75K Dormitory Authority grant will not go toward Stony Point skate park

A $75,000 state grant recently procured by the Town of Stony Point toward the construction of a skate park and a dog park will ultimately go toward only the dog park.

In 2014, after lobbying State Senator William Larkin’s office, the town was able to gain the $75,000 in funds through a Dormitory Authority grant. That money, however, was only on paper and many regulatory hurdles remained before it would be announced and disbursed, Councilman Tom Basile told the Rockland County Times.

Ultimately, according to Basile, the Dormitory Authority would not release any funds toward the skate park under this particular grant because the monies would not have been nearly enough to complete the skate park.  Currently, about $30,000 of an anticipated $300,000 budget has been raised for the creation of the skate park at Vincent Clark Park on the Stony Point waterfront.

The town’s dog park will receive the entire $75,000 recreation grant, a sum that will be enough to complete the dog park.

Basile said, ” The Dormitory Authority determined two or three weeks ago that the skate park would not qualify for that particular grant.”

Lead skate park fundraiser Mike Ehlers had taken to social media to express his frustrations about lack of funding for the skate park.

“There are a lot of pots of money,” Basile said. “I explained to Mike we needed to go back to senator’s office and make a case for some other grant money.”

Basile told the Rockland County Times that the skate park project may need to be scaled back from its original budget estimate in order to ensure timely completion.  The skate park also needs to create an official design and construction plan in order to attract maximum available grant money, Basile said, adding that the lack of a design and plan is one reason the Dormitory Authority was not interested in disbursing funds to the project at this time.

More on this story Monday