Pump Track Rolling Toward Greenwood Lake
A pump track and skatepark bowl are being planned.
Plans to build a skateboard park in Stanley Deming Park recently morphed into plans for a pump track, as members of GWL Skatepark Corp., a nonprofit, met with Warwick Town Supervisor Jesse Dwyer and Greenwood Lake Mayor Tom Howley.
“It made sense to have something a little different,” said Howley, although a smaller skatepark bowl will be constructed nearby.
Formation of GWL Skateboard Corp. had been prompted by the death, in a 2016 car accident, of an avid Greenwood Lake skateboarder, Dale Hirrel, then 16 and a high school senior.
Howley said he was encouraged to pursue the pump track by his Elks Club friend John Faggione, executive director of Port Jervis Recreation Department, who cited the success of the pump track built by the Outdoor Club of Port Jervis. City kids of all ages as well as adults and others from around Orange County have kept the pump track busy daily since its construction, according to Michael Ward, president of the Outdoor Club and, with his wife Sarah, funder of the pump track
“It’s always busy,” said Ward. “During the week, 20 to 30 ride it at lunch breaks, and 40 to 60 come on weekend days for aerobic exercise. It’s designed so riders are aerobically pumping, using the momentum of their bodies to go up and down the humps and bumps. It’s not a BMX track for tricks. That would never fly because of insurance costs.”
A trick track would have bigger humps and smaller spaces between them, more conducive to flips, he said, although some riders seem to fly between humps.
“Dave King made it enjoyable for all,” Ward said of the man who designed and built the Port Jervis track.
The Greenwood Lake process will be different, Howley said, with one set of bids for track design, and then another set of bids for building the track. Because cutting trees after November is prohibited, to prevent displacement of endangered bats, he expects track building to begin in the spring, he said.
Howley estimates the Warwick pump track will cost about $350,000, including $200,000 from a grant and $150,000 from fundraising. He described the track placement as, viewed from the Chase Bank across from the park, to the right, where a row of trees now stands, which will be cut down.
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