Conceptual design renderings show what the Meridian Skatepark will look like when fully constructed.

The Meridian City Council is looking at several grant opportunities that can help take the city’s skatepark from a concept to construction.

Work on the skatepark began in May 2022 when the council approved $14,250 for Grindline Skateparks Inc., a skatepark construction company based in Seattle, Washington, to come to Meridian, meet with the local skating community and design a custom skatepark. The design, which was unveiled in November 2022, calls for a 10,000-square-foot park to be built at Ben Arthur Davis Park. Construction costs for the project were estimated at about $750,000.

In a work session Tuesday, council members heard from East Central Planning and Development District’s Lynnetta Cooksey about two grant programs that can chip away at the amount needed to be raised before work on the skatepark can begin.

The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks offers both a recreational trail grant and a land and water conservation grant, Cooksey said. The recreational trail grant is available each year and can be used for trails and trail-side facilities, she said.

In her research, Cooksey said she found some communities had used the recreational trail grant for skateboard trails. While ramps and other skatepark features wouldn’t qualify for the trail grant, it’s possible a portion of the park’s design will meet the grant criteria.

The grant awards a maximum amount of $120,000 and requires a 20% match, she said. The matching portion, however, can be in-kind, meaning the city can count labor and equipment costs for any in-house work on the project toward its 20% match.

The land and water conservation grant is offered every three years, with the next cycle coming in 2024. The conservation grant is much larger, Cooksey said, with a maximum award of $500,000. That grant is a 50/50 grant, meaning the city will need to match the grant funding dollar-for-dollar, she said.

For the matching portion, 50%, or $250,000, can come from in-kind work, Cooksey said, which lowers the amount of cash the city will need to put up to receive the grant funds.

“So if we want to apply for the grants, we need to come up with $250,000,” Councilman George Thomas said.

Councilwoman Ty Bell Lindsey, who has been the main representative of the council on the skatepark project and attended Tuesday’s work session via speaker phone, said she is also working on an application for a grant through the Tony Hawk Foundation, which rebranded in 2020 as The Skatepark Project. The organization provides grants, as well as guidance, to communities looking to build skateparks for their residents.

The Skatepark Project awards grants of up to $50,000, with the average grant award at around $10,000, according to the organization’s website.

Lindsey said her plan was to apply for all three grants and chip away at the $750,000 price tag as much as possible.

Cooksey said Meridian’s skatepark does check a lot of the boxes organizations look for on grant applications. The nearest skatepark is likely Laurel, which is more than an hour away, she said. The skatepark would be bringing a new recreational opportunity to Meridian residents, and, with the backing of the local skating community, the city can demonstrate a need for the park. On top of all that, she said, the city already has a design and construction documents ready to go.

The next step will be for Lindsey and Cooksey to get together and coordinate information on the skatepark. The two will also work to develop an information package on the city’s fundraising efforts, which shows the city is seeking money from multiple sources. That is something organizations like to see when awarding grants, Cooksey said.

Once all of the details are ironed out, Cooksey said she would come back to the council with resolutions for the council to approve formally authorizing all three grant applications before they are sent off.