Ewing Park Skateboard Area Gets Lights

Skaters will no longer have to do tricks and jumps in the dark while skateboarding in Ewing Park.

Lights have been added to the skateboard park, and according to Councilman Caleb Cragle, the project itself and the cost of the lighting are minimal.

Cragle is the Parks and Recreation Chair for the borough and said he spends a lot of time in the park with his daughter. He began to notice a trend.

“I noticed the kids skateboarding in the dark quite a bit,” Cragle said.

Workers install the lights at the skatepark

Knowing that the volleyball court had lighting at night, he wondered what the cost would be to add lights to the skate park. So Cragle reached out to borough officials and discovered that the cost to light that area would be next to nothing. He said that the materials to complete the project were readily available and were bits and pieces that basically had no cost. He added that the lighting is LED, which also contributes to the near zero cost.

The skate park inside Ewing Park now features lights

“I like to see our facilities being utilized as much as possible,” he said. “If we can make it happen for next to nothing, why not do it for the kids?”

The lighting in the park is set on a timer that turns off shortly after 11 p.m.

Cragle said although plans are not in place to add lighting to other facilities like the tennis court, he is not counting it out in the future. He said further plans would need community input because of the proximity of houses. He said although he would like to see all areas of the park available to community members for the most time every day, consideration has to be given to homeowners nearby any facilities that might be affected by the lighting.

“I would need to knock on doors to get their opinions on such plans,” he said.

Cragle admits that lighting all areas would be beneficial to the community and the Ellwood City Area School District. He said that some official sporting events, such as tennis, might be better held in the evening hours when the heat is less oppressive.