Danby resident leads effort for covered skate park

Danby may soon be getting a new covered skate park.

On a quiet piece of town-owned land at 15 Bald Hill Rd., one of the town’s residents has a plan to renovate an old three-sided shelter once used by the town highway department, turning it into an attraction for local youth, complete with a small halfpipe.

In a local survey of Danby residents distributed by the Danby Youth Commission, several of them listed a skate park as their number-one choice for a new place to spend time, and Zachary Larkins, who resides close to the Bald Hill property, hopes to make that dream a reality.

“To have something covered in this area seemed hard to pass up,” Larkins said. “It’s a beautiful property by a cemetery, by the creek.”

The structure is 24 by 40 feet. “So it is not large,” Larkins said.

The project recently received Danby Town Board approval to pursue an engineering study for the site as the next step in the process: to have an engineer come out to the site and design a structural retrofit to salvage the barn.

“It’s a really low-budget project,” Larkins said. “Purposefully, I want to reach out to the community members and get their input. I don’t want to just bulldoze and go ahead with it.”

“There’s a general excitement about it and a lot of support for the idea,” Joel Gagnon, Danby town supervisor, said.

Within the last month, according to Gagnon, the residents living near the proposed skate park were sent a letter informing them of the project.

“We had overwhelmingly positive feedback,” Gagnon said.

One potential negative aspect of the project, pointed out by a Danby resident, is that the driveway is located on a curve in the road.

Gagnon said this is a valid observation but not something he is particularly concerned about.

“It’s less than 100 yards from an intersection, so you’re not going to be going 100 miles-per-hour through that curve, anyway,” Gagnon said, adding that some of the issue could also be remediated by trimming the surrounding vegetation.

There was some discussion of constructing a skate park at Dotson Park, but as it is owned by a not-for-profit corporation (Danby Community Park Association), it was found that the necessary liability insurance would be cost-prohibitive.

Larkins said many people have offered to help with the covered skate park’s structural and concrete work. He also plans to start a fundraising campaign.

“It’s going to look like a barn from the 30s on the outside and on the inside, there’s going to be brand new plywood to mitigate sound for the neighbors, and with that, concrete recessed partially into the ground,” he said. 

There is room on the site for a playground, which is something Larkins said he would like to see added in the future.

Another potential local feature, listed as a sought-after item in the survey, was a graffiti wall. Larkins said the idea would pair well with the skate park.

“I would love to see [the graffiti wall] happen, because it’s going to be tagged anyway,” he said.  

Larkins has spent two decades in the construction industry and moved to Danby in 2023. He has lived in Walla Walla, Wash., Portland, Ore., and Austin, Texas. He is running for a spot on the Danby Town Board in the upcoming November election. 

Larkins was an avid skateboarder in his younger years and remains a fan of the sport. “It’s great, because you don’t have to be on a team, there are no set rules, the exposure to art is huge — I’ve skated in art museums,” he said, adding that it gave him an opportunity to travel as well.

“I’m not going to try to relive my glory days,” he said with a laugh, recalling the lessons he learned from the sport as a child.

“It sounds dumb,” he said, “but there’s something about throwing yourself on the ground and getting back up again. It really builds resiliency.”