MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — Holmes Beach is getting ready for a couple highly anticipated ribbon cuttings in the next few weeks, as they officially unveil their newly redone community park to the public.
Tom Sanger has been skateboarding in Holmes Beach ever since he was kid.
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“We skated on the streets, and down the sidewalks, and in empty parking lots,” said Sanger.
Now that Sanger is a father with three kids of his own, he couldn’t be happier that his hometown decided to invest in a brand-new skate park.
“That’s something I want them to be a part of, something that I was a part of growing up, I feel like it helped shape me as an individual and now that we have such a great facility here it’s exciting,” said Sanger.
Nothing says community like fun, safe and beautiful parks, according to Mayor Judy Titsworth.
“Skateboarding has always been really important to us, because our island youth is really important to us, we want families to stay, we want more families to move here,” said Mayor Titsworth.
Just a few hundred feet away in the same complex next to City Hall, the city is applying the finishing touches on a new dog park that used to be an old baseball field.
“There are people that will come from out of town and spend a week here just because of the dog park,” said resident Mike Shank.
The city was quite resourceful, incorporating the old dugouts and fencing into the park, while also adding new amenities like a mist spraying fire hydrant.
“We have a situation where we have 42 dogs at the park at the same time so basically we found that this a need,” said Eran Wasserman, Director of Development Services. “We see a demand of people to socialize, so it’s not just for the dogs themselves but for the residents.”
The ribbon cutting for the dog park is planned for Saturday.
