GRANITE FALLS — A popular downtown park is in the middle of a four-year transformation that includes revamping the skate park, adding a picnic shelter and replacing playgrounds.
The Granite Falls City Council earlier this month approved a plan to put in $51,600 of new streetscape-style skating equipment at Jim Holm Park, right next to City Hall at 206 S. Granite Ave. The goal is to have a 60-by-60-foot concrete slab poured in July and the new equipment installed by the second week of August, city manager Brent Kirk said.
“We’re trying to get a short timeline so the kids have some time to play on it before the summer’s done,” he said.
The new skateboarding features are being tacked on to the existing park. City officials hope to replace the rest of the equipment next year.
Also this summer, workers are adding a new covered picnic shelter. That should be finished in the next month or so, Kirk said.
“This year the plan was to do something for the adults,” he said.
The city has invested about $210,000 in overhauling Jim Holm Park since 2014. The last two years were all about the kids. A new playground for little ones was added two years ago, and the play equipment for older kids was replaced last summer.
About a month ago, workers tore out a sand volleyball court that no one ever used, Kirk said. That area is being planted with grass to create more open space.
The park also has a new set of stairs leading down to it from the road and a drinking fountain is going to be added soon.
All of the changes have created a more welcoming atmosphere, Kirk said. He’s gotten a lot of good feedback from the community.
“It’s a totally new park,” he said.
While work continues on the park, the rest of downtown Granite Falls also is bustling with construction. More than $1.6 million worth of road, sidewalk and water line projects started in April and are expected to run through the summer. South Granite Avenue already has been torn up and repaved. Parts of Wabash Avenue and Pioneer Street also are getting reworked, including the addition of some parking areas with permeable pavement paid for through grant money. Pavement overlays are planned for part of the Mountain Loop Highway and Stanley Street, too.
“There’s probably more work going on this summer than there’s been in the last seven years I’ve been here,” Kirk said. “There’s a lot going on downtown.”
Kari Bray: 425-339-3439; kbray@heraldnet.com
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