#Silverthorne #Colorado
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| Courtesy Town of Silverthorne |
Portions of Rainbow Park have been closed off as Silverthorne's popular green space along Rainbow Drive undergoes a major facelift. Still, the park itself remains in almost full-use.
Altogether, the roughly $900,000 park project calls for new restrooms, shelters and pedestrian connections. There's also two relocated picnic pavilions with a grilling station, a redesigned parking lot with more spaces and a new rock wall appropriate for sitting or climbing included in the budget.
Construction began last week, and the project is expected to take about three months to complete. According to town officials, crews should finish up around the last week of June, just in time for the Fourth of July.
To facilitate the work, portions of the skate park have been closed.
The east and south-facing sections of the skate park remain open, but the northwestern end has been fenced off — and will remain that way through April 20 — for safety reasons.
Additionally, portions of a walking track have also been closed, and they too will remain off limits during the construction period.
Despite all of that, the playground equipment and fields at Rainbow Park will not be affected, which comes as welcome news for at least one local family who frequently visits the popular town park.
"I've seen what they've done with Dillon the last few years, and I think that Silverthorne is handling it a lot better by not closing the whole thing down," said Amy Manka, a mother-of-two who lives in Silverthorne.
Manka has two young ones, a 2-year-old and a 6-year-old, and the family visits the park about two to three times a week during the warmer months.
"I'm very happy about it," she said of the town's decision to give Rainbow Park a facelift while highlighting one of her favorite pieces of the project. "It's going to be great having the new restrooms down here."
Manka said the park is "always super busy," and she thinks a lot of people will enjoy the new bathrooms too, especially if they have little ones like she does.
"In the wintertime, the only heated bathroom was up there," she said pointing off in the distance. "And so when you're down here, having to rush up there with kids who are just potty trained is a real struggle."
The Silverthorne SPORT Committee and town council previously approved the redo, and local contractor Columbine Concrete was selected for the work after the town put out a request for proposals with a Feb. 2 deadline and Columbine submitted the lowest bid.
For the eight young skaters who were out enjoying Rainbow Park on Monday afternoon — or at least what they could still skate on after last week's closures — they just want it all open again ASAP.
Naturally, they also expressed some disappointment there won't be any additions to the skate park itself.
"Yeah, the skate park is so small," one of the skaters said before conceding it's still pretty nice for a town of Silverthorne's size and admitting he uses it "every day."
Responding to the boys' concerns, Susan Pearson of the town's Public Works Department empathized with the young skaters and promised the town would do everything it could to reopen the full skate park. But only after it's safe.
