After years of deterioration and months of construction, the skate park at Bittner Park is once again open to the public, complete with refinished ramps and rails for skaters and newly paved pickle ball courts and a basketball court for the rest of the pubic to enjoy. The grand opening of the park is set for Sunday, Aug. 27.

Parks & Recreation Director Rick Maynard said the park has been closed since last fall as crews demolished the old court surfaces and put in new post-tension concrete.

“The skate park is divided in two really,” he said. “It is 80 feet wide by about 200 feet long and about half of it is the skate park equipment with all the ramps and jumps and the backside are pickle ball courts, which we had before, but now they are all formally lined and painted. Perpendicular to that is the basketball courts to the pickle ball courts are actually laid over the basketball court.”

In addition to the new surface, Maynard said one of the local contractors offered to paint the lines on the courts for free. In the center of the park is the Park & Recreation logo and while the skate park equipment is not new, Maynard said it did get a bit of a facelift.

“In prep for all of this, the Parks & Rec crew, along with the facilities department crew, re-painted all of the ramps—the tops, bottoms, sides, everything—and they look almost brand new, so it is going to look like a brand new facility,” he said. “The surface certainly is and the ramps are going to look new because they are all freshly painted.”

With the addition of a basketball court at the park, Maynard said he hopes to see more people take advantage of this particular park.

“I always loved the fact that there were senior citizens playing pickle ball on one half while kids or teens were skateboarding on the other half,” he said. “It was kind of great seeing that—we have an inter-generational thing going on. Now we will have two pickle ball courts and the basketball court, which is brand new.”

To celebrate and highlight the new park facility, Maynard said the department decided to move the annual back-to-school bash, traditionally held at Jacobs Beach, to Bittner Park. The skate park has been open to the public for about a week, but Maynard said an event like this would be a good way to officially open the park.

“We decided that because we have this re-opening of this facility that has been closed since fall that lets have a re-dedication and this back to school blast, instead of doing this at Jacobs Beach, let’s do it at Bittner,” he said.

The bash is Sunday, Aug. 27 from 3 to 5:30 p.m. at Bittner Park. The event includes activities for kids, inflatables, basketball games, access to the skate park, pickle ball demonstrations, food, and a band.