Warsaw Parks Department is seeking funds to relocate Mantis Skate Park to Richardson Dubois Park. Photo from the Warsaw Parks Department.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — It’ll cost an estimated half million dollars to relocate the city of Warsaw’s skate park from Boggs Industrial Park to Richardson Dubois Park near Fribley Field.

At the Board of Public Works and Safety meeting Friday, May 6, Warsaw Parks and Recreation Department Superintendent Larry Plummer requested permission to apply for an $80,000 Dekko Foundation grant to help fund the proposed skate park project.

“We tried in 2019 to move the skate park there to do a concrete bowl half and half with the ramps we had. We didn’t get the funding from the state so we asked the park board two months ago if we could try this again, and this is our efforts to try again. We want to apply for this grant through the Dekko Foundation, one of many foundations that we’ll be applying to,” he said.

Total cost of the project is about $500,000 for a concrete bowl, he said.The current skate park — Mantis Skate Park — is at 400 Little League Drive.

Warsaw Mayor Jeff Grose said, “We have a very nice skate park in Boggs, but the goal has and continues to be, can we get it to Market Street, Fribley Field, that area. And it’s a very nice park that we have, but this certainly would be a very upscale ± probably a lot safer, and it’s closer to residential neighborhoods and it’s on the Market Street pedestrian and bicycle path.” He said he thinks it’ll be an excellent move and he appreciated Plummer’s work on it.

“It’s been since about 2005 that we got the grant from the K21 (Health) Foundation to build the current skate park out there. We’ve reconditioned those twice now,” Plummer said. “It will alleviate a lot of the maintenance that we do now. Every day is maintenance out there … and this will eliminate a lot of that. So, hopefully, we can raise the funds to make this happen.”

Board member George Clemens made the motion to allow Plummer to apply for a Dekko grant, Grose seconded it and it passed 2-0. Board member Diane Quance was absent.