“Everyone enjoys it,” Jason Drew said as he watched the children on Thursday afternoon. “Families enjoy it. It’s just fun to see the kids having fun.”

Drew is a skateboarder who was part of a design team that recommended features for the new park.

-Messenger photo by Bill Shea

Kids on scooters and bikes have fun at the new skate park in Fort Dodge on Thursday afternoon. The park opened earlier this summer and is open to skateboards, roller skates, scooters and bikes.

These features include quarterpipes, flat rails, an A-frame and a horseshoe bowl.

The new park is located at the north end of the former Sunkissed Meadows Golf Course, which is now a disc golf course. Nearby is a parking lot and a hiking kiosk with a plaque honoring former U.S. Rep. Tom Latham.

It is about three times the size of the city’s Dean Hearn Skateboard Park, which is located just below and west of the North Seventh Street Bridge. That older park remains open.

Dean Hearn Park opened in the late 1990s, pushed by the family of Dr. Kevin Schminke. The family convinced the city council to approve the park and then led the effort to raise the money to build it.

After the park had been in operation for about ten years, some skaters began to approach the city council and city staff and ask about the possibility of getting a bigger and better park.

Recently, City Council members Cameron Nelson and Lydia Schuur were contacted by avid skaters interested in a new park. These council members added the new skate park concept to the city’s list of capital improvement projects.

“This has been brewing for some time,” said Lori Branderhorst, the city’s recreation director.

The City Council hired Ankeny-based Snyder & Associates as project manager in January 2023 at a cost of $70,000.

According to Branderhorst, there were two design meetings where local skaters all made suggestions about the planned features of the park.

“That was her idea, not mine,” she said.

Spohn Ranch Skateparks of Los Angeles, California, was contracted by the City Council in July 2023 to build the park at a cost of $547,827. The city used $500,000 of its federal COVID relief funds to cover the majority of that cost, with the rest coming from a general obligation bond.

Branderhorst said the site was chosen because it is a good fit for the disc golf course, nearby hiking trails and other riverfront improvements, including the recently completed Matt Cosgrove River’s Edge Discovery Center.

“We thought this would be the perfect area,” she said. “It just seemed logical to include this piece.”

Although people have been using and enjoying the park for weeks, Branderhorst said it is not technically ready. She said that turf needs to be laid around the park. She said a second phase of work in the park will involve installing lighting, a drinking fountain and a restroom building.