New skate park to be located at festival grounds

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

If you build it they will come—or at least that is the hope of a group of Henning residents as they try to put the finishing touches on a new skate park in the community.

The Henning Skate Park committee is attempting to raise $45,000 to install a new skate park at the Henning Festival Grounds. The group received a $65,000 Bladin Community Boost Grant to purchase the equipment, while the remaining cost of the estimated $110,000 skate park will need to raised by local contributions. 

The current Bladin Community Boost Grant replaces a previous grant that Henning would have been eligible for following a 2020 retreat with residents from Henning, Battle Lake and Ottertail who attempted to find ways to problem solve and work with each other on community needs. 

“A group  got together to brainstorm ideas and one was a skate park,” said Dan Broten, who is not only park of the skate park committee, but also the original Blandin Foundation training. “It is a physical activity for youth, which is an under represented group in our town.”

Broten said the skate park committee originally requested $110,000 for the entire skate park, but was approved for just $65,000 by the Bladin organization. The committee is in need of raising the remaining $45,000 in order to make the park a reality.

“That got us the equipment, but not the rest,” he said of the grant. 

The equipment is already ordered and a Missouri-based company the skate park committee ordered the equipment from is waiting to get the green light before making the trek up north. While the group is attempting to raise $45,000 to complete the entire project, Broten said $30,000 is needed immediately in order to complete the ground work and the concrete pad where the skate park will be located. The remaining $15,000 is for enhancements and finishing touches that can be completed at a later date.

“We can have kids skating this summer if we get $30,000,” said Broten.

In addition to the new equipment, the skate park committee also received a pair of ramps from the City of Wadena that they no longer need for their own skate park. Broten said the donation will provide yet more possibilities for the new skate park, which will be quite similar to the skate park in Wadena when it is completed.

Broten said the group is hoping to raise the necessary $30,000 as quickly as possible in order to complete the work this summer. Donations for the new skate park, which will be located in-between the yellow storage building and the Henning Festival Pageant stage, can be made by dropping off a donation for the Henning Skating Park fund at First National Bank in Henning or mailed to PO Box 415 in Henning.