The Silent Skate Scene of West Virginia
Larney Prendergast has been apart of the Morgantown skate scene for over two years now, but has only skated in town a handful of times.
Skating in West Virginia is a lost cause according to Prendergast, so she and all of her friends make the hour and a half drive to Pittsburgh, Pa. as many weekends as they can swing.
In all of North Central West Virginia, there are less than a handful of designated skateparks, all of which don’t meet Prendergast and her friends’ standards, as they travel out of the state several times a month to skate.
Prendergast describes the only skatepark in Morgantown, located at Marilla Park, as “mostly a bike park for kids,” with its three large metal ramps and elevated center island.
“Our park is like giant metal death traps,” said Prendergast.“People think of skateboarding and they think of these giant ramps... everybody thinks too big.”
Morgantown’s Board Of Parks And Recreation Commissioners, or BOPARC, provided the park with the “death traps” while the local skate community provided other smaller fixtures.
“Skateboarders raised the funds for that box and built these [rails] because we don’t have anything here,” said Prendergast.
Melissa Wiles, Executive Director of BOPARC, says the board lent a helping hand when community members supplied new items.
“More recently, a contribution was made by some of the regular skaters for an additional stand-alone ramp, which was installed by our staff.”
The skater-supplied additions at Marilla Park still aren’t enough to satisfy Prendergast and her friends with the current skatepark situation in Northern West Virginia.
“There’s nothing, we used to have a park in Fairmont, they took that away, the park here has barely anything, there’s nowhere to go,” said Prendergast.
The Fairmont park Prendergast is referring to, Palatine Skatepark, was torn down several years ago and now sits as a leveled empty lot one bridge away from Marion County’s Administrative offices.
Kris Cinalli, Marion County Administrator, says the skatepark became a safety hazard.
“It got to a point where it was so worn down, it became a safety issue. Parts of the ramps were getting rough, holes were coming out, and then when we got into looking at it, it was cost-prohibitive to fix.”
Cinalli claims the park just wasn’t being used enough to keep around.
“You can’t really skate well when the asphalt’s coming up and there’s cinders and rocks everywhere... When we set it up, there were a lot of people there, but towards the end it just wasn’t getting used quite as much.”
But Prendergast says people are still skating, just not at the parks due to their quality issues. “It’s not as easy as it is in a lot of other cities… That’s what stinks, maybe that’s everybody’s mentality and maybe that’s why there’s not a skate scene here, because we’re all going to skate somewhere else.”
As for the future of skateparks in the area, Marion County Parks and Recreation Commission, or MCPARC, Director Tony Michalski says it is possible that MCPARC could put more focus on skating.
Michalski said, “we currently do not have a skate park, but we are willing to work with any community groups to develop one at one of our existing park locations.”
Cinalli also encourages any skaters in the area to reach out to their local officials and let their concerns be heard.
“I do hate that there is nowhere that they can go, but if anyone has any interest in making that happen, I would be happy to have that conversation,” said Cinalli.
