Emporia skate park to be demolished for t-ball fields

EMPORIA (KSNT) - Working for you, 27 News contacted the City of Emporia to confirm if the skateboard park at Santa Fe Park will be demolished.

Emporia Communications Manager Christine Torrens confirms the skate park at Santa Fe Park will eventually be demolished to make way for ball fields. Director of the Emporia Recreation Commission Tom McEvoy said the Emporia City Commission is hoping to have two t-ball diamonds constructed where the current skatepark is.

"It will get more use," McEvoy said. "Those programs are big [t-ball and softball], I don't know the number of skateboarders, that's something the city knows but for us on the recreation side of things, t-ball and machine pitch, the youngest of the kids bring the largest numbers of our summer time programs."

McEvoy said the skateboard park at Santa Fe Park was installed roughly 15-20 years ago. According to McEvoy, a Burlington Northern railway development resulted in one of the t-ball diamonds at Whittier Park being removed. McEvoy said there are only two usable t-ball diamonds currently at Whittier Park.

When asked about the cost of building new t-ball diamonds, McEvoy said they don't have any estimates and are waiting to hear back from their landscape architect. He said two t-ball diamonds with bleachers, fencing, ect. could cost $800,000. McEvoy hopes to get started on construction before the end of the year.

27 News asked if anything prevented the property owner, BNSF, from selling the property after investing in the land.

"Yes, the existing lease runs through the 2060s," Torrens responded.  

According to Torrens, the city is on a 99-year lease with BNSF which owns the land the Santa Fe Park is on. Torrens said the current contract with BNSF states that the city must use the property for ball fields.

"We would have to modify the lease to allow for construction of the new skateboard park," Torrens said. "BNSF wanted the City to go to a year-to-year lease if we had modified the lease."

In 2021, 13-year-old Maddox Gutierrez started a petition asking for improvements to be made to the Santa Fe Skateboard Park in Emporia. After 27 News covered the story, an anonymous local family made a quarter-million-dollar donation to the Kahola Lake Park Fund with the Emporia Community Foundation.

Earlier this year, the City of Emporia released design images for the new skate park that will be built at Whittier Park thanks to the donation and city funding.

The skate park construction is expected to begin in late summer 2024 with construction contingent on weather conditions.

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