Long-awaited skatepark naming is Saturday
Late parks director Carl Saldutti to be recognized at park he inspired
LANSDALE >> It’s been one of the busiest spots in Lansdale for nearly a year now, and Saturday will bring a new name a decade in the making.
At 10 a.m. on April 10, borough officials will make it official, naming the “Carl W. Saldutti Memorial Skate Park” after the man who was key in making it happen.
“Be there: it’ll be a great celebration,” said councilwoman Mary Fuller.
The skate park officially opened in July 2020, after nearly a decade of discussion and planning led largely by Saldutti, the borough’s parks and recreation director for just shy of 40 years until he passed away in October 2018. Saldutti began advocating for a skate park somewhere in town
as early as 2003, then oversaw countless hours of public discussions to identify a site, get feedback from local skaters who had converted a basketball court in the Wedgewood neighborhood, grade several locations based on various criteria, then select the Fourth Street Park location and refine a design.
Council members have hinted since construction began in late 2019 that the park could ultimately bear Saldutti’s name, and voted in August 2020 to make that official, while holding off on a formal ceremony due to ongoing COVID-19 concerns — and to hold the event on Saldutti’s birthday, April 10.
Karl Lukens, Saldutti’s successor as parks director, told council Wednesday night that a decorative stone has been placed at the park where a plaque honoring Saldutti will be placed, and a temporary plaque is already in-hand if the permanent one does not arrive in time.
“So long as it gets here before 3 p.m. Friday, we can get it installed, otherwise we have a temporary one that looks identical,” Lukens said.
“The speaker is down there, we’ll have tents and
chairs ready to go, and the rock is already put in place, that it gets mounted on,” he said.
Contractors working on the skate park project have already completed repairs to portions of the pathway running alongside the skate area itself, borough staff have similarly fixed a damaged section of the guard rail installed between the skate area and the parking lot, and new grass seed has been planted around the site, Lukens told the committee.
Fuller said she was keeping an eye on weather forecasts for that day, and said
the ceremony should be held regardless of weather — “and I’ll do my best to hold it together, but no promises,” when remembering Saldutti.
“No matter what the weather is, we’ll have a good day,” Fuller said.
Staff have also scheduled a skateboard camp for those interested in learning how to ride, safety basics, and tricks, from 9 a.m. to noon on July 5-9. The program is open to kids ages seven to 13 for $325 for the week, with details and online registration available on the borough’s website.
As a final note, Fuller encouraged
residents to watch WHYY TV’s April 1 episode of “Movers and Makers,” which heavily featured Lansdale’s skate park and designer Jesse Clayton’s 5th Pocket Skateparks, along with interviews of borough Manager of Community Development Jason Van Dame, and skaters A’vier Sanchez, Evan Breder, and Samantha Mumford.
“It has a lot of great footage of people enjoying that skate park. It’s great to watch that,” Fuller said.