Several dozen attend launch party in hopes of building a skate park in Morton

With pizza and drinks served, Morton Action Sports Alliance (MASA) members held their new nonprofit's official launch party April 16 at Morton's Roxy Theater, with the goal of beginning fundraising efforts and gathering ideas to get a new skate park constructed in the East Lewis County community.

The park won't just be for local skateboarders, though, as rollerbladers, scooter riders, BMX bikers and more will be able to use the park, MASA President Megan Petersen and Vice President Jason Sawyer explained.

"We are in a skate park desert," Petersen said. "... There's so many activities to do out here that we don't get to utilize, or it isn't accessible to us. But we're in such a beautiful area. We get a lot of people going up to White Pass, a lot of recreation. But really all we have is our homes, school or work, and maybe some hiking trails and going down to the river. There's so much space. We really need more activities out here."

Currently, skateboarders and other action sports enthusiasts have to travel an hour or more in order to get to a skate park. While Centralia has Fuller's Twin City Skate Park, it is in dire need of renovation and is still around an hour from Morton.

MASA members have already started talks with Grindline Skateparks Inc., a Seattle-based landscape architect firm that specializes in skate park construction.

"They've done over 100 skate parks around the Pacific Northwest," Petersen said.

Based on construction costs of skate parks built in small rural communities of similar size, Petersen expected the park to cost around $800,000 - which included design and engineering costs along with construction.

As for funding this park, while donations are being accepted, Sawyer stated they hoped to get the majority funding from grants and local businesses interested in sponsoring the project.

"We're not asking for you guys to come up with 850K," Sawyer said.

Instead, he asked attendees to advocate for the skate park's construction at Morton City Council meetings. Sawyer is also currently a Morton City Council member.

The grant MASA is hoping to get is a Washington state Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO) Youth Athletic Facilities grant, which has a grant limit of $1.5 million and requires a 50% match, according to the RCO's website.

Youth Athletic Facilities grants are aimed to help communities develop or renovate outdoor athletic facilities like ball fields and courts, swimming pools, mountain bike trails and skate parks.

In order to get the grant, though, they need community input from locals and are currently collecting stories from a survey on MASA's website, due by April 27. Stories are to include how long the writer has been skating, blading or biking, why the project matters to them and their family and how they think a skate park can improve Morton.

To submit a story to MASA for inclusion with their RCO Youth Athletic Facilities grant application, enter it at MASA's website at https://www.mortonactionsports.org/contact-us.

"Every community activity that we put in our application is really gonna help us lock in that state funding," Petersen said.

Along with the grant, Petersen and Sawyer crowdsourced local businesses they intend to approach offering sponsorship opportunities, that way local fundraising efforts will only have to account for about 20% of the project.

As for the proposed skate park's location, nothing has been confirmed or approved by the City of Morton, but MASA has their eyes on building the park at the east end of Gust Backstrom City Park near the Morton Elementary School.

Sawyer added skate parks have benefits even for those who aren't into action sports, as people can simply spectate and socialize with friends.

"(We need) activities that aren't necessarily four-wheeling and hunting and fishing. Those are all really fun, but like, let's do some other stuff too, to kind of keep the kids involved," Sawyer said.

Petersen said a skate park can have the added benefit of being a place where concerts and other kinds of events can also be held.

Should MASA's efforts to get a skate park in Morton prove to be successful, members of the nonprofit hope to grow facilities for other action sports including the installation of things like pump tracks or mountain biking trails.

For more information on MASA, visit its website at https://www.mortonactionsports.org/ or follow the nonprofit on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mortonactionsports/ and https://www.instagram.com/mortonactionsports/.

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