Donation of lighting offers safe skating after dark

LACONIA — When dusk fell on the city’s skate park, skaters would continue their practice by the headlights of parked cars. Those days are over.

The park now dons a set of four lights, allowing skaters to safely carry on after sunset.

The funding and some labor for the lights were donated by the Skate Board — pun intended — a nonprofit organization that raises money for improvements and maintenance to the park. 

The lights, installed in late September, bring increased safety and visibility to a park that, according to Parks and Recreation Department Director Amy Lovisek, is used constantly by people of all ages. 

The lights, Lovisek said, also are a demonstration of the local skating community’s investment in the park’s success and longevity. 

“The Skate Board answered the call of the city council and parks department,” Lovisek said. “They really stepped up.”

The board was founded by Dan Lasata, a local skater, when the park was first constructed in 2020, adjacent to Opechee Park on North Main Street.

“It was the fastest birth of anything municipal that I’ve ever seen,” Lovisek said. The project came together in mere months. 

The park’s construction was informed by a public meeting where members of the local skating community of all ages shared their vision for the new park. 

In exchange for shouldering the upfront construction costs, the city asked the skating community to form a nonprofit organization and raise money for maintenance and improvements, such as lights and landscaping. 

The city wanted to see — and has seen — the local skating community take ownership of the resource, Lovisek said: there were no costs to the city from the light installation.

In the two years since it opened, the Skate Board has used park jams, skating contests, T-shirt drives and donations and sponsorships to meet the park’s need for lights, according to Lasata.

Just as the park's initial construction was informed by the vision of local skaters, Lovisek said, the Skate Board put thoughtful work into getting the lighting right. 

After the results of a lighting study, and with a mind to minimizing light pollution, the park has one ambient light that is always on and three lights on a timer. This means that if a skater or biker is mid-trick when a light’s timer expires they won’t be left in the dark, but also that the lights won’t be on any longer than users need.

Lasata described how rewarding it has been to see the popularity of the park. 

“It has been so fulfilling, as a parent and a skater, to see the park filled with kids every afternoon,” Lasata said. “It makes me wonder what local kids were doing before they had this.” 

Lasata, who is in his 40s, frequented an indoor park in Meredith in his youth and is glad that local kids — and adults — now have a venue to call their own. 

“We gave kids an outlet, like I used to have,” Lasata said. 

Lasata said the park is used by a wide age range: he enjoys getting to be a mentor to younger skaters and a peer to those returning to the sport. 

“I’m the old skater telling kids to pick up their trash and take care of the park,” Lasata said. “But some also turn to me for advice or tips. It’s great to be able to give back.”

The park has been instrumental in developing and reinvigorating the skating community locally, Lasata said. 

“I love it when other adults come to the park and tell me, ‘I get to skate again,’” Lasata said. 

Fundraising efforts to improve and maintain the park are a perpetual endeavor, according to Lasata. “The more money we raise, the more we are able to take off the plate" of the parks department, he said. 

Lasata expressed gratitude to the city for taking on the initial heavy lift of funding the park’s construction and for being open-minded and inclusive of the interests of local skaters. 

“I hope they see the benefits as much as I do.”