King expects between 100 and 200 people at the celebration Saturday, because of the amount of interest that has been generated.
Dayton Children’s Hospital donated 60 BMX helmets, King said, and there will be people at the park Saturday who can help fit kids for helmets. The church next door has offered its parking lot for large events.
Tommy Zula, a New Carlisle native and Red Bull UCI Pump Track World Champion in 2019, plans to perform Saturday, King said, and a DK bike will be raffled off. Zula is sponsored by DK Bikes and its sister mountain biking company, Airborne MTB.
King said while the track is exciting for Huber Heights, it’s also important to remind people about safety. He strongly encouraged parents to ask their kids to wear helmets. The city can’t require anyone at the park to wear a helmet, he said, but if someone gets hurt, it could negatively impact the skate park.
“That’s the important thing, is that people use it safely,” King said.
Officially, the skate park will open next spring, when more features will be added to the park. The total cost of the park when it is completed will be $973,235, King said.
The parts of the park that are completed include a pump track, which is an asphalt track with bumps on it, a concrete pad skatepark, three half pipes, a U-shaped obstacle, quarter pipe splines, which look like ramps that meet in the middle, and two obstacles custom-designed by pro skateboarders, King said.
King said the pump track is something that isn’t common at many skate parks. Before this pump track was built, he said the closest one was about six hours away.
“We really wanted to make sure that it was as inclusive as it can be for all skill levels and all ages or riders,” King said.
King said the city plans to have a time slot Saturday specifically for younger kids, a time slot for bigger kids, and a time slot where everyone can use the park.
Huber Heights mayor Jeff Gore said he expects kids to continue to use the park all winter if it’s dry. King noted the city doesn’t plan to clear the bike park themselves but said he wouldn’t be surprised if kids were out there shoveling snow in the dead of winter.
“It’ll certainly get more use as we get into spring and we’ll plan a grand opening event,” Gore said.
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