BELFAST — As Belfast continues longtime efforts to rejuvenate its downtown and waterfront, one longstanding park has gotten a much-needed face-lift.

Eric Overlock Memorial Skatepark was built in 1999, with the aid of a $150,000 donation from MBNA, the now-defunct credit card company that once resided in the buildings where Athena, Bank of America, and On Process currently reside.

The park, at 29 Washington Street, has received maintenance since its creation, with the last major work party taking place in 2017, according to Overlock Park Redevelopment Project Manager Heather Q. Hay.

The skatepark, which is also known as Overlock Park, is overseen by the Belfast Parks and Recreation Department, who has ensured it has remained safe to use during its 20-year history.  

While the most recent community work party, which was held Saturday, June 1, fixed structural issues and added a fresh coat of paint, the future of the skate park looks decidedly different.

“We’re fixing up this one so that we can have events here and so people can skate here, but the ultimate goal is to turn it into an inground park with green space around. It will be much easier to upkeep and it will be an actual park so people will be able to come in. Picnic tables, benches, and [people can] look out over the bay,” Hay said.

The group went to the Belfast City Council “to fill them in,” and propose that the inground park be built in its place. Hay said the city completely supported the idea, which was confirmed by Belfast City Councilor Mike Hurley. 

Overlock Park was named after Eric Overlock, a skater and area student who died from an allergic reaction in 1999. He was 14 at the time of his death. Though Hay said she didn’t personally know Overlock, she said he has a reputation as having been “the nicest guy.”

Fellow park supporter and work party participant Allison Harrell, who works at Belfast’s Game Loft, said she thinks that having the skate park provides a valuable service as a place for area teenagers an activity to participate in, and a place where it is safe to do so.

While many teenagers enroll in sports, drama or other extracurriculars, there are some kids who prefer other outlets, such as skateboarding.

“I think especially in a rural community, giving kids options, you know, activities that they want to participate in, that are free, is really important. So right here in the downtown area, to give the kids and the community something the kids really want to do and that they can come and they can utilize at their own leisure. I think what’s important too... is they have some freedom here,” Harell said.

“It’s for them,” Hay added, a sentiment immediately echoed by Harrell.

Although skating on the sidewalks downtown is prohibited, Harrell said she sees it happening frequently, which highlights the need for a safe, designated area to use.

Both Harrell and Hay see the future park as being very much a part of the downtown scene rather than tucked away at the end of a parking lot.

There is also interest in connecting the future inground Overlock Park to the Harbor Walk and Front Street, which Hay theorized would likely be accomplished with stairs given the steep hill currently separating them.

As for the ideal timeframe for the project, Hay said that she would love to break ground in the spring of 2021, which means “lots of fundraising” from now on. The group is planning to use grants, community fundraisers, and other events to raise money for the project, which will cost an estimated $150,000 to complete, according to Hay.

“[We’re] really trying to make it something that’s in line with the Harbor Walk and what’s already in place in the town and I think that the park being what it is now and attracting the use that it does now is just proof that once we make it more beautiful and we make it a real draw to the town, it’s going to bring in a lot of activity, not just from the local youth, but people who are coming,” Harrell said of the park’s potential.

Though most of the work party’s volunteers spent their time painting, or fixing ramps, there were several skaters who couldn’t wait for their chance to try out the freshly repaired fixtures.

John Seekins, a 20-something area skater, stood atop a ramp with a fellow skater about half his size, both taking trips down one of the ramps when the area cleared enough to allow it.

Seekins said he basically grew up in the park, beginning in 2006, though he was riding scooters to start with.

When asked why he thought it was important for the area to have a skate park, Seekins said that there are many different disciplines in skateboarding, but skating on streets alone can “get stale,” he said.

“Most people start out on the street just learning to ollie and kick-flip, and that can get kind of stale, so it’s a lot of fun to learn something different on the curved ramps, like the rails and stuff. It’s just kind of a different style that I think it’s important to be a well-rounded skateboarder to be in the skate park and this one is the best in the Midcoast,” Seekins said.

Nine-year-old Finn Cotrell, a Winterport student, said he started coming to the park three years ago after his dad decided it would be good for him to experience skateboarding beyond street skating, which he said he took up around four or five.

When asked what he might say to kids who may be unsure about trying skateboarding, Cotrell said he had a friend going through the same nerves.

“There is a funny thing about that, I actually have a friend who thinks if he can’t land a trick he’s going to make a fool of himself and I’ve been trying to convince him to start but he just won’t,” Cotrell said.

Seekins said he doesn’t think fear of being made fun of for falling is much of an issue since falling is simply a part of learning new tricks, which take roughly a year to master, he said.

“Every time I come to the skate park I’m expecting to fail. That’s how you learn,” he added.

Despite the inevitability of falling - likely a lot - Seekins said there are many positive things to take from skateboarding, other than the satisfaction of landing a trick or the thrill of speeding down a ramp.

“It teaches you a lot of good life skills, like perseverance, because you’re not going to learn it the first time. If you just give up then that’s not good,” he said.

While perseverance may be required to master any new skill, it was also the only thing that led to the creation of Overlock Park to begin with.

The idea that Belfast ought to have its own skate park began as a thought in the mind of David Smith, who in 1999 had taken his teenage son and a friend to a skate park in Portland.

Smith said he ended up in a conversation with the boys, who were involved in rollerblading at the time, that led him to begin working to try and build a skate park for Belfast.

Smith and a now-deceased friend, Skip Pendleton, spent the next two years working hard to figure out how to turn the vision into reality.

Finding a suitable downtown location for the park was a challenge, and after looking at various locations around the city, they looked at the end of the city parking lot on Washington Street, which the City agreed to let them use.

During this time, a variety of area youth had come together to discuss what kind of park they wanted, the kind of ramps, etc., including bikers, skateboarders, and rollerbladers. Despite having a location and plans, the group was still short one fundamental component: money.

The $150,000 estimated cost could have posed a bigger issue than it did, solved by a donation from MBNA.

“Walter Ash called me and said, Mike, I’ve got a check in my hand for $150,000 from MBNA. So we built the park,” Smith said, adding that local youth intent on using the area came together to create the design of the park.

“They all kind of got together and figured out a design for this park. The original park had a half-pipe, a great big scary half-pipe, which was kind of underutilized because it was so extreme, I think,” Smith said. “Now, here we have a whole different situation. The park is run down, it’s old and it needs to be replaced at some point…”

While the current park has been freshly painted and structurally repaired, a replacement is on the horizon in 2021, removing the dream park of 20 years ago to bring in a modern, aesthetically pleasing incarnation.

Erica Thoms can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com