At a special session of Athens City Council Monday, council members voted 7-0 to grant the skate park project the additional $22,000 needed to begin construction.
City council had originally authorized funding of $292,000 for the skate park to be built at East State Street Park. The city will pay $50,000 and the rest will be repaid through donations and fundraisers, such as the $50,000 donated from the Ohio University campus recreation department.
But the city received only one bid for the project for $314,000, most likely because they required any contractor to have previous experience building a concrete park, said Kevin Schwartzhoff, city recreation director.
He said many Ohio parks were built by companies that did not have experience building skate parks, which led to future problems with the parks.
The ordinance adopted at Monday's special session did not increase the city's financial responsibility to the project, said Councilwoman Carol Patterson, D-2nd ward. The rules were suspended for the ordinance so it could be adopted in time for construction to begin before too much of the construction season is lost.
Council members also adopted an ordinance to begin advertising bids for the landscaping project on East State Street.
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