FARMINGTON — Maine’s oldest public facility built for skateboarding is set for renovation this year.
On Tuesday, the Farmington Select Board approved a $253,250 bid from Cousineau Inc. of East Wilton to renovate the town’s Dragon’s Nest Skateboard Park.
The park, near Hippach Field on Prescott Street, opened in 1991 as the state’s first public skateboarding facility. Within a few years, maintenance issues and liability concerns forced the town to close it.
Officials later buried the park, and the site served as a children’s play area for nearly three decades.
In 2020, Eli Davis, a skateboarder from Wilton, and Seth Noonkester, then the general manager of Titcomb Mountain, worked with Farmington Parks & Recreation to excavate and repair the park at their own expense.
Renewed interest after 2020, including the formation of an after‑school skateboard program, spurred organizers to seek a further renovation of the park.
The Platform Group developed plans in 2023, mostly utilizing the existing footprint, to add a mix of features, including ledges, ramps and rails.
The renovation is expected to cover 5,500 square feet and be about 3 feet longer than the current concrete footprint.
While the existing park is at ground level, plans for the new design include a half‑pipe on one side and a quarter‑pipe on the other, raising the park about 4 feet above grade, with hills of loam bracketing each end of the park.
In addition to being the lower of the two bids the town received, Cousineau Inc. committed to completing the work this year, which is necessary to secure the federal grant funding that is expected to pay for nearly half of the project.
Cousineau Inc. said it does not have experience pouring concrete for skate parks and will subcontract that portion of the work to Rampage LLC.
Public Works Director Phil Hutchins said the town has $110,000 from a Land and Water Conservation Fund grant, $50,000 donated by the Bjorn family, $44,000 from the Maine Skate Park Association and $4,000 contributed by Seth Wescott, the Carrabassett Valley native and two‑time Olympic gold medalist in snowboard cross.
Farmington will also contribute $7,000 in in‑kind work from the Public Works Department.
The contributions total $215,000, leaving the project $38,250 short of the bid amount.
Hutchins said the remaining funds could be raised through donations from local businesses, possibly including Cousineau Inc., along with additional support from the Maine Skate Park Association and potentially the Downtown Municipal Tax Increment Financing District.
Select Board member Scott Landry Jr. moved to accept Cousineau Inc.ʼs bid and allow town officials and project supporters to begin fundraising. The board approved the motion unanimously.
“It’ll be nice to see this come to fruition,” Select Board Chairman Matthew Smith said. “It seems like we’ve been talking about it forever.”
Work is expected to begin in July and be completed by the end of October.
The board also approved a policy allowing Town Office cash transactions to be rounded to the nearest five‑cent increment when pennies are not available. The change follows the discontinuation of the penny, which has led banks to stop distributing the coins.
The policy applies only to cash transactions. The town will maintain an account to track any differences in cents, and pennies will continue to be accepted as legal tender.
