By Ed Karvoski Jr., Contributing Writer
Southborough – Students from Neary Elementary and Trottier Middle schools are learning a new skill while enjoying a fun workout by attending a five-week skateboarding class. Perhaps they’re most excited to be among the first in town to test their wheels on the new skate park, which opened in August on a tennis court behind Finn Elementary School.
Offered by Southborough Recreation, the after-school program began Sept. 23 and will run through Oct. 21. Equally thrilled is its skateboarding instructor, Paul Ferguson, a 2012 Algonquin Regional High School (ARHS) graduate
“A lot of kids are interested in skateboarding now that we just got a park here,” he said. “They’ve seen other kids having a great time here and they want to try it, too.”
Ferguson knows firsthand about the years of lobbying for a skate park in town. While an ARHS sophomore, he joined the Southborough Skateboarding Committee. Without a driver’s license yet, it was difficult for him and friends to travel to nearby skate parks in Hopkinton, Hudson, Marlborough and Northborough.
Along with many teens and parents, Ferguson attended a selectmen’s meeting in 2009 to discuss a skate park in Southborough.
“We all wanted someplace where we could go, hang out and have a good time,” he recalled.
Throughout the following years, proposed locations including Choate Field at Woodward Elementary School and a vacant lot next to Fayville Hall were rejected.
“My buddies and I got really discouraged,” Ferguson acknowledged. “We’d still skate every day, but it wasn’t the same.”
In response to the public interest in the popular sport, Southborough Recreation began offering after-school skateboarding classes in 2009 outside the South Union Building with James Falconi instructing. This is Ferguson’s fourth year instructing, now at the newly opened skate park featuring various levels of wooden incline ramps, boxes and rails.
“I honestly don’t think it could be in a better location,” he said of Finn School. “It’s safe here because there are people everywhere on the baseball and soccer fields.”
Skateboarding instruction will be offered after school again in the spring. In the meantime, the skate park is open to the public. Hours of operation when school is open are Monday through Friday, 3 p.m. to dusk; and from dawn to dusk weekends, holidays and school vacations. Among the posted rules and regulations are required helmets for age 16 and younger; and elbow and knee pads are recommended.
“This is what we’ve been waiting for here in my own town,” Ferguson said. “It’s awesome to see so many people come to this skate park.”
For more information about Southborough Recreation and after-school programs, visit southborough.recdesk.com.
Photos/Ed Karvoski Jr.