The Jasper Skatepark Committee has just stomped its latest trick: obtaining a $125,000 grant from the provincial government’s Community Facility Enhancement Program (CPEF).

Committee spokesman Darrell Savage got the news on Saturday. He said the funding will help ensure concrete is being poured in 2024.

“This is a turning point for us,” Savage said.

The skatepark’s final location is still to be voted on by council, but administration has indicated that the preferred option among stakeholders is at Centennial Park’s Diamond A; that spot fits the needs of the local skatepark committee as well as the park’s design/construction consultants, New Line Skateparks, MOJ’s Director of Operations John Greathead has said. In 2021, council committed $300,000 to the cost of the build.  

In August, the Jasper Skatepark Committee learned that their project was approved for a $91,363 Health Community Initiatives Grant from the federal government, and in 2020, the Jasper Volunteer Fire Brigade voted to match community donations up to $50,000. 

“A skatepark is such a good community investment,” JVFB member Sean Fitzgerald said at the time. “The cost to the user is low, there’s a low barrier for entry and it gets people moving.”

It also captures users from a wide spectrum. Skateparks’ best asset are their inclusivity, Fitzgerald, a local physiotherapist, has said.

Savage, who formed the Jasper Skatepark Committee in 2016 after local youth, through Community Outreach Services’ youth and teen outreach programming got the initial ball rolling, said the onset of spring will hopefully spur fundraising momentum. The committee is about $100,000 shy of its financing goals, he said.

“At this point, we’re so close, hopefully more people want to chip in and we can finish strong.”

Savage will present to Jasper Municipal Council with a project update on April 18.

“The support from the community has been one of the best things to come out of this,” he said.

Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com