Wright City has received a grant for $490,000 from the Land, Water and Conservation Fund to include a skatepark at their planned 62-acre park on Westwoods Road. 

The city first approved that park, located at the corner of Wildcat Drive and Westwoods Road in 2018, and development has been slow. 

Aldermen have stated while they may appear to be dragging their feet, they are being careful with the way they spend the city’s money, especially since a previous board decided to sell the rights to the city’s water system in part to fund this project. 

“I think when it comes to government, especially for a city of our size, you want things to go a little bit slow, because we’re extremely mindful of how we’re spending money,” said Alderman Karey Owens. 

She also noted that while the city has spent a portion of the $10.5 million it made from the sale of the water rights back in 2018, that number is deceptive, as it does not account for revenue the city lost from collecting utilities. 

According to previous Record reporting, the city has spent just over $4.3 million of those funds, with $2.71 million going towards the park on Westwoods Road. 

Alderman Ramiz Hakim said that the city has been slow to spend those funds because they want to ensure they are spent as efficiently as possible. 

“This board has taken the approach that we will pursue as much grant money as possible to stretch those dollars,” said Hakim. 

The skatepark is an example of those efforts, as the city received significantly more funding than originally planned for a skatepark at the park. When the city applied for the grant in 2022 Mayor Michelle Heiliger said she expected they could receive as much as $300,000. 

Now with $490,000 on the way, plus some in-kind funding from the city, the board is excited to return to the public to hear about what they want to see from their skatepark. 

“We have a lot of citizens, a lot of our local teams that we want to make sure are involved in this, so that it can really be their skatepark,” said Owens. 

Hakim said one thing he wanted to focus on with the skatepark was inclusivity. He said, similar to the conversations surrounding new playground equipment at Diekroeger Park, he wanted the skatepark to be accessible to as many people as possible. 

There is still design work to be done before those conversations take place, and even further to go before ground is broken on a skatepark in Wright City, in the meantime there is other work taking place on the park. 

Karrenbrock Construction was awarded a bid for a significant portion of the concrete work that will take place on the front 20 acres of the park that has already been designed, and Hakim expected them to break ground in spring of 2025 saying they will be “mobilizing soon.”

The front of that park is planned to include three full-sized baseball fields and one T-ball field along with parking, concessions, bathrooms and a batting cage. 

Owens mused about some of the other amenities they may include in the remaining 40 acres of the park that are yet to be designed. She said she was considering options like walking trails and potentially a disc golf course, although those would be subject to citizen input as well. 

More than anything she was pleased with how universal support for the skatepark has been and was glad they were able to move forward with the project. 

“I love this,” said Owens. “And I think, just for reference, it’s the only thing, at least since I’ve been on the board, that everybody has agreed is a good idea.”